“It’s Such a Small World”
Rodney Crowell & Rosanne Cash
Written by Rodney Crowell
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
April 30, 1988
There’s a two year stretch where Rosanne Cash and Rodney Crowell are the Nashville power couple, and it kicks off in earnest with “It’s Such a Small World.”
The husband-and-wife collaboration is part of six consecutive No. 1 singles for Cash and the first of five consecutive No. 1 singles for Crowell. It seems appropriate that this literate duo follows K.T. Oslin to the top by just a few weeks. Oslin’s NYC sensibility gone south is a perfect balance to the sophisticated and urbane songwriting of Crowell and Cash, two southern artists who were as quintessentially New York as any Big Apple native.
How perfect that this nostalgic tryst takes place in the city that never sleeps, as two former lovers run into each other and rekindle the flame for one night only. Crowell had written No. 1 singles for other artists, but he gets to deliver the lines on a chart topper for himself for the first time here. He perfectly captures those early feelings of aging, which even kicks in among the hip crowd. “I’ve lived alone for a while,” he tells her. “It feels like I’ve gone out of style,” she responds. So much economy of storytelling there.
These two characters may feel out of style, but the record is a perfect example of why country music was suddenly so damn cool.
“It’s Such a Small World” gets an A.
Every No. 1 Single of the Eighties
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Not available on Spotify – KJC
You say here that country was “suddenly” cool, but the year prior Restless Heart had a crossover hit as mentioned in this feature. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers of course had several big crossover hits in the first half of the 1980s (together and separate from one another), as did Eddie Rabbitt and Juice Newton. When exactly was country not cool?
Or maybe you mean cool with critics?
Your literal take on this song’s lyrics is interesting as I’ve always interpreted the song as the manipulation of two false narrators who sought each other out at familiar haunts as a pretext to rekindling their old flame, and then played dumb by pretending “it’s such a small world” that they conveniently ran into each other. Your interpretation may well be right as the New York City setting doesn’t lend itself to the kind of purposefully “accidental” run-ins that this song depicts, but I find the narrative to be more rewarding with my take. Either way, this song sounds great. The arrangement is addictive and the vocals burst with chemistry (even if Crowell and Cash’s marriage was already in trouble at the time of its recording) and has long stood out to me as a textbook example of a country duet done extremely well.
I remember my aunt shaking her head every time she heard or saw Rodney Crowell during his boomlet of commercial success as she thought his popularity was entirely the product of his wife dragging him along. I can assure you my aunt had no idea that Rodney Crowell was one of the most sought-after songwriters in Nashville for more than a decade by that point, but my aunt nonetheless had a point in that Rosanne Cash was at the peak of her popularity in 1988 and Rodney getting her to collaborate on this duet very likely propelled him into the mainstream scene in a way he never would have otherwise. On the other hand, who could have imagined at the time that in two short years, Rodney Crowell would still be putting out hits while Rosanne would never be on the charts again? Whatever the case, we were all fortunate that Rodney and Rosanne were the Nashville power couple for this snapshot in time and that Rodney got his due as a successful solo artist in this narrow window before the neotraditional hat acts took over.
Grade: A
This song just crackled and sparkled in my ears. Both singers were essential to its success. I think of this hit as “their” song and not as either Roseanne’s or Rodney’s.
Increasingly, these artists, and their songs, will feel like mine.
Country was not only cool, it was getting intimately, possessively personal.
As a great check on the accuracy of all my sentimental recollections surrounding these hits, I was certain this was the final hit single from “Diamonds & Dirt” and not the first.
Either way, it still pummels me with the same intensity and honesty. It rings so clearly and urgently these many years later.
It has the same energy and spirit as Foster & Lloyd.
I love this duet.
I love this song and how they harmonise so beautifully. I actually like the music video where the couple do end up together but I admit to being a bit of a romantic.
A really excellent song and the way their voices harmonise is great. I’ve been inspired in fiction writing a little by this one. I also love the music video with the ending where he comes back after leaving in the morning, not to mention the honeymoon video at the beginning.