Country Music in the 90’s: The Year is 1997

Welcome back to another episode of the 90s Country Podcast. Today we are rewinding the clock to 1997, a year when country music felt like it was everywhere. Without spoiling anything up front, because I tend to do that, let's jump right in. These are the top 10 events in country music from the year of 1997. Number 10. Let's talk about the Country Music Hall of Fame Class of 1997.

In the year of 1997, you could have learned a lot about country music by looking at who the industry chose to honor. Because the Hall of Fame is rarely about what's new. It's about what still holds up after the trends disappear and after the waves show up, like what is remaining. That year, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductees were legendary songwriters Harlan Howard and Cindy Walker and the musical icon Brenda Lee. The common thread of this class isn't about a certain style or sound.

As I mentioned already, it's more about durability.

These careers were built on writing songs people wanted cut, delivering performances that people will remember, and then doing it for decades. We can start with Harlan Howard. He's one of those writers where the name might not be front and center for casual fans, but the collection of hit songs that he wrote is up there with the best of them. He had this gift for writing in a way that sounded, I don't know, like a person was just telling the truth.

Howard coined the phrase, three chords and the truth. You ever hear that?

That country music is just three chords and the truth. That's Harlan Howard. He wrote over 4,000 songs, including songs like I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline, I've Got a Tiger by the Tail by Buck Owens, and so many more. His philosophy behind the line three chords and the truth guided his career and influenced many other hits for many other stars in country music. And it also cemented him as the Dean of Nashville Songwriters. Just fun fact, or for trivia one day, I'll say it again. Harlan Howard, three chords and the truth, the Dean of Nashville Songwriters.

All right, let's move on and talk about Cindy Walker for a second. She came out of Texas and wrote with a level of control that's hard to teach. Song structure, clean hooks, and a sense of how to get you to the scene and get you there quickly. Cindy was known for her tailor-made songwriting. She produced over 500 records, had top 10 hits across five consecutive decades from the 40s all the way to the 80s. Yeah, 50 years worth of top 10 hits. Five different decades. That's five different sounds because the sounds change pretty much every decade.

That's five different kind of stars, but it's one person still able to write hits for them. And that might not even be the most impressive part of her induction. because Cindy was the first woman to ever be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, specifically as a songwriter.

Then there's Brenda Lee.

Most people know her as the voice of Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, which, by the way, hit number one again recently, breaking a ton of records. But her legacy in Nashville goes way deeper than a holiday hit. Her induction was a massive moment, because she was the first woman to ever get the nod from both the Country and Rock and Roll Hall of Fames. She basically built the bridge between both of those two worlds. There have been other guys that have done it, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, but Brenda Lee, first woman to ever do it. And what's cool is she didn't just take the trophy and retire.

If you follow the Hall of Fame today, Brenda is still the one who will often announce the new class every single year. She's essentially the matriarch of the institution. She's in her 80s and still the most energetic person in the room most times. Brenda's song, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, oddly... wasn't a massive hit until decades after it was released. I was talking to Brenda about this specifically.

I mean, it was played, but I'll tell you when it really took off. One of my friends called me one night and said, Brenda, have you seen the movie Home Alone? And I said, no. They said, well, your song's all over it. And I said, which song? And they said, Rockin'. And that was really the catalyst that brought it to.

Where it is.

I never dreamed in the world that that would be my signature song. I always thought I'm Sorry would probably be it. And that song was written by the great Johnny Marks, who was Jewish, who wrote all the great Christmas songs. And I said to him one day, I said, Johnny, you don't even believe in Christmas. I said, how are you writing these songs? He said, I don't know. But when I sit down to write, that's what comes out.

So the 1997 Hall of Fame class is a great way to kick off the countdown because it framed that year by defining country music's long-term values, prioritizing impactful songwriters and authentic vocalists whose work is considered great, but mostly timeless and enduring. Number nine, Trace Adkins, first number one.

Trace Adkins in 1997 is a good example of how the music industry worked before the days of social media.

It's not one magic night.

It's a bunch of small steps, a bunch of small nights that finally line up. Remember, there's no TikTok, there's no Instagram, there's no YouTube. So in order to be heard, someone has to be at one of your shows, hear about you by word of mouth, or just randomly come across one of your records. So let's talk about Trace's story real quick and the steps he took for his career to line up the way that it did. Trace is from a small town in Louisiana. He didn't come in as some polished industry kid. He went to Louisiana Tech.

He worked regular jobs. including time on oil rigs and kept music on the side until it turned into something that could possibly be an actual career.

Once Trey starts releasing.

Music, and the first thing that I think everybody notices is his voice. It's very deep. It's very steady. And you don't really confuse it for anybody else. And that's great until you realize it also narrows the options. Because a voice like that doesn't fit every kind of song. If the production is too polished... or the lyric feels too manufactured, it can sound forced. Trace needed straightforward songs with some sort of backbone, stuff that he could sing and sound like he was actually saying it and meaning it.

