A Garth Brooks Retrospective

First posted 2/22/2008; last updated 12/4/2020.

A Retrospective: 1989-2007 Garth Brooks

A Brief History: He was born Troyal Garth Brooks on February 7, 1962, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2011) and Country Music Hall of Fame (2012). With 157 million albums sold in the United States as of October 2019, Garth Brooks is the best-selling album artist in the U.S. since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking music sales in January 1991. The Studio Albums: Garth Brooks (1989) No Fences (1990) Ropin’ the Wind (1991) The Chase (1992) In Pieces (1993) Fresh Horses (1995) Sevens (1997) Scarecrow (2001) The Lost Sessions (2005) Compilations: H The Hits (1994) U The Ultimate Hits (2007) The above compilations are spotlighted on this page. The snapshots of the studio albums will indicate all songs featured on any of these compilations, noted with the codes above. Appearing after song titles are the songwriters in italicized parentheses, running times in brackets, and when relevant, the date the song was released as a single and its peaks on various charts. Click for codes to singles charts. Garth Brooks (1989): Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old (Randy Taylor, Brooks) [2:53] (3/6/89, 8 CW) H, U If Tomorrow Never Comes (Kent Blazy, Brooks) [3:37] (8/21/89, 1 CW) H, U The Dance (Tony Arata) [3:37] (4/30/90, 1 CW, 36 UK) H, U No Fences (1990): Friends in Low Places (Dewayne Blackwell, Earl “Bud” Lee) [4:18] (8/6/90, 1 CW, 36 UK) H, U Unanswered Prayers (Pat Alger, Larry Bastian, Brooks) [3:23] (10/12/90) H, U Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House (Bobby Boyd, Warren Haynes, Dennis Robbins) [2:31] (1/91, 1 CW) H, U The Thunder Rolls (Pat Alger, Brooks) [3:42] (4/30/91, 1 CW) H, U Ropin’ the Wind (1991): Rodeo (Larry Bastian) [3:51] (8/12/91, 3 CW) H, U Shameless (Billy Joel) [4:01] (10/21/91, 1 CW, 71 UK) H, U What She’s Doing Now (Pat Alger, Brooks) [3:23] (12/6/91, 1 CW) H, U Papa Loved Mama (Kim Williams, Brooks) [2:48] (2/3/92, 3 CW) H, U The River (Victoria Shaw, Brooks) [4:23] (4/27/92, 1 CW) H, U The Chase (1992): We Shall Be Free (Stephanie Davis, Brooks) [3:47] (8/31/92, 12 CW) H, U Learning to Live Again (Don Schlitz, Stephanie Davis) [4:04] (1/25/93, 1 CW) U That Summer (Pat Alger, Brooks, Sandy Mahl) [4:45] (4/26/93, 1 CW) H, U In Pieces (1993): Ain’t Goin’ Down ‘Til the Sun Comes Up (Kent Blazy, Kim Williams, Garth Brooks) [4:32] (7/26/93, 1 CW, 13 UK) H, U American Honky-Tonk Bar Assocation (Bryan Kennedy, Jim Rushing) [3:31] (9/7/93, 1 CW) H, U Standing Outside the Fire (Jenny Yates, Brooks) [3:51] (12/13/93, 3 CW, 28 UK) H, U Callin’ Baton Rouge (Dennis Linde) [2:35] (8/1/94, 2 CW) H, U

The Hits Garth Brooks

Released: December 13, 1994 Recorded: 1989-1993 Peak: 18 US, 116, 11 UK, 5 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 0.1 UK, 19.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country

Tracks: (1) Ain’t Goin’ Down ‘Til the Sun Comes Up (2) Friends in Low Places (3) Callin’ Baton Rouge (4) The River (5) Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old (6) The Thunder Rolls (7) American Honky-Tonk Bar Association (8) If Tomorrow Never Comes (9) Unanswered Prayers (10) Standing Outside the Fire (11) Rodeo (12) What She’s Doing Now (13) We Shall Be Free (14) Papa Loved Mama (15) Shameless (16) Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House (17) That Summer (18) The Dance Total Running Time: 66:06

