The Happy Songwriting Accident That Led to Kenny Chesney’s First No. 1 Hit

In 1997, Kenny Chesney released “She’s Got It All“. On I Will Stand, his fourth studio album, Chesney had already released several singles, including “Me And You” and “When I Close My Eyes”, which all became Top 5 hits.

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But it wasn’t until “She’s Got It All” that Chesney had a No. 1 hit. Written by Craig Wiseman and Drew Womack, the writers intended something entirely different for “She’s Got It All”. Fortunately, it didn’t work, with the mistake leading, at least according to Wiseman, to Chesney having his first single to make it all the way to the top of the charts.

“She’s Got It All” says, “She’s got every quality / From A all the way to Z / It’s easy to see she’s the perfect girl / She’s got every single thing / That makes up my wildest dreams / Sometimes I still can’t quite believe she’s holding me ’cause / She got it all of my heart, my soul, my wishes / All of my love, my hugs, my kisses / Everything that means anything at all / All of my life I’ve spent hoping / I could give someone such devotion / Every sweet memory I can recall / She got it all.”

The Accident That Led to Kenny Chesney Having a No. Hit

When Wiseman and Womack wrote “She’s Got It All”, it was intended to be very tongue-in-cheek. He admits he never intended the song to be a serious love song. Fortunately, his intentions didn’t work. Instead, country music fans loved the uptempo romantic tune, making it a big hit for Chesney.

“People didn’t sense the satire in those verses,” Wiseman says (via Songfacts). “Because those verses were supposed to be really kind of bullsh– , kind of sarcastic, and that part failed. And I realized, this is a straight-up love song, where it sounds like the verses are just talking about somebody in love. I was trying to do something witty. And thank God I wasn’t witty enough to pull it off, because I think it would have ruined the song.”

“She’s Got It All” began a new chapter for Chesney, although he says the credit also belongs to other songs on I Will Stand.

“The first three albums that I did, I really think I was just part of a bunch of guys out there making records,” Chesney tells Iowa State Daily.

After “She’s Got It All”, Chesney released “A Chance”, “That’s Why I’m Here”, and “I Will Stand”. They were all successful singles, although they didn’t hit No. 1. In 1998, he released “How Forever Feels”, which became his second No. 1 single.

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