River of Love

"River of Love" is a song written by Billy Burnette, Shawn Camp and Dennis Morgan, and recorded by American country music artist George Strait. It was released in November 2008 as the third single from the album Troubadour. The 87th single of his career, it is also his 80th Top Ten on the Billboard country charts, as well as his 44th and final Number One hit to date.

This article is about George Strait's 2008 single. For other uses, see River of Love (disambiguation).
"River of Love"
Single by George Strait
from the album Troubadour
ReleasedNovember 17, 2008 (2008-11-17)
GenreCountry
Length3:15
LabelMCA Nashville
Songwriter(s)Billy Burnette, Shawn Camp, Dennis Morgan
Producer(s)Tony Brown, George Strait
George Strait singles chronology
"Troubadour"
(2008)		 "River of Love"
(2008)		 "Living for the Night"
(2009)

Content

"River of Love" is a moderate up-tempo, with steel-string acoustic guitar and pedal steel guitar accompaniment. Shawn Camp, Billy Burnette and Dennis Morgan, who wrote the song, all sing backing vocals on it as well.[1] The lyrics use a river as a metaphor for love ("Let's go rollin' on the river of love").

According to Country Weekly, Morgan had approached Camp with a melody in his mind. Camp then built on the melody by playing along with a ukulele that Cowboy Jack Clement had given him, when Burnette joined in on his own ukulele, and they came up with the line "river of love". According to Camp, "It was just such an infectious groove, and it just kind of rolled out. The whole song was just two chords and that lick."[2]

Critical reception

Matt Bjorke of Roughstock, a country music review site, gave "River of Love" a mixed review. Although he called it an "undoubtedly fun song" and said "it's all about feel and groove", he added that "there's nothing really interesting about the song, other than the spirited steel guitar solo."[1] Brady Vercher, in his review of Troubadour for Engine 145, described the song as having an "island vibe" similar to a Kenny Chesney song, calling it one of the weakest tracks on the album.[3]

Chart performance

"River of Love" debuted at number 45 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts dated for the week of November 22, 2008. The song became Strait's 44th and final Billboard Number One on the chart week of April 18, 2009.[4] One week later, it fell to number 9, taking the biggest fall from number 1 on that chart since Carrie Underwood's "So Small" fell from number 1 to number 10 on the chart week of December 22, 2007.[5]

Chart (2008–2009) Peak
position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[6] 1
US Billboard Hot 100[7] 59
Canada Country (Billboard)[8] 6
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[9] 77

Year-end charts
Chart (2009) Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)[10] 5

References
  1. Bjorke, Matt. "George Strait - "River of Love"". Roughstock. Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
  2. Horner, Marianne (2009-05-18). "Story Behind the Song: Two Ukes, a Groove… and a Hit". Country Weekly. 16 (14): 26.
  3. Vercher, Brady (2008-04-03). "George Strait - Troubadour". Engine 145. Retrieved 2008-12-01.
  4. Trust, Gary (2009-12-29). "Best of 2009 by the Numbers". Billboard. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  5. Trust, Gary. "Ask Billboard". Billboard. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
  6. "George Strait Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  7. "George Strait Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  8. "George Strait Chart History (Canada Country)". Billboard.
  9. "George Strait Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard.
  10. "Best of 2009: Country Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2009. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
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