“Just Another Day in Paradise”
Phil Vassar
Written by Phil Vassar and Craig Wiseman
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
November 25, 2000
Phil Vassar has already been a prominent player in our chart topper retrospectives through his songwriting, and penning big hits for artists like Jo Dee Messina (“Bye Bye,” “I’m Alright”) and Collin Raye (“Little Red Rodeo”) was enough to land him a recording contract of his own.
He found the most success with his debut album, which launched with the top five hit “Carlene” and earned him his first No. 1 single as an artist with the next release, “Just Another Day in Paradise.”
It makes for an interesting counterpoint to today’s No. 1 single from 1970, “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” because our protagonist here is surrounded by the love and support he needs, instead of walking the streets alone and feeling excluded.
But what really makes this record special for me is how anchored it is in gratitude. It’s not easy to be a husband and a father, and it comes with burdens and challenges. But they’re all tied up with blessings, and it’s easy to miss them if you remain focused on what you’ve given up for the sake of those blessings.
That second verse with the child climbing into bed and interrupting a long planned night of passion? Just try to hear an ounce of exasperation or frustration in his voice. It’s not there. The kid comes first and he’s happy to make them feel safe and secure after a bad dream.
It’s such a joyous celebration of modern fatherhood that foreshadowed the more recent work of Luke Combs and Kane Brown. Good on him for being a great dad and writing an awesome song about it.
“Just Another Day in Paradise” gets an A.
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This is always a nice “Feel Good” song that get’s me smiling. Always liked the line about drinking spoiled milk and making his wife laugh and then just putting it back in the fridge. Like throw it away.
I like the little details. I wish “Rose Bouquet” did better for him as I love that song.
Another song from the feel-good parade of #1 hits of 2000, and one of the best of the bunch. I’m not sure if it was a virtue or a vice to be another guy named Phil singing a song titled “Just Another Day in Paradise”, but Mr. Vassar certainly made it work for him with a solid pairing of domestic bliss and an addictive keyboard melody. At least in this song, Vassar was a hybrid of John Conlee and Ronnie Milsap, and as eluded to above, the details of this song really bring it home.
Vassar is hardly one of the best male vocalists Nashville has ever produced but me makes up for it with good songs and good-time enthusiasm to spare. He had apparently always planned to release “I’m Alright” as the marquee single from his debut album but reluctantly gave it away to Jo Dee Messina. I’m glad it worked out for him anyway because his debut album was a marvel, one from my collection that I still give a spin once or twice a year and which never fails to land me in a very specific mood. “Paradise” is probably the best song from the album but I like just about all of them. I’m not sure what happened but he never captured that magic again with subsequent releases. In 2001, it seemed like he had a finger on the pulse of country radio playlist preferences like few others of the era, but neither the songwriting nor the melodies were there to sustain the kind of extended run that early entries from his songbook teased.
I’ve also seen Phil Vassar twice in concert….20+ years apart. He showed up at my county fair in the summer of 2002, the apex of his commercial popularity. With all of the hits he wrote coupled with his own performances, it was one of the best county fair concerts of its era. Twenty-two years later in 2024, he showed up at the “town square” concert of the suburb where I currently live and had another solid show, albeit with the regrettable exclusion of “Rose Bouquet” on his set list.
Grade: A
I saw Phil once in 2010. He must have been drunk, as he spent the entire show doing cover songs, writhing around on top of his piano, and screaming F bombs at the audience.
From what I’ve seen, it can hard to tell the difference between a drunk Phil and a sober Phil as he can get really squirrely on that stage but what you’re describing does sound like there was 90-proof enhancement at work.
Joe Nichols performed drunk at my county fair once. His words were slurring pretty badly early in that show but he seemed to get it together by the show’s end.
The thing that baffled me more is that it was almost all cover songs. I think his only singles that he sang at that concert were “Just Another Day in Paradise” and “Don’t Miss Your Life”.
I do have to say, I was not expecting the F word to even be in Phil’s vocabulary.
I adore this song. So sincerely joyous and Vassar’s charisma shines through on it. If I had to think about it, I’m Alright and Just Another Day in Paradise are probably my top 2 “life is good” songs, so Vassar makes for a believably grateful songwriter.
This is such a charming, real sounding song. Early Phil Vassar had a knack for vivid yet grounded character sketches, with one of my personal favorites being “I Was” by Neal McCoy. I love that things go wrong in the song, but he’s happy anyway. Good stuff.
I know I will be in the minority here, but I would give this one a “D+”. I just find it mediocre and bland. I also am not a bit fan of how wonderful daily family chaos is. It reminds me of parents who don’t have any problem with their kids misbehaving because they are “just kids”. Children absolute have the ability to behave in public. Sorry, it just hit a pet peeve of mine.
On another note. I truly appreciate this task you have taken on, but your a bit too generous with the “A” grades. Having this song with the same grade as Hello Darlin’ or Sunday Morning Coming Down? Just doesn’t make any sense to me.