Billy Ray Cyrus Broke a Record With This Massive 1992 Hit (And I Bet You Didn’t Know It Was a Cover)

In 1992, Billy Ray Cyrus had no idea that the song he released would change both him and country music forever. On March 23, 1992, Cyrus released “Achy Breaky Heart”. The song set new records, and became a five-week No. 1 hit. It also inspired its own dance.

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His debut single, “Achy Breaky Heart” is written by Don Von Tress. Although Cyrus’s version is by far the most popular, “Achy Breaky Heart” was actually first recorded by someone else. In 1991, one year before Cyrus released his version, the Marcy Brothers first released the uptempo tune. Unlike Cyrus’s version, however, their version was released as “Don’t Tell My Heart”.

Made up of siblings Kevin Marcy, Kris Marcy, and Kevin Marcy, “Don’t Tell My Heart” is the final track on the band’s self-titled third and final album. They only had one Top 40 hit in their career, with their 1989 single, “Cotton Pickin’ Time”. That song is from their sophomore Missing You project.

With “Achy Breaky Heart”, Cyrus beat a record previously held by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. The song became the first platinum-certified country single since their hit 1983 “Islands In The Stream” duet.

The Story Behind “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Cyrus

Cyrus’s version of “Achy Breaky Heart” changed his career forever. But it also changed life for Von Tress. The songwriter owned a wallpaper business and wrote the song as a comedic response to a relationship ending. “Achy Breaky Heart” says in part, “You can tell my arms go back to the farm / You can tell my feet to hit the floor / Or you can tell my lips to tell my fingertips / They won’t be reaching out for you no more / But don’t tell my heart, my achy breaky heart / I just don’t think he’d understand / And if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart / He might blow up and kill this man.”

“I started the song in my sister’s basement,” Von Tress recalls (via Country Living). “My wife had given me a new amplifier for my birthday, and I was just fooling around on the guitar and drum machine.”

Interestingly, before Cyrus recorded it, “Achy Freaky Heart” was pitched to The Oak Ridge Boys. They passed on the song, reportedly because band member Duane Allen didn’t like the phrase “achy breaky.”

“It’s one of the few times we kind of tanked,” Bonsall later admits. “Duane still shakes his head about that one today.”

Photo by Laura Levine/Corbis via Getty Images