Released April 2, 2007 Recorded 2006 Length 4:05 | Format CD Single Genre Country Label Columbia Nashville | |
"Famous in a Small Town" is a song written by Travis Howard and co-written and recorded by American country music artist Miranda Lambert. It was released in April 2007 as the second single from her album Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It was Lambert's second Top 20 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 2008.
Contents
The song was ranked number 40 on Engine 145's 50 Best Country Songs of 2007.
Content
"Famous in a Small Town" is a mid-tempo song in the key of B major backed with acoustic guitar. The narrator describes the simplicities of living in a small town, where everyone knows each other and no one needs to have their face in a magazine to be famous. Thus, everybody dies "famous in a small town."
Music video
A music video was released for the song, directed by Trey Fanjoy. The video features Lambert singing in a town square in Lebanon, Tennessee mixed with scenes from Shelbyville, Tennessee. The video's depicts people's everyday lives in a small town, including a diner and high school; all of these scenes are shot in black and white. Lambert is also seen playing her guitar and singing on a red carpet with camera flashes, neon signs, and her band, to contrast with the small town image, and is shot in color rather than black and white. This is her second video to be shot in both black and white and in color, after "New Strings" in 2006. In Lambert's own words, "Famous in a Small Town is really, (really) how it was growing up in Lindale."
The music video reached the top spot of CMT's Top Twenty Countdown for the week of August 16, 2007.
Chart performance
"Famous in a Small Town" debuted at number 54 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of April 7, 2007. After 33 weeks on the chart, it peaked at number 14 on November 17, 2007.
Cover version
An acoustic cover version with lyrics in Drents dialect (called Op 'n dorp is iederiene 'n beroemdheid) was written and recorded by Dutch singer Daniël Lohues and included on his 2010 album Allennig IV.