Rating: 4.336 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About The Hits: The Hits provided a snapshot of 18 songs from Garth Brooks’ first 5 albums, released from 1989 to 1993. It was only available for a limited time, but reached 10 million in sales in the United States, becoming the first album to be given Diamond certification status by the Recording Industry Association of of America. Fresh Horses (1995): The Fever (Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Dan Roberts, Bryan Kennedy) [2:40] (11/20/95, 23 CW) U The Beaches of Cheyenne (Dan Roberts, Bryan Kennedy, Brooks) [4:12] (12/11/95, 1 CW) U The Change (Tony Arata, Wayne Tester) [4:06] (2/28/96, 19 CW) U Sevens (1997): Longneck Bottle (with Steve Wariner) (Steve Wariner, Rick Carnes) [2:15] (11/22/97, 1 CW) U Two Pina Coladas (Shawn Camp, Benita Hill, Sandy Mason) [3:34] (3/16/98, 1 CW) U Scarecrow (2001): When You Come Back to Me Again (Jenny Yates, Brooks) [4:44] (5/8/00, 21 CW) U Beer Run (with George Jones) (Kim Williams, Amanda Williams, Keith Anderson, George Ducas, Kent Blazy) [2:28] (2001, 24 CW) U Wrapped Up in You (Wayne Kirkpatrick) [4:31] (10/15/01, 5 CW) U The Lost Sessions (2005): Good Ride Cowboy (Jerrod Niemann, Richie Brown, Bob Doyle) [3:26] (10/24/05, 3 CW) U

The Ultimate Hits Garth Brooks

Released: November 6, 2007 Recorded: 1980-2007 Peak: 3 US, 12 US, 10 UK, 11 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 3.14 US, 0.1 UK, 3.24 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country

Tracks, Disc 1: (1) Ain’t Goin’ Down ‘Til the Sun Comes Up (2) Friends in Low Places (3) Shameless (4) Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House (5) The Beaches of Cheyenne (6) If Tomorrow Never Comes (7) Papa Loved Mama (8) More Than a Memory (9) Good Ride Cowboy (10) In Another’s Eyes (with Trisha Yearwood) (11) The Fever (12) Midnight Sun (13) Learning to Live Again (14) Longneck Bottle (with Steve Wariner) (15) To Make You Feel My Love (16) We Shall Be Free (17) The Dance Tracks, Disc 2: (1) Callin’ Baton Rouge (2) Two Pina Coladas (3) The Thunder Rolls (4) That Summer (5) The River (6) Beer Run (with George Jones) (7) Unanswered Prayers (8) Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old (9) Workin’ for a Livin’ (with Huey Lewis) (10) What She’s Doing Now (11) When You Come Back to Me Again (12) Standing Outside the Fire (13) American Honky-Tonk Bar Assocation (14) The Change (15) Rodeo (16) Wrapped Up in You (17) Leave a Light On Total Running Time: 2:03:25

Rating: 3.806 out of 5.00 (average of 6 ratings)

About The Ultimate Hits: The Ultimate Hits covered all eighteen songs featured on Garth’s 1994 collection The Hits plus another sixteen songs. That includes four new songs and nine songs from his six studio albums released from 1995 to 2005, although there are no songs from 1999’s In the Life of Chris Gaines. Also included are “In Another’s Eyes” and “To Make You Feel My Love,” not featured on any previous Garth albums. Tracks Not on Previously Noted Albums: In Another’s Eyes (with Trisha Yearwood) (Brooks, Bobby Wood, John Peppard) [3:33] (8/18/97, 2 CW) U To Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan) [3:55] (5/18/98, 1 CW) U More Than a Memory (Lee Brice, Kyle Jacobs, Billy Montana) [3:22] (8/27/07, 1 CW) U Workin’ for a Livin’ (with Huey Lewis) (Huey Lewis, Chris Hayes) [2:40] (12/17/07, 19 CW) U Midnight Sun (Brooks, Jerrod Niemann, Richie Brown) [3:44] (2008, 36 CW) U Leave a Light On (Randy Goodrum, Tommy Simms) [3:41] U Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia for Garth Brooks Wikipedia page for The Hits Wikipedia page for The Ultimate Hits