Has it really been 17 years?
On November 15th, 2005, a superstar entered the country music world.
Carrie Underwood rose to fame by winning Season 4 of American Idol (back when it was watchable), which lead to her releasing what I still think is her best work.
The Muskogee, Oklahoma, native’s debut album, Some Hearts, is honestly top to bottom incredible, but will forever be remembered as the project that gave us two of the most iconic songs of her career, “Jesus, Take The Wheel” and a song that’s sung every time karaoke is taking place, “Before He Cheats.”
“Jesus, Take The Wheel” was the lead single and went on to become a 3x Platinum Number One, opening the flood gates for a barrage of follow up hits that took the industry by storm. It won a Grammy for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Performance and the ACM for Single of the Year.
“Before He Cheats” was released as a single in 2006 and is now 7x Platinum, held the top spot on the Billboard Country Charts for 5 consecutive weeks, charted for an insane 64 straight weeks (8th longest all-time), and at one point was the best digitally selling country song of all-time. It won the 2008 Grammy for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Performance and the CMA for Single Of The Year.
These hits, as well as some I still consider overlooked like “Wasted” (which also went Number One but is criminally underrated), “Don’t Forget To Remember Me”, and the title track helped the album earn a ton of awards, but none bigger than the ACM Album of the Year.
Some Hearts was also the best selling album of any genre in 2007 and is 9x Platinum certified by RIAA.
So yeah, safe to say this was a big one for Carrie and country music as a whole…
Absolutely wild that this came out 17 years ago and she’s still out there doing her thing, but I do wish she’d dig into those Oklahoma roots a bit more for future projects and move away from the over-produced pop country songs she’s churned out recently.
But we’ll always have this one to go back to, and it’s damn good.
