With Labor Day fast approaching, summertime is coming to a close, and school is gearing up to be back in session (and for some parts of the country, it has already started). While some kids may bemoan the end of their summer antics, the three country songs below are sure to make the return to school a little more fun.
Videos by American Songwriter
“The Boys Of Fall” by Kenny Chesney
Released in 2010 on Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey, “The Boys Of Fall” describes a well-known American pastime—high school football games.
“‘Boys Of Fall’ is a perfect description of how I grew up and where I grew up,” Chesney told Billboard. “That song meant so much to me, and I thought, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of kids out there and a lot of people that have that feeling in their lives.’ There’s a line in the song that says, “In little towns like mine, that’s all we got.” And that’s the way it was in East Tennessee, and still is.”
After Chesney played the song for his band, he “knew we had something that was very common.”
“I’ve been pretty perceptive over the years, and I think that we kind of grew up the same way,” Chesney said of himself and his fans. “I see myself a lot in my fans, and I think vice versa. I hope so anyway.”
“Check Yes Or No” by George Strait
While high school football may only define some people’s teen years, first crushes are a fairly universal experience. “Check Yes Or No”, George Strait’s 1995 No. 1 hit, perfectly encompassed that.
Written by Danny Wells and Dana Hunt Black, Strait told CMT that he knew “right away when I first heard it, I wanted to cut it.”
“I couldn’t wait to get home and play it for my son. I knew he’d love it… He’s not a morning person. He’s pretty grumpy,” Strait said. “And I said, ‘I’ve got a song here I’m gonna play you’. I stuck it in there and played it and cheered him right up. Boy, big ol’ smile, I knew we had a good one then.”
“Fifteen” by Taylor Swift
A list of songs about growing up wouldn’t be complete without a Taylor Swift tune. Swift’s early records were all about her childhood experiences, and “Fifteen” is a perfect example.
It makes sense that, since Swift wrote the song as a teenager, it can show a uniquely insightful perspective on the ups and downs of high school years.
“I wrote this around the storyline of my best friend from high school, Abigail,” Swift explained in a song-by-song breakdown of her 2008 record, Fearless. “I started everything with the line ‘Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind‘ and wrote everything else from that point, almost backwards.”
Swift added that she “really wanted to tell that story about our first year of high school, because I felt in my freshman year, I grew up more than any year in my life so far.”
Photo by Peter Kramer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
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