On this day (November 7) in 2000, Alan Jackson released his ninth studio album, When Somebody Loves You. Later that month, the LP debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, where it stayed for two weeks. The album also produced the hit singles, “www.memory,” “Where I Come From,” and the title track.
Jackson’s albums and singles dominated the country charts throughout the 1990s. However, there was more to his success than just releases that charted well. He helped shape the sound of the era. His popularity didn’t fade at the end of the decade, though. He released five albums in the first decade of the new millennium. All of them went to No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart. In fact, he released his most successful studio album, Drive, in 2002. It spent six weeks at the top of the chart.
When Somebody Loves You produced three hit singles, with “Where I Come From” reaching No. 1. It also produced his least successful single of the decade. Only six of the singles Jackson released between 2000 and 2010 missed the top 10. Only one of those missed the top 40. “It’s Alright to Be a Redneck” peaked at No. 53. It was the first to miss the top 40 since his debut single, “Blue Blooded Woman,” peaked at No. 45 in 1989.
Alan Jackson Discusses His Songwriting Process
Alan Jackson has written or co-written many of his biggest hits throughout his career. In 2021, he released Where Have You Gone, his first album in six years. Ahead of the album’s release, he discussed his writing process.
“It’s been so many years since I recorded. I hadn’t written hardly at all in those years,” he said. “As a songwriter, you’re always listening. Little pieces of hooks or something that sounds like a song, or you get a melody in your head, and you record it. So, I keep a list running,” he added. “In the modern age, I’ve got the phone and every time I get an idea, I sing it in there or talk it in there so I don’t forget it.”
When it was time to begin putting together the album, that running list had hundreds of entries. “I had to take all those and try to figure them out. I ended up taking a bunch of them and finished writing them. That’s where all this came from,” he explained.
