“Merry Go ‘Round” will forever be one of my all-time favorite songs.
From Kacey Musgraves’ 2013 debut studio album Same Trailer Different Park, it put her on the map for a lot of country fans when it was first released almost 10 years ago.
And as of today, the song was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA, which means it has moved an extremely impressive two million-plus units.
Kacey took to her Instagram stories to share the news, also explaining the full story behind the single art that was shot and designed by her sister, Kelly:
“‘MERRY GO ‘ROUND’= 2X PLATINUM, Y’ALL!
Funny story behind the photo: my sister Kelly and I were driving and broke down somewhere between Dallas and Fort Worth in my grandpa’s car when it broke down.
I was 22. To pass the time while we waited for help on the side of the hot highway, Kelly grabbed her camera and we did an impromptu photo shoot out there by a fence post.
The ended up being the single art Kelly designed for the song which was my first single. 2012.”
“Merry Go ‘Round” won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song at the 56th Grammy Awards, and the album Same Trailer Different Park was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2018.
The song barely cracked the Top 10 on country radio after it peaked at #10 on the U.S. Billboard Country Airplay chart.
And actually, there’s a pretty funny story behind the song, as she says they were inspired after hearing Shane’s mom talk about one of her neighbors in Texas:
“Shane McAnally, he’s one of the guys I wrote it with.
His mom was talking about one of her neighbors down the street down in Texas and was saying, ‘Well, I don’t know if she’s selling Mary Kay or Mary Jane, or something down there. I don’t know what she’s doing.’
So it just made us laugh and as songwriters, we were like, ‘There’s definitely a song in there somewhere.’”
You can hear that type of inspiration and phrasing all over Kacey’s earlier stuff, and it’s so apparent that she takes many of her real-life experiences and daily conversations and puts them into her songs with an added dose of sarcastic humor and quick wit.
And while the initial idea for the song is actually a funny story, the three writers knew there was something more to it and were able to dive into some pretty heavy subject matter, taking on southern cultural expectations (and maybe stereotypes) that a lot of us have probably experienced before and turning it into a beautiful and relatable song.
It’s become one of the few songs from the aforementioned Same Trailer album that she still plays at her live shows, and if there’s any track in her catalog that I would hope would be certified double Platinum, it’s this one…
And it’s not even close:
