Garth Brooks is described as a “pivotal figure in the history of country music, no matter how much some country purists would like to deny it,” by Spotify, but what was his first song?
Garth’s first song was “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old).” A short while later Brooks topped the charts with his first two number one hits, “If Tomorrow Never Comes” (co-written with Kent Blazy) and “The Dance” (written by Tony Arata) released in April 1989.
Read more below about the extraordinary career of Garth Brooks and how he has left his mark on country music throughout his most active years in the 80s and 90s.
Musical Beginnings
Thanks to his older siblings, Brooks faced exposure to huge amounts of music growing up.
Despite the fact that he was fond of some country and western tunes, especially that of George Jones, Brooks was generally partial to awesome rock music, even producing covers of rock and rollers.
In 1981, in the wake of hearing “Unwound”, by George Strait, Brooks concluded that he was feeling more interested in producing country and western music instead of rock music.
Four years on in 1985, Brooks started his music profession, eventually capturing the attention of an entertainment attorney named Rod Phelps, who drove more than 200 miles from Dallas to Oklahoma to see what Brooks was made of. Suffice to say he was impressed.
With help from Phelps, Brooks made a trip to the capital of Tennessee to seek after a record agreement, and he returned inside a day. It was after persistent encouragement from Phelps that Brooks decided to continue returning to Nashville to benefit his career.
Only three years subsequent to encountering Phelps, Brooks and his significant other, Sandy Mahl, moved to Nashville, where he started signing contacts with the likes of Capitol Records, and this is the point at which his career commenced.
After two years of living in Nashville came the arrival of Brooks’ first album and a great achievement it was. It topped at number two on the Billboard Top Country Albums, and came to number thirteen on Billboard 200. The greater part of the album was conventionalist country music, influenced to some degree by the idolized George Strait.
Brooks’ Legacy
As the best-selling solo album craftsman ever (after surpassing Elvis in 2015), Brooks has had unmatched success in the music business.
In his time Brooks had in excess of 20 number one hits, however, it was his sales figures that gained the majority of attention. To give you an example, across three albums including his self-titled debut amongst No Fences and Ropin’ The Wind, Brooks sold in excess of eight million copies in 1991 – that’s breathtaking.
On top of selling a massive number of albums and show passes since the arrival of his self-titled debut in 1989, Brooks has been named for various honors at the Emmys, Grammys, Golden Globes and more.
According to YouGov, Garth Brooks is: “the 9th most popular country music artist and the 5th most famous,” with fans describing him as “a great performer, entertaining, legendary, talented and passionate.”
And Encyclopedia cites Garth Brooks as “not just one of the most popular recording artists in the country music field,” but, “one of the most popular recording artists in any field.”
But why is Brooks so popular? Why is he any different from the rest of country music artists?
Lauren Cowling, an author from One Country has met Garth Brooks and in describing why he’s so popular, amongst her reasons she mentions that he’s humble, genuine and tells the worst dad jokes. What more could you ask for?
So if very bad dad jokes are your thing and you’re interested in an artist who doesn’t think he’s on top of the world but is still genuine, then Garth Brooks is probably the guy you’d better get listening to.