Songfacts®:

• In this country ballad, a farmer realizes he's been neglecting his wife by not making her feel loved outside of the bedroom. But, Garth Brooks explained in his 2017 book The Anthology Part 1: The First Five Years, the moral of the story can apply to all kinds of relationships. "What it was all about was taking time from your busy schedule to show somebody you love them," he noted. "It could be your child, it could be your pet. It could be anything, just take that time, put that pen down, close that laptop. Go take a walk with your buddy. You can do that with your friends too. It's like, 'Hey, man, why are we working so hard down here?"
• Brooks and his frequent co-writer Kent Blazy ("If Tomorrow Never Comes") were struggling through a fruitless songwriting session when they gave up to throw the Frisbee with Blazy's dog. After a while, they took out their guitars, and this tune - originally titled "Sometimes You Need The Rain To See The Light" - fell out.
• Brooks and Blazy were trying to come up with a sexy idea for how the wife in the song could entice her husband. Blazy's wife was a big Oprah fan and he remembered a particular episode where a woman said she'd wrap her naked body in cellophane to surprise her husband - but that didn't sound too appealing to the songwriters. Instead, Blazy suggested she'd greet him wearing nothing but an apron. Brooks loved it, and it became a memorable aspect of the tune. "I think it might have even helped the sale of aprons," said Blazy.
• This became a bittersweet number for Garth to perform because it was his late parents' favorite song. His mother died in 1999, and his father died in 2010.
• A #1 Country hit, this brought Brooks back to the Top 10 after he missed the mark with his previous single, "We Shall Be Free," a controversial protest album that several radio stations refused to play, which affected its chart performance.
• The Chase, Brooks' fifth studio album, was the country singer's second album to debut at #1 in America (the first was Ropin' The Wind). It sold 403,000 copies in its first week, on its way to 5 million by the end of the year. In January 2020, it achieved Diamond status in the US with more than 10 million copies sold.