Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter

Album: Did I Shave My Legs For This? (1995)

Charted: 65

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Songfacts®:

This is a song about a girl's first love. The title is a reference to Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill, a very inexpensive and fruity wine that is popular with teenage girls getting their first sips of alcohol. The wine, like the first love, is sweet and intoxicating, providing a valid metaphor for the song.
This was the first single from the album, and it went to #1 on the US Country chart. In 1997, the Country Music Association named it Single of the Year.
The song was written by Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison and tells of Berg's own coming of age as a teenager outside of Luck, Wisconsin. She and her friends would sneak off and drink strawberry wine, often getting sick in the process but making indelible memories.

Berg recalled to AOL's The Boot: "My dad is a farm boy from Wisconsin, and I used to go up there and stay with [my grandparents] Inga and Elmer Berg, and I met a boy up there.My Grandma Berg just kept having babies, so my aunts were my age. So we used to run around and get in a lot of trouble together, chase boys and whatnot. I told Gary this story, and he latched right onto it. We wrote it quickly, in about three or four hours. We really liked it but we thought nobody else probably would. Pat [Higdon, my publisher] was having this tent showcase with label people and artists coming to listen to the new stuff that we'd all written. And that was the only new song I had. I looked at the floor the whole time, because I was so nervous. When I looked up after playing the song for him, he was grinning from ear to ear. Deana Carter was there, and she was the only artist that showed up. She wanted the song for her first record. The song had made the rounds for a little while before she recorded it, and everybody passed on it [including Trisha Yearwood]."
Though Deana Carter didn't contribute to the writing of the song, she drew inspiration from a high school romance to sing it. So which first love is the country singer remembering when she performs "Strawberry Wine"? It turns out its actor James Denton, who played Mike Delfino on Desperate Housewives. The two dated in the early 1980s when they were teenagers growing up in Nashville.

Comments: 10

Sal from ArkansasWho played the guys in the video Strawberry wine?
Hopegmabeck from TexasIt seems like I sang the song "Strawberry Wine" back in the 70s but there's nothing about that song being played back then. It would've been played on the radio. What year was it written and 1st released or recorded. IDK how I can have such a clear memory of this if it never happened.
Kawa from Tokyo, JapanI think that the first inspiration of writing this lyrics for the songwriters came from the lyrics of the song called, Bluberry Hill, sung by Fats Domino in 1956 and becoming a big hit later. Because there are some similarities between two songs! There are below. First this line, 'It's funny how those memories they last', compared with 'Though we're apart, you are part of me still', and another line is like this, ' The hot July moon saw everything', compared with 'The moon stood still'. I think that the songwriters of Strawberry Wine got the first inspiration by reading the lyrics of the song, Blueberry Hill, and they tried to write the song like Bluebery Hill.
Peter from Coventry, United KingdomI like listening to this song.
Briar from Hazard, KyI liked this when it first came out. It got played way too much and I really got sick of it.
I like "Did I Shave My Legs For This?" better.
Julie from St. Louis, MoThe inspiration for Deanna recording this song is James Denton (Mike on 'Desperate Housewives'). They were first loves, apparently. I heard this from him in an interview a few years ago.
Dorothy from Whitehall, PaThis song fit me really well when it came out to be on the top. I had a boyfriend at the time that it fit us really well. I love the song. I saw Deanna Carter in concert at the Allentown fair she opened for Tim Mcgraw. Thank you Deanna for making this song.
Maureen from Prospect, VaI really like this song.. it means so much to me personally.. <3
Katie from Tallahassee, FlThis song is just great songwriting and Deanna Carter has a great voice. I love the song and the content is something that all women hold dear to them and that is first love.
Cortney from Whann, Pai think that this is a very awesome song because it tells the story of a girls 1st love, which is important to most...Deanna is awesome!!!

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