John Berry, who has been off the country music radar since his moderate success of the nineties, is attempting to get his unique voice heard on the radio once again. Songs like “Your Love Amazes Me” and “You And Only You” have successfully demonstrated Berry’s ability to wrap his voice around a ballad with emotion.
The song tells the story of a little boy who deals with his mother’s death by sending her messages via balloons. While the lyrics of “The Balloon Song” are sweet, it cannot be denied that the story can easily fit into a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. Nevertheless, John Berry adds his signature vocals that may give the song the potential to strike an emotional cord with country music fans.
While “The Balloon Song” was originally recorded by Mark Wills for his Loving Every Minute album, John Berry uses his distinctive tenor voice to make this simple song his own.
Written by Casey Beathard
Grade: B
Listen: The Balloon Song
Y’know, if John can get a hit out of this, that’ll make 3 songs from “Loving Every Minute” that were hits for other people. Proving that Mercury themselves picked the wrong singles from that record and really derailed Wills’ career because of it.
Didn’t Kristina Cornell do a song like this last year with “Little Red Balloon?”
Yeah she did. It always felt like a rip-off of the Wills/now Berry song.
I just bought “The Balloon Song” a few days ago on i-Tunes along with an album and and 3 other songs, only one of which is a recent release, Jerrod Niemann’s “What Do You Want”.
I am not surprised that “Balloon” didn’t chart. As you correctly pointed out almost 3 years ago, the lyrics are sweet and could fit into a “chicken soup for the soul” book. John’s “How Much Do You Love Me” from 2001 met the same fate probably for the same reasons. For me, listening to John sing these sappy songs is a pleasure, better than listening to any of the 4 songs just reviewed here on CU. The Kip Moore song is the only one I would consider buying.