5-1-5-0

Album: Home (2012)
Charted: 33
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Songfacts®:

  • Bentley penned this song with Brett and Jim Beavers. Brett Beavers is a long-term writer and producer for Bentley and has co-writing credits on a number of his previous hits including "Come a Little Closer," "Feel That Fire" and "Home." Brett's brother, Jim, has also collaborated with Bentley on several of his hits including "Trying To Stop You Leaving," "Sideways" and "Am I The Only One."
  • The origins of the song lie in a line that Bentley had written - "let's get crazy, let's get fifty-one-fifty" - for the Home bonus track song "Country and Cold Cans," which wasn't included on the final recorded version. The singer recalled to The Boot: "I was telling it to a friend of mine and he said, 'What does that mean?' And I told him it was Van Halen; it's California police code for criminally insane. The next day, he was singing, '5-1-5-0, somebody call the po-po.' I just started laughing because I thought that was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. And he said, 'I'm tellin' ya, my kids cannot stop singing that.' I said, 'I don't know, man.'" A couple of days later, Bentley was writing the song with The Beavers Brothers and he still had the line stuck in his head so he said to them, "Let's write it and be done with it."
  • So what does the title actually mean? Said Bentley to The Boot: "People don't really know what it means but who really knew what '867-5309' meant? I remember when that song was out [sings], '867-5309? Is that a real number? Is that an area code?' So, maybe it'll do what 'Sideways' did. I don't think people really used that term before that. We'll see."
  • The song's music video was directed by Wes Edwards and shot at Big Nasty ATV Park outside of Savannah, Georgia. It features mud-bogging fanatics attempting to be the one who drives the farthest distance in the mud pit in their vehicles, which include Bentley's own old pickup truck. "I have never had so much fun or gotten so dirty at a video shoot," said Bentley. "It's hard to call it 'work' when you get to drive trucks and four wheelers through the mud all day. The fans who came out to this shoot were ready to get 5-1-5-0, so we basically just pulled up a bunch of trucks, threw some gear in the back, turned up the speakers and then let them do their thing. It was pretty wild!"

    Edwards, who also directed the mud-centric video for Jason Aldean's "Hicktown" learned that you can't script fun. "One thing I hate is forced frivolity," he explained in a Songfacts interview. "Just on any level, forced frivolity is the worst. I always like to make an environment fun so that people actually have fun and just capture that."
  • The song climbed to the top of the country chart dated August 4, 2012. It was Bentley's tenth career #1 single. "You can't ever take for granted the power of a fun, uptempo song that isn't meant for anything other than kicking off a party," said Bentley. "I'll also never take for granted having 10 #1 hits on country radio…those guys and the fans have given me an unbelievable career so far."
  • The song was the first ever all-numerical titled #1 in the Country chart's history.

Comments: 1

  • Carrie from 36360, Al867-5309 ......867 is out of Brewton, Alabama!!! My home town...so yes it exsists. ;)
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