“Close Enough to Perfect”
Alabama
Written by Carl Chambers
Radio & Records
#1 (2 weeks)
October 22 – October 29, 1982
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
October 30, 1982
So I had this running theory back in the day that Brad Paisley was rewriting old country hits.
For me, the most egregious example was “Mud On the Tires,” which was K.T Oslin’s “Hey Bobby” without the charisma and the wit.
I never connected “Little Moments” to another song before, but hearing Alabama’s “Close Enough to Perfect” and having the same visceral reaction that I had to “Moments” makes me wonder if one patronizing love song inspired another.
Now this one isn’t nearly as bad as “Little Moments” in its condescension, but it does open with this couplet:
Sometimes her morning coffee’s way too strongAnd sometimes what she says she says all wrong
Where the Alabama record does more successfully is make the love sound believable. Paisley’s record drips with contempt for his partner from start to finish. The Alabama boys seem to be defending her against external criticisms, which is an entirely different beast:
Don’t you worry about my womanAnd what you think she ought to beShe’s close enough to perfect for me
See, the little moments that Owen and his band are living for are the tender ones of unconditional love, not the moments of embarrassment that have the guy laughing while the girl’s in tears. So good on them for that.
“Close Enough to Perfect” gets a B.
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Spot-on take. I have no idea of how it only occurred to me that this song was a better version of “Little Moments” until RIGHT BEFORE I clicked the link to this, but there you go. Heh.
I love Brad Paisley as a singer and a musician. I’d probably appreciate his songwriting more if I discovered country music in the 2000s. (See also: pop music and Lady Gaga.)
Same. I really enjoyed his first couple of albums, but most of what came after was meh for me.