In 1996, he drops his debut album, Dreamin' Out Loud. And that's where.

Every light in the house.

That's where that song shows up, or every light in the house. The song is basically Trace's introduction. It lets people hear the voice, hear the style, and decide whether it was for them or not. The song did not go number one, which is crazy to think about because that is such a legendary song.

But it did land in the.

Top five, and it was big enough to put him on the map and give him a second shot. So by the time 1997 rolls around, Trace isn't a total newcomer anymore. He's got a couple songs out there. People know the voice. And now he just needs a song to really stick. And that song is This Ain't No Thinkin' Thing.

Straightforward song. built around how it feels more than analysis. And I think that's why Trace fits it so well. He can deliver it without pushing or dressing it up like we just talked about. He doesn't have to do extra if extra sounds inauthentic. He sings it clean and direct and it sounds natural coming from him. And that's why, frankly, it became his first number one song in 1997. This ain't no thinking thing was a jam and Trace didn't change.

He stayed who he was and he finally got the right song for that distinct voice that people already noticed. It's the moment, in 1997, where Trace became an artist with a real signature hit that launched his.

Real signature career. Number 8.

Alison Krauss and Union Station release So Long, So Wrong. If we're putting together a top 10 list for 1997, which we are, the album So Long, So Wrong from Alison Krauss and Union Station belongs on it because It's one of those records that quietly ends up everywhere, but not in a, I heard this song every 15 minutes on the radio kind of way. You know, not the overplayed single kind of way. More like people who care about musicianship, harmony, songs that hold it up and keep pointing back to this album kind of way. By 1997, Alison Krauss isn't brand new. She'd already spent years building her reputation in bluegrass and acoustic country and And she'd already proven she could pick material with real taste, like

quality material. The big difference with So Long, So Wrong is that it feels like the moment where the band's identity fully clicks. It wasn't just Alison Krauss with some band. It was Alison Krauss and Union Station, and it all mattered. And it was also the first Union Station album to feature Dan Tominski, who ends up being a big piece of the group's sound going forward. So why is the album successful? Well, the song choices are smart. It's not 14 songs that all do the same thing. You get heartbreak songs that don't drag, though. You get melodies that really stick, and you get enough variety that it feels like a full listen instead of a, hey, pick two tracks, and those are the good ones kind of album. They

also weren't afraid to bring in outside writers and unexpected material. Like cutting Michael McDonald's I Can Let Go Now. Michael McDonald of, well, Michael McDonald, and also the Doobie Brothers. And they could cut a song like that and make it sound like it belongs on a Union Station record. Second, its blend of voices. Allison's voice always is the center, and rightfully so. And the record works because of that. However.

this is the.

First time where you really felt like the band was more than a band, even vocally. The band members trade off leads and spots. The harmonies feel like a signature, not a decoration. Tominski's taken lead on multiple songs on the album, and it's what makes it feel like a true band record instead of a solo project with backings.

Third, the playing is ridiculous. Maybe I shouldn't have to say this, but I will.

Most of the time, people that come from a bluegrass background can play the crap out of music. But man, did they ever on this record. And the thing is, it never really feels like they're showing off. And this is, in my opinion, where the album separates itself. Listen, they're technically elite, but the goal isn't to dazzle you with speed.

It's tight arrangements, clean dynamics, and a lot of control. You're going to hear instrumentals like Lil Liza Jane, which isn't just a fun break, because on some records, it does feel like that whenever they're doing an instrumental. This album, it didn't feel like that. It really feels like the band is showing you their talent. The album reached number four on Billboard's Top Country Album chart, which is a pretty wild thing for a record rooted in bluegrass and acoustic music. The great thing was, it didn't have to stop being what it was to reach a bigger, broader country audience.

And then when the award.

Shows hit, man, That's what seals this as the top 10 moment of the year. The 1998 Grammys, so reflecting back on 1997. So Long, So Wrong wins Best Bluegrass Album, Best Country Instrumental Performance for Lil' Liza Jane, and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for Looking in the Eyes of Love. That combination is the whole story. The album's respected in bluegrass, but it's also winning in straight-up country categories and not just a niche record.

It's a record the broader country world had to acknowledge. So if you're wondering why Alison Krauss and Union Station make the 1997 countdown, pretty simple. So Long, So Wrong was one of the year's standard albums in the space. It connected outside its core bluegrass crowd, it picked up major awards, and it helped define the group's sound in a way that carried into everything that they did next.

Number 7.

Kenny Chesney's first number one with She's Got It All. If you're looking at Kenny Chesney's career in 1997, the story isn't that he suddenly shows up out of nowhere. It's that he finally gets the kind of record that makes the earlier years all add up.

Kenny had already been putting in the work. He'd released a few albums. He'd had singles chart.

