| "Friends in Low Places" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Garth Brooks | ||||
| from the album No Fences | ||||
| B-side | "Nobody Gets Off in This Town" | |||
| Released | August 6, 1990 | |||
| Format | CD 7" vinyl single |
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| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 4:18 (album version) 3:45 (single edit) |
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| Label | Capitol Records 44647 | |||
| Writer(s) | DeWayne Blackwell Earl Bud Lee (third verse written by Garth Brooks) |
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| Producer | Allen Reynolds | |||
| Garth Brooks singles chronology | ||||
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"Friends in Low Places" is a song released by American country music artist Garth Brooks. It was the first single from his second album, No Fences. The song spent four weeks at #1 on the U.S. country singles charts.
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According to Earl Bud Lee, one of the song's co-composers, the idea of the song was born when he and some songwriting friends gathered for lunch one day at Tavern on the Row, a popular Nashville eatery.[1] When the check came, Lee realized he had forgotten his money. He was asked how he was going to pay for the meal, and he replied, "Don't worry. I have friends in low places. I know the cook."[1] Lee and his songwriting partner, DeWayne Blackwell, immediately recognized that the line "friends in low places" had potential, but they didn't act upon it immediately.[1]
Some months later, Lee and Blackwell were at a party, celebrating a recent #1 hit by another songwriter. They began to talk about the dormant "friends in low places" idea, and "at that very moment, it all started to come together in a song," Lee said.[2] Because nothing else was available, they wrote the song on paper napkins.[2] When the composers polished "Friends in Low Places", they contacted Garth Brooks to see if he would record a demo for them.[2]
Gutairist Jim Garver would add the name of the bar in the song, "The Oasis" after an establishment in his hometown of Concordia, Kansas.[3]
"Friends in Low Places" is in a moderate tempo and the key of A major. The song begins with arpeggios on the chords A, B♭dim7, Bm7 and E, a pattern which is repeated throughout the verses. The chorus uses A-Bm-E twice before ending on an A chord.[4]
Lee and Blackwell had met Brooks when he was a shoe salesman in a Nashville store, looking for his big break. The two struck up a conversation with the struggling musician, and upon learning his background, they gave him some work making demos of their songs. They were impressed with his voice and talent, but there wasn't much else they could do for him.[2]
The original demo of "Friends In Low Places" was recorded at Windwalker Studios, in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Musicians on the demo were John Beland (of The Flying Burrito Brothers) on acoustic and electric guitars, along with session aces Steve Turner on drums, and bassist Larry Paxton. The actual master recording of "Friends in Low Places" borrowed quite a lot from the original demo, copying Beland's now famous acoustic guitar intro, as well as his electric guitar solo note for note. When Blackwell contacted Brooks to make the "Friends in Low Places" demo, he explained to him that he was newly signed to Capitol Records, and that his first single and first album were already scheduled. After recording the demo, the last he would ever make,[5] Brooks thanked Lee and Blackwell for all of their help. He then expressed his liking for the song, wishing aloud that he had heard it several weeks earlier, when he was recording his new album.[2]
Garth provided the following background information on the song in the CD booklet liner notes from The Hits:
""Friends in Low Places" was the last demo session I ever did as a singer. The demo was for Bud Lee and Dewayne Blackwell. I sang the session out in Hendersonville, and for the next two weeks the chorus to this song kept running through my head. I knew it would be a year and a half before the release of No Fences because Garth Brooks was just getting ready to be released. I asked Bud Lee and Dewayne if I could hold on to it and, without a blink of an eye, the both said yes. Putting that kind of faith into an unknown artist is unheard of. Thanks Dewayne and Bud for believing in me." [6]
