Carrie Underwood Some Hearts hit #1 on country album chart

Some Hearts Carrie Underwood

Released: November 15, 2005 Peak: 2 US, 127 CW, -- UK, 11 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 8.0 US, -- UK, 9.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Wasted (12/9/06, 37 US, 1 CW, sales: 0.5 m, air: 0.1 m) Don’t Forget to Remember (2/25/06, 49 US, 2 CW, sales: 0.24 m, air: 0.1 m) Some Hearts (12/24/05, 12 AC, 22 AA) Jesus, Take the Wheel (11/5/05, 20 US, 23 AC, 1 CW, sales: 1.04 m, air: 0.2 m) The Night Before (Life Goes On) Lessons Learned Before He Cheats (2/18/06, 8 US, 6 AC, 1 CW, 5 AA, sales: 2.77 m, air: 0.8 m) Starts with Goodbye I Just Can’t Live a Lie We’re Young and Beautiful That’s Where It Is Whenever You Remember I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore Inside Your Heaven (7/2/05, 1 US, 12 AC, 52 CW, sales: 0.5 m) Total Running Time: 54:04

Rating: 4.170 out of 5.00 (average of 28 ratings) Quotable: “It straddles the country and pop worlds with ease, and most importantly, it's every bit as likeable as Carrie.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Country singer Carrie Underwood was born in 1983 in Oklahoma. She got her big break when she won the fourth season of the television talent show American Idol in 2005. During the auditions, judge Simon Cowell “pigeonholed her as a country singer, even if there was nothing specifically country about her sweet, friendly voice.” AMG She had “a very good voice and an unthreatening prettiness that would be equally marketable and likeable in either country or pop.” AMG Voters agreed, anointing her the chapion over “Southern-fried hippie throwback Bo Bice.” AMG For the final, she and runner-up Bo Bice each performed the song Inside Your Heaven, produced by Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Desmond Child. After she won, the song was released as a single. AllMusic.com’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the song “formulaic…sappy and transparent” AMG and said “the arrangement [is] too cold.” AMG The listening public ate the song up and it debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, making Underwood the first country artist to debut atop the chart. It set the stage for Underwood to be marked as “a contemporary country singer in the vein of Faith Hill – she’d sing anthemic country pop, ideal for either country or adult contemporary radio, with none of the delightful tackiness of Shania Twain.” AMG On Underwood’s debut album, Some Hearts, she isn’t “as compelling or as distinctive as a personality or vocalist as Faith Hill: Underwood is still developing her own style and, for as good a singer as she is, she doesn’t have much of a persona beyond that of the girl next door made good. But that's enough to make Some Hearts work.” AMG “While some of the songs drift a little bit toward the generic, especially in regard to the adult contemporary ballads, most of the material is slick, sturdy, and memorable, delivered with conviction by Underwood. She sounds equally convincing on such sentimental fare as Jesus, Take the Wheel as on the soaring pop Some Hearts, and even if she doesn’t exactly sound tough on the strutting Before He Cheats, she does growl with a fair amount of passion.” AMG The album became the best-selling debut in history for a solo female country singer. WK It was also the best-selling country album of the last decade WK and the best-selling album overall in 2006. WK She went on to win the Grammy for Best New Artist. In addition, “Jesus, Take the Wheel” and “Before He Cheats” both won Grammys for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/19/2010; last updated 3/13/2024.