He'd lived that in-between phase when you're good enough to stay in the game, but you're still trying to figure out what works. And you haven't quite hit it big yet, but you can see big. You're also figuring out what kind of songs sound natural in your voice. What kind of tempo that you carry best. What version of yourself feels honest on a record. And that's a normal part of the artist in Nashville timeline. Most artists that get to Nashville don't actually arrive with a fully formed sound.

They find it by trial and error.

Cutting songs, learning what sticks, writing with better people, re-recording songs, having great influences, and slowly narrowing their lane. Kenny Chesney had a similar build-up through the early to mid-90s, and you could hear the talent early, but it took a few records to narrow the lane to find the sound that fit him the best. By 1997, he was on his fourth studio album. But, even though that's a lot, things were just starting to settle in, and that's where She's Got It All comes and says hello. The song was written by Craig Wiseman and Drew Womack. It's upbeat, straight ahead.

You know the song. She's got it all.

It's built around a simple concept. Listing out what makes the person, you know, that person, so appealing. The song is also produced by Buddy Cannon and Nora Wilson. And that's an important detail in their career timeline because Cannon becomes such a major part of Kenny's sound over time. He worked with Kenny on songs like She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy, How Forever Feels. In 1997, you can hear the beginning of what later becomes Kenny's sweet spot. Songs that feel easy to step into with a vocal that doesn't strain to sell it. She's Got It All releases in May of 1997 and it's the lead song off the album I Will Stand, which comes out July 15th, 1997.

That album's a.

Little funny in hindsight because that's basically what this moment is. Kenny finally getting something that lets him stand on his own in the format that is, well, Kenny. And then Just watch the song go up the charts, and that's exactly what happened. She's Got It All becomes Kenny's first number one on Billboard's Hot Country singles and tracks, hitting the top spot August 30th, 1997, and staying there for three weeks. By the end of the year, it finishes in the top 10 on the top songs of the whole year of 1997. So when you're building a 1997 countdown, Kenny's inclusion is pretty straightforward. This is the year his career stops, well, building, and it starts becoming something that will eventually be legendary. One song, the right fit, the

first number one, and from there, it's easier to see the path that leads to everything that became Kenny later. I asked Kenny one time where his artist persona and his sound came from, because it's very beach, right? Especially from a guy who grew up in East Tennessee.

This is what he said.

I always loved the ocean. I feel creative next to it. I feel humbled next to it. I feel very humble all on a boat on it. And I have written, so me and Dean Dillon would go to the Virgin Islands and write songs on my boat at least two or three times a year. It was so much fun. And I don't know, I just feel different there.

I feel creative.

And I've always felt that way, even as a child. But I got the love for sunlight and the ocean and the music that you listen to in those situations from my mother.

Did anybody ever in Nashville, when you started to have more of a beach town, go, hey, that's not really what we're doing here?

Yeah, a few people.

Yeah.

But I had made the decision that I was going to take my life, that I was living very authentically. And I had music to connect.

All the dots.

And once I started to take what was in my heart and my life experiences at the time, and it found its way into my songwriting. It found its way into the studio and then on my records and then on the road. And that's when my life really changed. When I stopped trying to be this model, this thing that everybody in town was trying to be. And that was, there was a lot of people doing that because it was successful. You know, I was one of those acts that was doing just about anything you could do to get your song on the radio or get noticed or whatever, but it was in this, this specific model. And, Once I stopped doing that is when my life changed.

Hang tight. The Bobby cast will be right back. Number six, number six, number six. The How Do I Live split release saga.

If you want a snapshot of how unpredictable a career can get, 1997 gives you one of the strangest. One song, two versions, two very different moments. Both real, both lasting. Man, this was awkward. The song, How Do I Live? How do I live without you? Written by Diane Warren. And if you know her music, you know the lane. Big chorus, clear emotion. Heck, you probably know that song. That song is a gigantic song. It's the kind of song that can work in a lot of places at once. Radio, grocery stores, weddings, movie credits. And the movie part is where the weirdness of this song starts. How Do I Live was written for Con Air, the movie. with Nick Cage.

It was a monster movie. It was an awesome movie. And it was an awesome song for an awesome movie. And Leigh-Anne Rimes records it first. Leigh-Anne Rimes, 14 years old, she is right off her song Blue that launched her career.

But the film company doesn't stick with her recording.

The decision, according to the reporting that's been repeated for years, is that her version didn't have the maturity that they wanted for the movie.

So they go to Trisha Yearwood to cut it instead.

And Trisha said that she didn't even know Leigh-Anne had already recorded it. So now you have the ingredients for tension without anyone necessarily trying to create it. A major songwriter, a huge movie, a teen star whose label wants to protect the momentum, and an established vocalist stepping into a song that's already been cut and she didn't know it.

And here's where the actual drama kicks in.

Once Trisha's version is picked for the film, Leigh-Anne's label, Curb Records, is hesitant about releasing her version at all. From their perspective, the movie version is the official version, and they don't want it to look like they're chasing a song that they just lost. The twist is, Diane Warren, the songwriter, gets involved directly. She calls the founder and chairman of Curb Records, Mike Curb, and says, hey, release Leigh-Anne's version anyway. Then it turns into that real, public, awkward tug-of-war, because both versions get serviced to radio the same day in May of 1997.