While Brooks claims above that "Friends in Low Places" was held for him, there is evidence that suggests otherwise. The song was shopped around Nashville, and it ended up with Mark Chesnutt, another up-and-coming country singer.[2] He recorded the song for his 1990 debut album Too Cold at Home and included it as the b-side to his late-1991 single "Broken Promise Land".[7]
Meanwhile, after the success of Brooks' eponymous debut album, he contacted the composers of "Friends in Low Places" to ask if the song was still available, and they said it was.[2] In keeping with the raucous theme, a large contingent of backing vocalists accompanied Brooks as the chorus was repeated until a fadeout. Among the members of the group were Brooks' then-wife, Sandy, and both composers, Blackwell and Lee.[5]
Recognizing the song's potential, producer Allen Reynolds, in consultation with Capitol Nashville president Jimmy Bowen, decided that Brooks' rendition was going to be the first single from his new album, No Fences.[8] In July 1990, Brooks' mother, Colleen Carroll, inadvertently leaked the unreleased song to an Oklahoma radio station, setting off a frenzy and forcing the single and album to be rush-released.[9]
During an appearance on the former MSN Online Game OutSmart, Garth Brooks later revealed that George Strait was offered Friends in Low Places but passed. [10]
"Friends in Low Places" entered the Billboard country chart on August 18, 1990. It took only eight weeks to reach #1, where it stayed for four weeks, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.[11]
By then, the song was already causing a stir. Brooks told a reporter from USA Today in October 1990, when the song was still at its chart peak, that he had received letters from high school students saying that they wanted to use "Friends in Low Places" as their "class song," only to have it opposed by their principals because the song is about escaping into drinking. Brooks agreed with the principals, saying, "We've had a lot of fun with that song, but it's nothing to base your values on."[12]
In April 1991, Brooks' recording won the 1990 Academy of Country Music award for Single of the Year, and on October 2, 1991, it won the same honor from the Country Music Association.
It made the Top 40 on the British music charts in 1995 as a double-sided reissue hit with "The Dance." The song also appeared on Brooks' 1994 compilation The Hits. It earned the #6 position on the CMT 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music broadcast [13] and the #1 spot on the network's 40 Greatest Drinking Songs: Morning After. [14]
In a 2009 essay on Brooks, Chuck Klosterman reflected on the song's success. Brooks, he argued, had filled a void in popular culture left by Bruce Springsteen during the 1990s:
...[H]e made songs that satisfied all the same needs as Bruce's did, except with a little less sincerity and a little better understanding of who his audience was. "Friends in Low Places" was as effective as pop music ever gets: It's a depressing song that makes you feel better. Singing along with that song was like drunkenly laughing at a rich person and knowing that you were right ... It's a song that makes me want to get drunk out of spite. Garth told stories about blue-collar people who felt good about what their bad life symbolized ...[15]
The original version of "Friends in Low Places" has two verses. In 1991, Brooks added a "third verse" to the song in live performances. His spiel leading to the new verse claimed that he thought the song's original verse didn't reflect how he would really act in that situation. It is basically a rewrite of the second verse, with only the last few lines changed, culminating in "Just wait til I finish this glass / Then sweet little lady, I'll head back to the bar / And you can kiss my ass".[16]
US promotional 7" single Capitol Nashville, 1990
US promotional CD single Capitol Nashville DPRO-79217, 1990
US 7" single Capitol Nashville NR-44647, 1990
US 7" single (live) Liberty S7-57883, 1992
US promotional CD single (live) Liberty DPRO-79365, 1992
UK 7" single Capitol CL 609, 1991
UK CD single Capitol CDCL 609, 1991
The Netherlands CD Single Capitol, 1995
"Friends in Low Places" entered the charts on August 18, 1990. It reached number one on October 6 and remained there for four weeks.[17]
| Chart (1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 36 |
| Preceded by "Jukebox in My Mind" by Alabama |
Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks number one single October 6-October 27, 1990 |
Succeeded by "You Lie" by Reba McEntire |
| Preceded by "I Meant Every Word He Said" by Ricky Van Shelton |
RPM Country Tracks number-one single October 13-October 27, 1990 |