B-side "When You Think of Me" Genre Country Label Mercury Nashville | Format CD single Length 3:20 | |
Released September 23, 2002 (2002-09-23) | ||
"19 Somethin'" is a song written by David Lee and Chris DuBois, and recorded by American country music singer Mark Wills. It was released in September 2002 as the first single from his Greatest Hits album. The song spent six weeks at number one on the Hot Country Songs chart in early 2003. It also reached number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was the longer-lasting of Wills's Number One hits. The song would go on to become the number two country song of the Decade on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart.
Contents
Content
The song begins with singer's reminiscence of his formative years, the 1970s and 1980s. In the first verse and chorus, various 1970s-related bits of pop culture are referenced, such as Farrah Fawcett, eight track, and Stretch Armstrong; the first verse also mentions the videogame Pac-Man ("I had the Pac-Man pattern memorized"), which was actually released in 1980. The first chorus begins with the line "It was 1970-somethin' / In the world that I grew up in". Verse two, similarly, references 1980s pop culture, such as the Rubik's Cube, black Pontiac Trans Ams and MTV. The second chorus also begins with "It was 1980-somethin'".
In the song's bridge, the singer then expresses his desire to escape to his childhood years ("Now I've got a mortgage and an SUV / All this responsibility makes me wish sometimes / That it was 1980-somethin’").
Critical
An uncredited article in the Charlotte Observer said that the success of "19 Somethin'" was "doubly great" because it was a number-one single, and because it was an up-tempo, in comparison to the ballads he had hits with earlier in his career, such as "Don't Laugh at Me" and "Wish You Were Here".
Awards
"19 Somethin'" was nominated for Single of the Year at the 38th annual Academy of Country Music awards in May 2003.
Chart positions
"19 Somethin'" debuted at number 56 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of October 5, 2002. It was his second number one, the first being "Wish You Were Here" in late 1999.
Personnel
According to liner notes.