That puts radio programmers in a weird spot.

They're getting two singles with the same title, same lyric, same hook, and they're being asked to pick, I don't know, which one do you like best? Billboard even described it as a ballad battle because it's what it looked like from the outside.

This lasted all the way into award season.

At the 40th Grammy Awards, which is February 98, now remember, it's in 98 because it reflects everything that happened in 97, both Trisha and Leigh-Anne are nominated for the same category, Best Female Country Vocal Performance, for that same song. Trisha wins. Leigh-Anne performs it during the TV show. That's an odd sentence to say out loud because... That's exactly what happened.

I've watched it back. It's so awkward to see.

So when you say, this caused drama, it's not gossip. It's industry mechanics colliding in public. Then movie executives making a call. Then label heads reacting. And then radio getting put in the middle. And then the Grammys turning into a head-to-head moment, even if they didn't want to be head-to-head.

And the reason it makes the 1997 countdown as simple, it's one of those rare cases where a single doesn't just help a career It creates a whole situation around two careers at once. And here's a 1997 extra. Princess Diana passes away. Even if you don't follow the royal family, there's a good chance you knew who Princess Diana was in 1997. She was on the magazines. She was in the news. And somehow she was part of everyday conversation, even in America. Even if you didn't care about the royals at all. It wasn't like what you see now with social media and and reality television, and it was just all about them all the time, overexposure. It wasn't like that at all. She was mostly on the cover of things because she was so well-liked. She was kind

of a pioneer for making the royal family into a pop culture thing because of how she carried herself. Early on, she had this knack for cutting through the formality, talking to regular people like a regular person, showing up in places the royal family didn't typically go, and doing it all with paparazzi everywhere. Over time, that turned her into something closer to a modern-day celebrity that people could relate to, or at least they thought they could, more than a royal, which they couldn't relate to at all. By the mid-90s, her life was also the clearest example of how intense fame had gotten. Her divorce in 96, the constant attention, the paparazzi, everything was public, and it felt like people

were watching her story in real time.

So when she died August 31, 1997, it hit differently.

And the details became part of the reason why. Diana was in Paris leaving the Ritz, and the car she was in sped away from paparazzi trying to snap a picture of her, and it crashed. She was taken to the hospital. She did not survive. This started to change some things culturally. It made people way more aware of the ugly side of celebrity, how the chase for photos, how dangerous it was, how headlines can turn into something reckless.

It also shifted how the public talked about the royal family. A little more human, more emotion, more scrutiny. and the expectation that they act a little more like humans and not just like symbols. Diana's legacy didn't just live in charities or fashion or quotes. It lived in how pop culture started thinking about fame, and who fame serves, and who fame hurts, and inevitably, what fame costs.

Number five. Tim McGraw drops the Everywhere album.

If you're talking about Tim McGraw in 1997... It's hard to top what happens around the album everywhere because this is one of those records where the results are not subtle at all. The album comes out June 3rd, 1997, which by the way, it lasted long beyond that. It's still lasting today. Let's start with the singles. It's your love with Faith Hill everywhere just to see you smile where the green grass grows. And it's not like the rest of the track list disappears either. He's also got a pair of number two hits off the same album.

One of these days and for a little while. Then you get into how big the biggest songs were. It's Your Love hits number one on Billboard's country chart June 1997. And it's one of those songs that instantly, even when it was new, felt like a staple.

It obviously is a staple now.

And if you were a junior high kid like me and this song came on, it was basically your only time to dance with a girl. When this song came on, you felt like this is a good slow song. And if anybody wants to dance with me, it's going to happen right now And most times it didn't. But sometimes it did. And it was because of this song, It's Your Love. Not only was it number one, it also got ACM Awards. Single of the Year, Song of the Year, Video of the Year, Vocal Event of the Year. Which, by the way, that Vocal Event of the Year award is two artists. Because it was Tim and Faith doing It's Your Love. Now, if we move from that song to Just to See You Smile, which is an awesome song.

He's played it in studio for us even recently. It still holds up, obviously. It was released August of 97 as a single. It spent six weeks at number one. It stayed on the chart for 42 weeks, which at the time was a record in the SoundScan era. Billboard even said it was the number one country song of 1998 because with that August 97 release, it was released so late in the year, it didn't even really start gaining steam until 98. The album obviously was a monster.

It was number 28 of all of 1997. And I'm not talking about country music. I'm talking about all albums. And even though it came out halfway through the year, it was the number five country album of the year for 1997. So if you're asking why Tim's on a 1997 countdown, it's pretty practical. Everywhere is one of the defining albums of the decade. Multiple number ones, multiple additional hits, major awards.

It's just amazing. It still holds up to this day. It's still that amazing.

