Released June 5, 2006 Genre Country Label Lofton Creek | Format CD single Length 3:32 | |
Writer(s) Walt Aldridge
Elliott Park | ||
"I Loved Her First" is the debut single by American country band Heartland. Written by Walt Aldridge and Elliott Park, and recorded, it was released in June 2006 as the title track from their debut studio album I Loved Her First (2006). The song reached Number One on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in late 2006.
Contents
Content
The song is a mid-tempo ballad in triple meter. In it, the male narrator is talking to the man who is about to marry his daughter, telling him that he is having difficulty giving her away because he "loved her first."
Critical reception
Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard magazine reviewed the song favorably, calling it a "beautifully written tearjerker that will hit home with dads everywhere who can't believe their little girls have grown up so soon." She calls Albert's performance "wonderful" and says that it "wrings every drop of emotion from the tender lyric."
Music video
The music video was directed by Todd Schaffer and premiered in mid-2006. It features the group singing and a family at a wedding reception.
Chart performance
"I Loved Her First" debuted at number 57 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of July 8, 2006. Driven by a viral video of a father singing the ballad at his daughter's wedding, it reappeared on the chart almost nine years later at number 7 on the chart dated February 21, 2015. The song has sold over one million copies.