Scoring his first No. 1 hit with 1982’s “Fool Hearted Memory”, George Strait would kick off an impressive streak of 11 straight chart-topping singles just four years later. Three of those—”Ocean Front Property”, “All My Ex’s Live in Texas”, and “Am I Blue”—came from his seventh studio album Ocean Front Property, which hit No. 1 on the album chart on this day (March 13) in 1987.
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The George Strait Hit His Songwriter Hated
The album takes its name from its lead single, released in December 1986. Written by Dean Dillon, Hank Cochran, and Royce Porter, “Ocean Front Property” is a deceptively upbeat tune about a man trying to convince his former lover—and himself—that he’s just fine without her. Girl your memory / Won’t ever haunt me / Because I don’t love you, Strait sings in the first verse.
If she believes him, Strait says, he has another sell to make. I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona / From my front porch you can see the sea / If you buy that, I’ll throw the Golden Gate in free.
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Dean Dillon hated “Ocean Front Property” at first. “I was a serious songwriter,” he said. “I did not want to be labeled a funny songwriter… and so to this day, I still don’t care particularly for this song. But it made a s— potload of money.”
Of course, “Ocean Front Property” isn’t just a “funny song.” It’s simply so clever and catchy that you don’t quite realize you’ve just heard the vulnerable confession of a heartbroken man until the end. Truly, country music at its finest.
“All My Exes Live in Texas”
This one is completely true—kind of.
“I changed the names to protect the guilty,” songwriter Sanger D. Shafer said during an appearance on Country Road TV. “I changed the names of the towns, too.”
Our narrator has lived his entire life in Texas—but, thanks to his romantic missteps, can now only access his home state through “transcendental meditation.”
Some folks think I’m hidin’ / It’s been rumored that I died, George Strait sings in the final verse. But I’m alive and well in Tennessee.
The song scored Strait his first-every Grammy nod for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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