It's also funny to see Tim and Kenny together in this year because, well, They've been together so far many years, and they're going to be together for many, many, many years to come. But yeah, Tim McGraw on that album, it was amazing.

Number four.

George Strait, Carrying Your Love With Me.

By the time 1997 rolls around, George Strait's career is already what most artists.

Look for at the end of their career. But he was in the middle of it.

You know, most artists want a long run where the basics stay strong.

He had the hits. He had the albums.

He had built a reputation for picking songs that fit him instead of trying to chase whatever the new thing is. So when Carrying Your Love With Me comes out on April 22, 1997, it doesn't feel like a reset or a pivot. It feels like George Strait doing what George Strait does, putting together a tight, listenable album where the songs are on point and the singing is steady. The record is produced by Tony Brown, and it has that clean, traditional George Strait sound. When I say that, I mean clear vocals, strong band, nothing distracting from the writing. The easiest way to see why this album belongs on a 1997 countdown is to look at what came off the album.

It's one of those albums that didn't just have a big moment. It had a bunch of big moments, which means the album stayed very active.

You get One Night at a Time first. It goes number one.

It's classic straight in the sense that it's simple without being plain, if you can imagine that. The song maintained its position at the top for five consecutive weeks, and it charted on other charts that his music didn't traditionally chart. Then the track, which was the biggest hit, the namesake, Carrying Your Love With Me. It goes number one, obviously.

It's basically a road song, and wherever it goes, you know, it's carrying the love. You know, get it, Carrying Your Love With Me. That song was written in just a few hours by Steve Bogard and Jeff Stevens. It spent four consecutive weeks at number one. It got George nominated for multiple awards at the ACMs that year. All right, coming up next, Today My World Slipped Away. It peaked at number three. Now, that was still a hit, but just not a number one. But people still knew and loved the song. And then later, Roundabout Way comes along, another number one. So you're looking at three number one singles from the album and a fourth single that hit the top three. That kind of single run tells you

what you need to know about the album's shelf life. It was not a one-week story. It stayed in rotation. It kept producing more and more songs. To them, it was having to decide which one was the next single, not do we have another single that works. And even on the year-end side, it ranks across both worlds. Number 24 on Billboard's year-end 200, all. That's all genres. And number four on the top country albums list. Then let's go to the awards, which is really what solidified the album in 1997. The 1997 CMA Awards Carrying Your Love With Me wins album of the year. Now that's not a single award. That's not a popularity spike. That's all the folks in the industry saying the full album, track one to the last track, was the best statement in

the format that year.

And it doesn't stop there.

The album gets a Best Country Album nomination at the Grammys, and it ends up three times multi-platinum, which is a reminder that it wasn't just a critical win, that people actually bought it. That's the whole multi-platinum thing. So massive commercial run as well. So if you're placing it on a 1997 countdown, the case.

Is pretty straightforward.

Major album release, multiple big singles, album of the year win at CMAs, nomination over at the Grammys, and it just sold like crazy. And has one of the greatest country songs of all time on it, which is the name of the album, Carrying Your Love With Me. Okay, here's my 1997. Non-country music, things from my life that I remember... from the great year of 1997. And what comes to mind first is that my ACT score was finally high enough to go to school wherever I wanted. Now, minor flex, I took the ACT in the seventh grade, and I believe I got a 24.

Maybe it was a 23. It felt like a 24. One of those where.

I had a scholarship to go wherever I wanted in the state, which was awesome because I was in seventh grade, and obviously we weren't going to be able to pay for college. But my junior year is the first time that I hit 28 or 29 on the ACT. I ended up taking it more and going up a little bit from there as well. But in 1997, I hit that mark of tuition, room and board, food, all that being paid for because of the ACT. Big year for me at Mountain Pine High School, 1997. So I'm going to start with that. Now also in this, and I've really tried over the past episodes to not be focused on sports so much, but 1997 was a massive year for really wild things happening in sports. So I will not go full analytics nerd on you sports wise, but

I do have three things that I think are pretty crazy that all happened in 1997. Michael Jordan's flu game. Now this was a game that he is wildly known for. It was a part of the documentary. If you saw it called the last dance, I mean, He's a legend for this game. There are pictures of him with the towel over his head and he's got the flu and he goes out and he plays like crazy. Michael Jordan and the flu game, really one of the coolest games ever in the history of NBA basketball because he was so sick and it was the NBA finals and it was the greatest player of all time.

It was June 11th, 1997, game five.

It was the Bulls and the Jazz. It was tied two to two. The night before the game, Michael Jordan became violently ill The flu. That's what everybody was saying. He, according to stories, spent most of the night vomiting, couldn't sleep, severely dehydrated, barely able to stand, according to the folks around him. He played 44 minutes of the game. He scored 38.7 rebounds, five assists, three steals. Late in the game, he hit a three-pointer that pretty much sealed the game.

