“God Blessed Texas”
Little Texas
Written by Porter Howell and Brady Seals
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
December 3, 1993
Texas and the women who live in it deserve better than this.
The Road to No. 1
Little Texas had three No. 1 singles, and they were consecutive. This is the second, following “What Might Have Been” earlier in the year.
The No. 1
This is a dumb song without charm, sung with low energy and produced like off rack eighties glam rock watered down by a Music Row distillery.
I don’t have much to say about it beyond that. There are a lot of great songs about Texas. There are even some great ones about women from Texas.
But this? This is terrible. And it’s not even their worst No. 1 single.
The Road From No. 1
That worst single is up next, and then Little Texas thankfully exits this feature.
“God Blessed Texas” gets a D.
Every No. 1 Single of the Nineties
Previous: Garth Brooks, “American Honky-Tonk Bar Association” |
This is a favorite of mine. I guess you’d call it a guilty pleasure. I just love the catchy vibes and good cheer. Also there’s a really fun a capella cover from Home Free. Highly recommend. I guess I heard the song before I started getting much into songwriting and the deeper elements of music and this song just stuck with me. Love this series. I usually a a silent observer but felt like popping in for this one. Keep it up!
“This is a dumb song without charm, sung with low energy and produced like off rack eighties glam rock watered down by a Music Row distillery.” Kevin, THANK YOU. I have been trying for 30 years to define Little Texas!! This statement is why YOU are the Professional writer!
Confession: I actually like Little Texas a lot, or at least most of their 90’s stuff. I still like spinning their first two albums from time to time, and the early singles off their debut album bring on major nostalgia trips for me, especially “Some Guys Have All The Love.” Heck, most of the time I don’t even feel guilty when listening to their music.
With all that out of the way, I have to agree that this is one of their weaker efforts, and it most definitely didn’t deserve to be chosen by radio as the Little Texas song to run into the ground as a recurrent well into the 2000’s. To my ears, it’s another one of many heavily rock influenced, low substance, line dance ready songs that were flooding the airwaves around this time. Besides being played to death, my other biggest gripe with it is that there just isn’t all that much to it, besides being a lighter tribute to the state of Texas. For a much superior (imo) tribute to the Lone Star State around this time frame, Doug Supernaw’s “Red And Rio Grande” comes to mind, which I very much prefer both lyrically and sonically. The fact that this was a number one smash, while Doug’s song died in the 20’s sadly says a lot about the general direction radio was going during this time. The only thing I disagree with is that I do hear a lot of energy and enthusiasm on this record. That and the rocking groove throughout can be infectious from time to time, I’ll admit.
This particular entry reminds me of something that always stuck out to me when studying the charts from around this Fall/Winter late 1993-early 1994 period: This was a much more uptempo heavy Fall/Winter period than usual for this decade. Most of the songs on the charts from around this time, at least to me, sound much more suited for the warmer months, including this one. Then again, radio and the record labels were likely pandering to the “young country” and line dancing crowds too much to care about seasonal timing as much, which makes it all the more pleasantly surprising that the gem coming up in the next entry actually reached the penthouse.
Of the Little Texas singles that came after this, the one I’m most bummed about not being a number one is “Amy’s Back In Austin,” which I consider to be one of their strongest singles, and is definitely one of my all time favorites.
All of the issues with this song were really compounded by the fact there was a stretch of several years where it was practically impossible to turn on the radio without hearing it.
At it’s best, it was the musical equivalent of a cheap piece of Nashville knock-off clothing. Too much wear and tear over the years exposed this song’s total lack of craftsmanship and artistry while making it embarrassingly threadbare. Despite it being inappropriate, radio still trots this tacky number out way too often when it feels like partying.
If Garth Brooks was posturing with “Honky Tonk Bar Association” what the hell is this leering crimped hair band doing?
This is cringe country.
SiriusXM’s Prime Country plays this song all the time and it makes me change the dial every time. I agree with Peter that the song has really no redeeming qualities, and to Andrew’s point, its excessive radio play made it even more unbearable. I really wish “Amy’s Back in Austin” had made number 1, it’s personally my favorite Little Texas single.