“Blame it On Your Heart”
Patty Loveless
Written by Harlan Howard and Kostas
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
June 19 – June 26, 1993
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
June 11, 1993
Patty Loveless finds great success with a new label.
The Road to No. 1
Following her No. 1 single, “Chains,” MCA released the fourth Patty Loveless album. On Down the Line produced two top ten hits, and its follow up, Up Against My Heart produced only one.
Soon, Loveless was dealing with potentially career-ending vocal surgery. While she recovered, MCA broke Trisha Yearwood and Wynonna’s solo career, making Loveless number four in line behind these ladies and superstar Reba McEntire for their attention.
Loveless asked for release from her contract and signed with Epic Records, who promised to make her their flagship female artist. It was a promise kept right away, as the lead single became her first No. 1 single in four years.
The No. 1
“Blame it On Your Heart” is witty and entertaining, and Loveless sounds immediately stronger as a vocalist than she ever did on her MCA albums.
How much of that was the surgery and how much of it was the confidence from having a new label betting big on her? Who knows? But the end result was her sounding better than ever, with a playful performance of a solid kiss-off song to a philandering partner.
It’s not even close to being one of her best Epic singles. Only What I Feel was a big step forward, but she wouldn’t fully come into her own until its successor, When Fallen Angels Fly. But it was a welcome second chance for a talent that hadn’t been fully realized before she’d started to fade at radio.
An Epic comeback, indeed.
The Road From No. 1
Patty Loveless followed this hit with “Nothin’ But the Wheel,” which fell short of the top ten. She then kicked off a long string of top ten singles, starting with a cover of an Anne Murray single, “You Will,” and then her signature hit, “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye.” Only What I Feel became her first album to go platinum, and she kept the momentum going with her next set, When Fallen Angels Fly. That set’s first single, “I Try to Think About Elvis,” went top five. The next two singles topped the charts, and we’ll cover them in 1995.
“Blame it On Your Heart” gets a B+.
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Love this single. To me, the fact that it was one of Loveless’ weaker Epic hits just speaks to how strong her output was during that period.
Technically, it may not be one of Patty’s strongest 90’s singles, but I still friggin’ love it! From the catchy melody, the in your face solid fiddle and steel playing, and Patty’s playful performance, I always found it irresistible, even as a kid. Once again, to me this is such a perfect example on how traditional flavored country can be so much fun without having to borrow too much from other genres to be “cool.” And to this day, this is still probably the most adjectives I’ve heard packed in one song to describe a two timin’ partner. For me, it’s still easily one of the most fun songs of the decade, and it still hasn’t lost it’s charm for me one bit after so many listens.
Since this is yet another song I unfortunately missed out during its original release, my introduction to it was during my return to country in the mid 90’s when I would hear it quite a few times as a recurrent. Even then, I always enjoyed it whenever it came on, and it was always a “new” song to me during that time until I later discovered that it was released in 1993. Around late 1996-early 1997, I started becoming even more of a bigger Patty Loveless fan than I ever had been before, and my love for this song grew, as well. I still remember the double pleasure of getting to hear it twice during a Pennsylvania trip my parents and I took in 1998: One time while we were in Chili’s after visiting the King Of Prussia mall, and later a live version of the song was playing on the radio on the way back home. :)
I didn’t pick up a copy of Only What I Feel until around 2003ish (along with Trisha’s The Song Remembers When), and I still remember being so impressed with the overall song quality and solid traditional country production throughout the album the first few times I heard it. It quickly became yet another one of my favorite early 90’s country albums I collected around that time period (Patty and Trisha could pretty much do no wrong for me around this time, as well, lol). Some of my other favorite songs on it are “You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are,” “Love Builds The Bridges (Pride Builds The Walls),” “Mr. Man In The Moon,” and the criminally underrated single “Nothin’ But The Wheel.”
Btw, it was also totally cool to hear this song featured multiple times when I finally got around to watching the 1993 film, A Thing Called Love (even though Patty herself wasn’t singing it).