Saturday, March 4, 2000

Lonestar’s “Amazed” hit #1

Amazed

Lonestar

Writer(s): Marv Green, Chris Lindsey, Aimee Mayo (see lyrics here)


Released: March 22, 1999


First Charted: April 10, 1999


Peak: 12 US, 6 RR, 2 AC, 7 A40, 18 CW, 21 UK, 7 CN, 19 AU (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): 2.15 US, 0.6 UK, 2.79 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 7.0 radio, 57.2 video, 140.26 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Songwriters Marv Green, Aimee Mayo, and Chris Lindsey met at Mayo’s home in Nashville one night. FB May and Lindsey had just started dating WK and, as Mayo said, “Our feelings for each other just started coming out as we were writing.” SF According to Green, “We wanted to write something emotional, something about communicating with someone you’re really in love with.” FB Lindsey said, “When I heart that song on the radio, that’s the exact feeling I had for her….The song bottle a unique emotion to me, and I can feel that still. I think what people feel is that.” SF Mayo and Lindsey later married.

The demo featured Bill Luther on vocals. He wrote “It’s Your Love” for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill so “Amazed” was first pitched to McGraw. After he passed on it, it ended up with Lonestar. FB Richie McDonald, the band’s lead singer, said, “We all thought it was a passionate song people could relate to. But if you asked us then if it was going to do what it did, we wouldn’t have had any idea.” FB

What it did was give the band its pop breakthrough hit. The band members all grew up in the Lone Star state of Texas, but came together in Nashville in 1992. FB Their debut album, 1995’s Lonestar gave the band three top-10 hits on the country charts, including the #1 “No News.” Their 1997 sophomore album, Crazy Nights, gave them another country chart-topper.

It was their third album, however, which gave the album their major breakthrough on the pop charts. “Amazed” topped the country chart for eight weeks, but also reached the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. The song originally peaked at #24, but a remix without steel guitar and fiddle propelled it back up the pop charts. It was the first country song to top the chart since Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton ascended to the throne with 1983’s “Islands in the Stream.” BR


Resources:

  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for Lonestar
  • FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 893.
  • SF Songfacts
  • WK Wikipedia


First posted 11/2/2021.