On this day (June 10) in 1991, Brooks & Dunn released their debut single, “Brand New Man.” The song went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and kicked off a string of four consecutive chart-toppers. More than that, the song introduced the duo as one of the new voices of country music in the early 1990s.
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Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn were solo artists before producer Tim DuBois urged them to become a duo. At the time, they had both charted singles in the 1980s. However, neither artist was seeing much success as a solo act. So, they agreed to see what they could do as a duo.
[RELATED: The Surprising Reason Brooks & Dunn Were Afraid of Hit “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”]
Brooks & Dunn stepped into the country music world at exactly the right time. The first half of the 1990s saw more traditional-sounding country music becoming popular again. This was largely thanks to the likes of Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, George Strait, and a few others. However, the duo’s sound was just different enough to make them stand out in the crowd. As a result, they were able to catapult to success with their first single.
Brooks & Dunn Score an Early Hit with Brand New Man
Written by Kix Brooks, Ronnie Dunn, and Don Cook, “Brand New Man” remains one of the band’s best-known songs. It falls in with classics like “Neon Moon” and ”Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”
Releasing “Brand New Man” as the duo’s debut single was a strategic move by their label, Arista Records. “Tim DuBois said is was afraid of ‘Boot Scoot’ at the time. It was too progressive, according to Tim. Didn’t want to come with ‘Neon Moon’, which was a ballad. A shuffle like ‘My Next Broken Heart’ was going to be hard to sell to radio. So, we came with ‘Brand New Man,’” Dunn recalled in an interview.
“I had already written ‘Neon Moon’ and ‘Boot Scoot.’ Then, Tim DuBois, along with Clive Davis, was putting the label together and asked us to co-write,” he recalled. “I think just ot test the waters to see if we could. I had this song idea called ‘I’m a Changed Man.’ Nothing beyond that,” he added. “I just knew I was going to write the next day with Kix and Don. Then, Kix goes, ‘How about Brand New Man?’ I said, ‘Okay, let’s go there and see what happens.’ We wrote it and recorded it the next day.”
Featured Image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
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