On This Day in 1989, Clint Black’s ‘Killin’ Time’ Debuts on the Country Albums Chart

On this day (May 20) in 1989, Clint Black’s debut album, Killin’ Time, debuted on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Bolstered by five hit singles, four of which went to No. 1, the record was a massive success. It marked Black as one of the genre’s biggest stars and helped set the stage for the resurgence of traditional-sounding country music in the early 1990s.

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Black, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Travis Tritt are among the artists referred to as “The Class of ’89.” These artists saw great success during the final year of the 1980s and were among those who helped bring neotraditional country to the forefront of the genre in the following decade.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1994, Clint Black Notched His Eighth No. 1 with a ’90s Country Classic]

Black started his rise to fame with his chart-topping debut single, “A Better Man,” in February of that year. He followed it with three more No. 1 singles–“Killin’ Time,” “Nobody’s Home,” and “Walkin’ Away”–and one No. 3 hit, “Nothing’s News.”

“A Better Man” helped drive early sales of the album, which Black dropped on May 2. He released the title track as the collection’s second single in July of that year. The album reached No. 1 in late September and spent six consecutive weeks at the top. It would return to the summit in 1990. In the end, it spent a total of 31 weeks at the top of the chart.

Clint Black Reflects on Killin’ Time

During an interview, Clint Black looked back on his debut album and what it means to him. “Those songs are snapshots for me, like family photos,” he explained. “I still love the songs, but I look beyond them to the entire body of work to see who I was and who I’ve become as a writer, performer, and producer,” he added.

“In various situations, though, I do see other viewpoints in the lyrics. It’s interesting to think of how others relate–to imagine how they look or feel to everyone else,” he said of the collection of classic tunes. “It’s hard to step outside myself, but every now and then, I feel like I get a glimpse of who others think I am based on the songs.”

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