The 1990s will likely go down in history as one of the best decades in country music. The era embraced story songs and feel-good melodies, creating a standard that artists today are still trying to replicate. We found four songs from the 1990s that most people might have forgotten, but deserve a comeback in the 2020s.
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“She Used To Be Mine” by Brooks & Dunn
“She Used To Be Mine” was released by Brooks & Dunn in 1993. Written by Ronnie Dunn for their sophomore Hard Workin’ album, the song went to No. 1. Still, the song is not as well known today as “Hard Workin’ Man”, “Rock My World (Little Country Girl)”, and “That Ain’t No Way To Go”, also from the record.
The heartbreaking 1990s country song was born from Dunn’s realization that if he and Kix Brooks wanted a hit song, he might have to write it himself.
“I sat down, and I would listen to the radio to get the template for how to write a song,” Dunn recalls to Songwriter Universe. “Four line verse, four line verse, four line chorus, first chorus, and that kind of stuff. One day, I committed to sitting down for 10 days straight. [I] really took a stab at seriously writing songs, just adding discipline to the concept. I wrote ‘Blue Neon Moon’, ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’, ‘Hard Working Man’, and ‘She Used to Be Mine’. There were five or six number ones that came out of that.”
“Thank God For You” by Sawyer Brown
Sawyer Brown released “Thank God For You” in 1993, from their Outskirts Of Town album. Written by Sawyer Brown’s lead singer Mark Miller, along with hit songwriter Mac McAnally, “Thank God For You” is one of Sawyer Brown’s many No. 1 hits. Unfortunately, it isn’t nearly as popular as songs like “Some Girls Do” and “The Walk.”
But before Kane Brown’s “Thank God” or Keith Urban’s “Thank You”, Sawyer Brown had “Thank God For You”. The feel-good song begins with “Well, I’ve been called a self-made man / And, girl, don’t you believe it’s true? / I know exactly how lucky I am / When I’m gettin’ this close to you / It’s high time, I’m givin’ some praise / To those that got me where I am today.”
It’s an enduring song that works just as well more than 20 years later.
“Love Remains” by Collin Raye
There may not be a better message for the 2020s than “Love Remains” by Collin Raye. Written by Tom Douglas and Jim Daddario, Raye released the song in 1996, on hi fourth studio album, I Think About You.
The powerful song says in part, “Kingdoms come and go but they don’t last / Before you know the future is the past / In spite of what’s been lost or what’s been gained / We are living proof that love remains.”
Interestingly, the song is the title track of Hillary Scott’s gospel album. Love Remains was released in 2016 as Hillary Scott & the Scott Family.
“Thinkin’ About You” by Trisha Yearwood
“Thinkin’ About You” is the title track of Trisha Yearwood‘s fifth studio album. Written by Tom Shapiro and Bob Regan, the mid-tempo track is about a crush that could potentially turn into love.
In the uptempo track, Yearwood sings, “The look in your eyes when you smile that way / The sound of your voice sayin’ my name / I’ve been thinkin’ about you / Just keep thinkin’ about you.”
“Thinkin’ About You” was a two-week country No. 1 hit for Yearwood in the 1990s, but not as big as some of her other songs from that era, like its predecessor, “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)”. Thankfully, love is timeless, and so is “Thinkin’ About You”.
Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage
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