After years of trying and failing to secure a record deal, George Strait was prepared to throw in the towel and get a job building barns across Texas. However, he decided to give it a little more time on the advice of his wife, Norma. In August 1982, Strait would score the first of 44 No. 1 singles with “Fool Hearted Memory.” On this day in 2005, the “King of Country” released what would become his 40th chart-topper—a song that flipped the script on the traditional country heartbreak anthem.
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Longtime Strait collaborator Dean Dillon wrote “She Let Herself Go” with Kerry Kurt Phillips. Dubbed a “clever breakup tale” by AllMusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the song tells us the story of a woman who truly “let herself” go” after her lover walks out on her.
Let herself go on a singles cruise / To Vegas once then to Honolulu, George Strait sings. Let herself go to New York City / A week at the spa, came back knocked-out pretty.
I love that George Strait wrote a song about a woman' letting herself 'go after her long term husband left and turned the phase into a celebration by having it used to explain she let herself go on vacations, adventures and dates
— Anne the stoner babe 🍃🍯 (@anneh222) June 23, 2025
The song’s title is a bait-and-switch. It plays off a term that typically means a woman stops putting in effort toward her physical appearance after a breakup. Instead, free from the shackles of a suffocating relationship, this woman buys a brand-new car and drives to the beach her husband “always said was too far.” Sand sure felt good between her toes.
[RELATED: They Said Cut the “Fat”—George Strait Made It a Hit Instead]
George Strait Tied Conway Twitter’s Record With This Song
George Strait released “She Let Herself Go” on Sept. 6, 2005, as the second single off his 23rd studio album, Somewhere Down in Texas. Within just 18 weeks, it had topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. This gave Strait his 40th No. 1 single, tying a record then held by Conway Twitty.
Strait would go on to shatter that record, adding four more No. 1 country hits. His most recent came in 2009 with “River of Love.”
Featured image by Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic for Country Music Association
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