Watching a Young George Strait Perform This Late 80s Hit Makes Me Want To Break Out My Stetson Hat and Brushpopper Shirt

George Strait often gets lumped in with ’90s country. It’s an easy mistake to make. His neotraditional sound was at the heart of the decade’s most popular songs. At the same time, he burned up the charts alongside Clint Black, Alan Jackson, and George Strait. However, he was sending songs to the top of the charts before many of his ’90s contemporaries released their first album.

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When Strait released “Ocean Front Property” in 1986, he already had nine No. 1 singles. This one made 10 when it topped the Hot Country Songs chart a few months after its release. The video below shows him performing this song as part of his Austin City Limits set in 1989.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1987, George Strait Topped the Charts With an Album Named for This Tongue-In-Cheek Heartbreaker]

No matter when “Ocean Front Property” first hit the airwaves, it will take many listeners back to the good old days. Back when Stetson hats and cologne were unbeatable, and everyone showed up to the local watering hole in pressed jeans and a Brushpopper shirt.

This Was One Songwriter’s Least Favorite George Strait Hit

“Ocean Front Property” is a clever song. It turns heartache on its head with a bold bit of sarcasm. Moreover, it’s based on an actual scam. Conman George C. Parker convinced several people to buy the Brooklyn Bridge from him. Songwriters Royce Porter, Dean Dillon, and Hank Cochran took things a step further, hawking oceanfront views in landlocked Arizona.

Dillon, who co-wrote many of George Strait’s biggest hits, did not like this song, according to Songfacts. “I thought it was horrible,” he said of the chart-topper. “I didn’t like to write funny songs. That didn’t do anything for me. If anything, I tend to delve into the dark side of life more than I did the funny side of it,” he explained.

“After we were done with it, I thought, man, this is junk. I thought it was hokey and I didn’t know if people’d get it or not,” he recalled. “I think about four months later, it came into the charts. That whole album came in the charts at No. 1. Sold a million records the first week it was out, that album did. And that song was one of the fastest-selling rising chart records that [George Strait] ever had. That shows you what I know,” Dillon added.

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