For all the bad vibes that Curb Records gets on the internet and publically (Tim McGraw, Hank III and Hank, Jr.) for how they treat (or don’t treat) the artists on their roster, you got to hand it to the label for sticking with their artists. After years of trying to get Lee Brice on the charts, the label found the right single “Love Like Crazy” and proceeded to get the talented songwriter a hit song (albeit on one he didn’t write). Released to radio in August 2009, the single took a slow and steady climb up the singles chart and over a year later, the song is set to break a country single record as the longest charting single in Billboard’s history. It’s currently on pace to pass, “Bouquet of Roses,” Eddy Arnold’s 54-week chart hit from 1948/1949.
How does a song last on the radio charts this long? It’s hard to say but basically this one found a home with some radio programmers and eventually everyone else as ‘testing’ and ‘requests’ lit up radio stations that did play the tune. It’s the kind of grass-roots, tell your friend hit that builds careers and while many songs have a huge ‘burn-out’ rate for listeners after multiple listens, “Love Like Crazy” has an enduring, endearing universal message of loving despite long odds that never ‘burns out.’
Quite simply, I think “love Like Crazy” has managed to last as long as it has because the tune – written by Doug Johnson and Tim James – has felt like the kind of ‘classic’ and ‘gold-standard’ radio tune from the very first minute it hit the radio. With the kind of ‘crazy’ success this single has had, it will be remarkably hard for Lee Brice to follow it up as it does have that classic, gold-standard feel and will likely be played in ‘recurrent’ (non-current) hit rotation for years to come and this is something that James Otto has fought with “Just Got Started Loving You” and something Jerrod Niemann will face as well with “What Do You Want” following-up the juggernaut “Lover, Lover.”
Hopefully radio will allow Lee Brice another hit as his talent sure does warrant it. It’ll be interesting to see how he does when “Love Like Crazy” finally allows “Beautiful Every Time” to move up the charts.
Check out our review of the Love Like Crazy album by clicking here.
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