And so there's an iconic image of Jordan collapsing into the arms of Scottie Pippen after the game. The Bulls won 90-88 by two points. A couple days later, they won game six and they won the championship. And so it's the flu game. It's called the flu game. It's wildly famous. However, I'm going to give you a little twist here. Years later, Michael Jordan's trainer, whose name was Tim Grover, suggested that maybe it wasn't the flu. Now, according to Grover... Jordan ordered a pizza late at night the night before. Several people showed up to deliver it.

Jordan was the only one who ate it. That trainer believes that Jordan suffered food poisoning rather than the flu. And so now Jordan has talked about a little bit and he says, yeah, food poisoning is possible, but it was the flu game.

It's still called the flu game, right?

Even if it was food poisoning, well, it's a little easier to bounce back from food poisoning for sure. then the flu because the flu stays and food poisoning. Like once it all screams out of your body, you just start feeling better. Kind of doesn't matter if it was flu or food poisoning. The legend is the best player in the world was down and out. Couldn't get off the couch and scored 38 points and they won the game by two points. That was pretty crazy. So the flu game happened in 1997. Also 1997 was a year that I was really getting into sports. Now I always played sports and, I was always a nerd for sports.

It was really something that my stepdad, who was my stepdad at the time, because my mom married Arkansas Keith when I was like 13 or 14.

They divorced when I was 18 or 19. So there was just a window.

But for me to get close to him, we did two things. We listened to a lot of classic rock radio, cool 95, good times, great oldies. And we also just watched baseball games. and quizzed each other on baseball trivia from the 60s, 70s, the 80s, and the 90s. And so sports became a big part of my life because I naturally was drawn to sports, but also it was my way to have a relationship with my stepdad. So this is one of those years for me where I was dialed into all kinds of sports. So Michael Jordan flu game, that's number one. Tiger Woods wins the Masters at 21 years old, Tiger won by 12 strokes. If you don't know golf, you're like, dang, sounds like it's pretty good. 12 strokes is unheard of. So, and Tiger

Woods at 21 years old, what he was doing on the PGA tour was unheard of. Tiger Woods was cool. Tiger Woods dressed cool. Tiger Woods was like not an old crotchety white dude. So it completely changed golf. I mean, golf is cool now because of what Tiger Woods did back in 1997. So back in 1997, one of the most important moments in sports history, a 21.

Year old Tiger Woods destroys the field.

At the time he was the youngest champion ever. 12 strokes is still the most anyone has ever won by. golfer to win the masters so tiger instantly changed golf because golf was for old people tv ratings were fine but now they were just about to get mainstream good golf stars were kind of niche famous but now tiger woods was michael jordan famous and so the other golfers he was competing with all the rising tide lifts all boats that type thing golf became cool to kids So I got to put that there. I got to put 1997 with Tiger Woods winning his first Masters. I'm going to do another one. Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield's ear in 1997. This is one of the most infamous moments in boxing history. During a heavyweight title fight, Tyson

bit Holyfield's ear twice. The first time, Holyfield's like, hey, bit my ear. The second time, Tyson bit like a chunk of it off. Tyson was getting beat. And so That's wild. That's three crazy.

Hmm. I don't want to say transcendent, but okay. Why not? Transcendent sports moments from 1997.

All three of those, the Tyson one's kind of goofy, but the Michael Jordan game is super famous and Tiger Woods saying, Hey, what's up?

I now own golf.

Really one of the biggest sports moments in the past 50.

Years or so. Now I'm not going to make this all about golf.

Because I feel like that would be very selfish of me being a massive sports fan. I'm also going to throw in there Titanic, the movie, cultural phenomenon. You probably knew about the boat a little bit from some sort of history class, but DiCaprio, James Cameron, it was super long. I remember Valentine's day, 1997. I went to this with my neighbor, Scotty, no date. I didn't have a girl.

I didn't have girlfriends in high school, but me and my neighbor, Scotty, who was a couple of years older than me, We went to watch Titanic, the movie together, and it was pretty much all couples there, except for Scotty and myself.

The movie would eventually become the highest grossing film ever.

It's been surpassed since then a few times, but DiCaprio already famous, obviously, but this took him and left him as one of the biggest, most famous actors of all time. But Titanic in 97. And then also Austin Powers. If you were like, 17. And you're listening to this or 25. And you're listening to this, you know, about Austin powers.

Cause this is the stupid, like, Oh, but everybody was doing the quotes from Austin powers. And so Austin powers, international man of mystery hits theaters.

And you know what? It was not crazy big at first it grew.

And by the time the Austin powers, the two came out, There were lines outside of movie theaters. It's crazy to think how big that franchise was and how cool and quotable Austin Powers movies were and how Mike Myers, who was Saturday Night Live, was Wayne's World. But Austin Powers, when we're talking about movies or TV shows or games that elevate people to a whole new level, That was Austin Powers for Mike Myers. And so I'm not just gonna hit you with three sports. I'm also gonna hit you with two movies.

That is my 1997.

