“My Best Friend”
Tim McGraw
Written by Bill Luther and Aimee Mayo
Radio & Records
#1 (3 weeks)
February 18 – March 3, 2000
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
February 26 – March 4, 2000
There are so many things I took for granted about Tim McGraw in 2000.
I knew the song would be tastefully produced, the vocal performance would be sincere, the gender politics would be equitable, and the emotional intelligence would be off the charts.
Oh, for these days of luxury, when I could take all of that for granted and still say, “Yeah, but the chorus is too weak.”
It doesn’t deliver on the promises made by the verses, which are insightful and heartfelt. It relies too heavily on Tim McGraw to sell the melody as a singer, and you just shouldn’t rely too heavily on Tim McGraw for that. It’s not his lane.
So I like the idea here so much more than the execution, but boy do I miss taking Tim McGraw and his peers for granted.
“My Best Friend” gets a B.
Every No. 1 Single of the 2000s
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Tim McGraw was always going to have a real hard time matching the level of his late 90s singles. While this song is nice enough, it definitely lacks a memorable melody and doesn’t reach the heights of Please Remember Me, or Just to See You Smile, or Everywhere.
I would probably put this in my top 5 Tim McGraw songs. And that’s saying a lot because Everywhere, A Place In The Sun, and Set This Circus Down are all can’t-miss singles for me.
I love the idea of a girlfriend or wife also being a best friend. Love the production, the lyrics, and of course Tim’s style of interpretating a song makes this a winner for me.
There’s no one better to sing a emotional song and tug on your heart or get you on your on your feet and singing along than Tim.
I get exactly what you’re saying about having taken Tim McGraw for granted at this point in his career as he’d had so many great songs in the previous three years. As the genre overall was settling into a pattern of more minor rewards in the late 90s compared to the more bombastic and highly distinctive appeal of the first half of the decade, Tim McGraw had inexplicably become of the most consistent bats in the lineup. But at least for me, this was the flattest single of the era for him.
The sentiment here seems heartfelt enough with competent vocals and production, but neither the lyrics nor the mellow melody rise above room temperature on my thermometer. I don’t necessarily know if I agree that “it’s not Tim McGraw’s lane”, but it certainly seems better suited to the more conventional lane of Kenny Chesney or John Michael Montgomery. Plus, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder because Tim’s follow-up single, the melancholia extraordinaire “Some Things Never Change”, gets my vote as the most underrated song of his career and fell short of #1.
Grade: C+
Decent song but not one of his better efforts – solid C+ or B-. I saw Tim perform live twice, once with Faith Hill. I think both times I caught him near the end of long tours because he seemed to “mail in” his performances – very disappointing live show, lots of sizzle but no steak.
Saw him and Faith together in 2017 and she performed circles around him. I was surprised considering he’s the regular touring act of the two.
Faith has such a superstar quality on stage. I wish she performed (and recorded) more. I miss her voice and her choice of material.
Love tim mcgraw
Let me be the wet blanket here and share this song amplifies what a thin and limited vocalist McGraw is. I came around to respecting his song-sense in the 90’s feature, but I still struggle to forgive his nasal whine. When the melody and lyrics are not elevated, McGraw’s singing always noticeably drags his performance down.
This is sounds like a toothless Doug Stone redux.
I’ll agree with the B grade. I like the song but it’s not an essential song in Tim’s catalog or in 2000’s country. Still enjoy Tim’s singles from the 2000’s but he was hit or miss artist for me. At least he got better song sense after his first 3 albums.
I agree that this one doesn’t exactly reach the same heights as Tim’s Everywhere era singles did (which is a pretty high bar he set for himself), but nonetheless, I’ve always loved this song as well and still think it’s pretty a nice song in its own right. I love how easy going it is and it’s an example of the smooth style of late 90s and early 2000s contemporary country that I enjoy. Also in this day and age, it’s kind of refreshing to hear a male artist refer to his female romantic partner as his best friend. I’ll fully admit to that the nostalgia this one comes with for me also elevates it several points for me, as well.
I remember hearing this one for the first time one night in December of 1999 after my parents and I had just eaten at Cracker Barrel in Montclair, VA and were heading back home. I remember thinking it was his most progressive sounding song yet, even more so than “Please Remember Me.” It kind of sounded like something that I might also expect to hear on a pop or soft rock station, but something about it still drew me to it and made me kind of like it. It was also in my mind that Tim had now reached superstar status for sure by this time, and anything he released was sure to be a big hit. Before Tim’s song came on, Randy Travis’ “Meet Me Under The Mistletoe” had been playing as my parents complained about the service they weren’t happy about at Cracker Barrel, lol.
A little while later, I also got early exposure to Tim’s A Place In The Sun album when I heard it being played over the stereo speakers on the nights we would have dinner at Dixie Bones, a barbeque place we started going to in the Fall of ’99. On a couple of the nights while we were there eating, I remember really enjoying some of the other songs on the album besides “My Best Friend,” especially “Senorita Margarita.” That exposure was enough for me to choose that CD as one of my birthday presents in the Spring of 2000, along with Brad Paisley’s Who Needs Pictures and Clay Walker’s self-titled debut.
I also completely agree with MarkMinnesota on “Some Things Never Change” being underrated. It’s another one of my personal favorite McGraw singles, and I hate that it’s pretty much been forgotten today. I love that song’s beautiful melody and smooth style, and again, it brings back so much 2000 nostalgia for me. Around the same time, his buddy, Kenny Chesney also released one of his most underrated (imo) singles, “What I Need To Do,” which I still love, as well.
I have to say, outside of That’s Why I’m Here, What I Need to Do is still probably my favorite Chesney song (like Toby Keith, another artist who’s nineties stuff I preferred to his “superstar” aughts era and beyond).
I also really love “That’s Why I’m Here.” “When I Close My Eyes” and “A Chance” are two more of my favorite pre-superstar era Kenny singles, and two of my most favorite Chesney songs of all time.
Besides Kenny and Toby, Brad Paisley and Trace Adkins are also artists whose earlier stuff I prefer over the music that made them more popular by the mid 2000s.