Wednesday, December 2, 2009

#6: THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG

This week on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart, Dierks Bentley's "I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes" moved one spot closer to the top 5, coming in at #6! The song is up to #4 on the Billboard Country Indicator Chart, and will be #5 on Mediabase based on audience tomorrow (likely).

Next week, #5 is almost an inevitability. Carrie Underwood's "Cowboy Casanova" is basically plummeting upon the release of her newest single, and IWMYCYE is still experiencing fairly healthy growth which will definitely keep it moving into the top 5, and hopefully toward #1!

Last week, The Boot spoke to Brett Beavers, who co-wrote IWMYCYE. Brett had the following to say about the "story behind the song:"

"When Dierks and I were in the middle of his last album, 'Feel That Fire,' Dierks mentioned to me one day that he thought he might be missing a simple, tender love song. We bounce ideas off each other all the time, whether we are actually in a writing room together or not, so I made a mental note of his suggestion.

The idea of a woman closing her eyes was interesting to us, and the times she might do that ... well, what can I say? It's a pretty sensual visual. We followed that idea in the direction of a love song, and just kind of chased what that moment is like. We talked about the scenario where a man is really needing to be with his woman at the end of the day, after he'd been thinking about her.

We began with trying to keep the music fairly simple, to stay out of the way of the lyric, and found a groove we really liked, and a nice swimming melody for the chorus. Since we are just a couple of country boys, writing a song like this was a bit different than writing about a crazy adventure or life in the country, or whatever. We tried to key in on the things we thought a woman would like to hear.

This song is all about, "I wanna be with you," and finding an interesting and unique way of saying that. I remember in the second verse, we wanted to add a few more visuals so the song could play in the listener's mind, so that's how we approached it.

That was pretty much it ... trying to stay focused on the simplicity of an emotion and keep it tender. We carried this approach forward when recording it for the album, both of us knowing that melody, lyric, groove and production, when all pointed in the same direction, can make a song ring more honest and true. I'm very happy with the outcome of the song."

So are we, Brett! Here's hoping we can get another #1 for a member of the Beavers family - and Dierks, too, of course!

Talk to you next week when it's an official top-5 song, Congress!

~ Carrie S. (DBC Rep/Chart Reporter ~ NC)

3 comments:

  1. That is a great post! Nice to see how they come up these awesome songs! They may have wanted to keep it simple but its anything but, its just a wonderful love song. Here's hoping for #1!

    Lovedierks

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  2. this was always one of my favorites on the record from the first time I heard it! Love hearing the story behind it

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  3. I have loved this song every since he sang a few lines acoustically at one of his town hall meetings online in '08!

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