I'd also like to say this. My bulldog is underneath my feet. And if you have, for some reason, heard him snoring as I've been talking about this, or there's a faint in the background, that's my bulldog. You're not crazy. I'm not sure if you can hear him. All I know is I can hear him. And Bulldogs snore like crazy.

So thank you, 1997. Back to you. Number three, John Denver passes away. John Denver's story starts long before people knew him as the guy singing about country roads and Rocky Mountain skies.

John Denver was born in 1943.

And because his dad is in the Air Force, he grows up moving around in a lot of different places. Music was the one steady thing in his life as a kid. He gets a guitar at a young age. and he starts writing early, the way a lot of folk singers do. Learn the chords, play the rooms, and keep going until it turns into a job, and then keep going after that. Now, in the early 60s, he leaves college and heads to Los Angeles, right into the folk club circuit. Not long after that, he joins the Chad Mitchell Trio in 1965, which is basically the first time he got paid real money. I would say that's his entrance into the professional lane of music. It's where he learns touring. It's where he learns how to hold

a room with just a voice and a guitar. Now, before he was a household name as a singer, he was already making noise as a songwriter. He wrote,' Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, for Peter, Paul, and Mary. And they go on to record it. It goes number one in 1969. Also, his version of that song is awesome as well. That's a big part of his career. Like, that was his first major commercial success. Then his solo breakthrough hits in 1971. Take Me Home Country Roads, which climbs to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. From there, boom, boom, boom, we can go Rocky Mountain High or Sunshine on My Shoulder.

It's a jam. Annie's song. Thank God I'm a country boy.

All those.

All those. John Denver was so legit. He's everywhere.

Records and TV and he's doing specials and If you want a very country history snapshot of how big he got, the 1975 CMA Entertainer of the Year moment is still infamous.

Charlie Rich, it's up, reads the award, doesn't like it.

He burns the envelope with John Denver's name in it to protest him winning. That's crazy, because they're like, John Denver's not country.

Do I need to say what the songs are he wrote and sang?

Rocky Mountain High, Thank God I'm a Country Boy, Take Me Home Country Roads, this is one of the more absurd, this person isn't country or that's not country music that's ever happened. But it happens every generation. Then as the 70s move into the 80s, his career shifts a bit. He keeps recording, he keeps touring, and he starts leaning harder into causes like environmental work, hunger relief.

He's doing a lot.

That's a big part of his career now and his public life. Now, something else Denver did a lot in this time was flying. He became an avid pilot and not just as a casual hobby. He was deep into aviation, and he spends a ton of time in and around planes. There's even a story, if we go back to 1989, where he's involved in a plane incident on the ground, walks away unharmed, but at this point in 1997, he's been in planes a lot for at least a decade.

By 1997, he's still musically active, but he's also doing a lot more of what he loves that's not music, like flying. October 12th, 1997, John Denver's flying an airplane, and it's one he had been experimenting with, and it crashes into the water near Pacific Grove in Monterey Bay. He's the only person on board, and he tragically dies.

So when his death hits in 1997, it isn't the end of a career that disappeared years earlier. It's the end of a life that stayed busy, music, touring, causes, and flying. And when you place it into the 1997 countdown. It's not because he belongs in one format. It's because his catalog sits right in the overlap that country music has always been a part of. Storytelling, clear writing, big melodies, and songs that outlast the decade they came from.

Hang tight. The Bobbycast will be right back. Number two.

Garth Brooks takes over Central Park. By 1997, Garth Brooks was already operating on a scale of his own. And he was getting a lot of criticism, too.

It's our country?

That's too big. That stage show is too rock and roll. It's crazy how that's always a theme in every decade. And Garth is selling out stadiums. Garth is a household name, not just to country fans, but, well, to all households. He's basically the biggest thing that country music has going and one of the biggest things in music, period. So when Garth Brooks announces a free concert in Central Park August 7, 1997... It's one of those ideas that sounds simple until you realize, well, what it means. New York City, an open public space, no ticket barrier, and one of the biggest stars and the biggest country star in America showing up just like it's.

Another tour stop.

The turnout becomes the headline almost immediately. Depending on where you look, estimates say high hundreds of thousands.

There's a figure out there that says 980,000 to over 1 million people in the park.

The New York City Fire Department, they did estimate that it was over 950,000. Either way, it goes down as the largest concert crowd that Central Park has ever seen. But the crowd is really only one side of it. The other side is that the whole thing is broadcast live on HBO as Garth live from Central Park. And in a 1997 context, it's a big deal because live TV events were rare. And when they did happen, they were a massive deal. People planned around them. Because you can't catch it later. There were no clips on TikTok.

You can't go back into your TiVo.

That was later. Or your DVR. That was later.

You had to either record it on your VCR, which nobody could really figure out how to do, or be there live. HBO had a huge night, including a 15.2 rating, which was a record for them at the time. 15.2 means basically 15% of all people watching television were watching the Garth Brooks special in Central Park. Now you got two versions of the same moment happening at once, a packed park in New York and a national audience watching from home, both setting records, both massive. And that's where the concert becomes one of a kind because it wasn't just a big crowd. It wasn't just a TV special.

