Garth Brooks photo by Mark Tucker, courtesy of Pearl Records.
September 11, 2007 — On Friday, Garth Brooks celebrated the unprecedented No. 1 debut of his new single, "More Than a Memory," with a party at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Dial-Global reports that Garth was quick to give credit for his 27th No. 1 to its writers — Lee Brice, Kyle James and Billy Montana — noting, "We're nothing at all without the songwriters." Garth was humble about being the first artist to ever debut at No. 1, saying simply, "It's a great day for country music."
Garth emphasized that the achievement was all about the song. "Everyone has been very sweet, but the thing that I keep hearing all the time is 'the song, the song, the song.' And I'm hearing a lot about the recording of the song — the sound of it. It was recorded like everything else — same players we had always done everywhere else. It was just a magic moment."
Garth said he feels the song fits in well on his upcoming The Ultimate Hits collection, due out Nov. 6. "It's a strong song, and God help us, 'cause we've never ever tried to put new songs on a greatest hits package," he said. "How do you do that? How do you put a song next to 'Friends In Low Places' or 'Unanswered Prayers' that if it is a great song it's because 15 years and the people have made it that way. And now you've got this song slid right after it — how is it gonna stand up? [Label exec Scott] Borchetta said it best when he picked it. He said, 'This is a song they'll be playing for the next 20 years,' so I hope he's right."
The Tennessean reports that "More Than a Memory" was written in March, recorded in July and hit No. 1 in September. This comes at a time in country music when most hit songs take nearly a year to crawl to the top of the heap. "I hope this is a very rare thing," Garth says. "Songs should earn their place, and songs earn that place not from radio promoters but from the people on the other side of the radio: the people listening."