It was both on the same night and both versions fed each other. If you were there, you were a part of something massive. If you're watching at home, it felt like you were tuned into the main event. It was nicknamed Garth stock because Garth, I mean, it was literally just Garth, and it was bigger than any music festival that had ever been there. To scale, this thing was unrivaled.

I could use other words. Unparalleled. Unlike anything ever.

And the show itself isn't some weird New York special version of Garth. He does what he does. And there were some surprise moments. For example, Billy Joel, who wrote and recorded Shameless... before Garth ever sang it, was there.

They did that. Don McLean with American Pie. It was really cool.

After the fact, the impact of that special showed up in the ways that people just referenced it. The concert is still used as the benchmark whenever Central Park is brought up about a live event or comparisons about how many people were at a show. It's basically Garth's stock they compare it to. It also turned into an award story.

That HBO special picked up multiple Emmy nominations. and is repeatedly cited as one of the most watched concert broadcasts of that year and of all time. So when you land on Garth at number two in 1997, it's because there aren't many nights like that, where a country artist takes over Central Park, New York City, pulls a near unthinkable crowd, and simultaneously turns it up to a national TV audience.

Remember, not edited. They didn't record it and edit it. It was all there. He swang on the rope, live, And it was so cool then, and it's so cool now. Number one. One, one, one, one, one, one, one. That's not an effect. That's my voice. Number one.

Shania Twain releases Come On Over. By the time Shania releases Come On Over, November 4th, 1997, she's already a star. But this is the album that puts her from superstar to, well, you're in a league all by yourself now. The first thing to know about this is that the album didn't just produce hits and go away. It's the kind of album that keeps finding new life month after month.

It's the kind of album that people still play.

It's the kind of album that I still play when I'm doing the radio show or I'm doing the Friday morning dance party. Like it still feels good and at times new and fresh. And on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, come on over in 1997. Well, and then it had to roll into the next year. Spent 50 weeks at number one. 50 weeks at number one on the album chart.

Nothing for a year on the top. I just want to say this again. Nothing for basically a year on the top country albums chart. Knock that record off. That's the all-time mark.

You do the math. Is there 52 weeks in a year? And it's 50. It's only two weeks.

Dang. Thanksgiving week, Christmas week. Other than that, number one. Now we can talk about the singles as well. I mean, the album spins off so many amazing songs.

Let's do it. Let's walk through this.

In 1997 because commercially, Come On Over becomes the best-selling country album ever, selling 40-plus million records worldwide, putting it in the rare tier of albums that aren't just big for a genre. It's big for the all-time conversation. This album manages gold and platinum awards, 20 times platinum. That's 20 million units. They certified that thing November 15, 2004. Now, remember, we started this in 1997, which tells you how long sales stayed strong well after the release. Seven years, it stayed so strong they didn't want to classify it yet because it wasn't done selling with momentum.

That's wild.

Awards-wise, the Grammys were the cleanest snapshot of how dominant this era was. At the 41st Annual Grammy Awards in 1999, so basically two years, the album is nominated for Album of the Year and Best Country Album. And the single, You're Still the One, we talk about slow dance songs again. That was one of the greatest slow dance songs ever.

Wins Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song. Then the next year at the Grammy Awards in 2000, the album is still generating singles that are getting played so much like Man I Feel Like a Woman. And then Come On Over wins Best Country Song. it's historic it's absurd and i think that's why i'm getting a little too excited here because we really haven't seen anything like what happened like two years later at the grammys the songs are still winning awards so when you put shania at the very top of 1997 which we're doing you're not just picking one hit single some of the singles well they weren't a hit till two years later because the singles before that didn't stop being hit so

why would you put out a new hit if the other songs not finished being a hit yeah exactly and you know what it was hard to beat garth and central park And Shania did with Come On Over, November 4th, 1997. You know, one of the songs that don't impress me much, everybody knows all the words to it. I asked Shania the first thing she thinks of when she hears that song decades later.

This is what she said.

This one was a little different than some of the other things that we'd done. It was more poppy and sassy in a different way. It was still this Shania sense of humor, playing with the sexes and taking charge of being a woman with a sense of humor in a non-offensive way so that everybody could be a part of it and enjoy it together. So it didn't separate us as men and women. That was never the idea to separate us. It was always the idea to bring us together. And a song like that, I think really did that.

And that's our top 10 for 1997, a year where a few careers took a real step forward, a few songs became permanent, and an album, well, that set new standards. If you've got a 1997 moment you would add, or you want.

To swap in, let me know. Comment on our page. Comment on our Spotify.

Go to iHeartRadio. Put a little something up there. I'm always curious what people remember from the year. Thanks for listening to the 90s Country Podcast. You know what's next, 1998. We'll do that soon. Love this episode of the Bobbycast? Subscribe on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Country Music in the 90’s: The Year is 1997

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