Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man by Randy Travis

Album: You and You Alone (1998)

Charted: 42

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Songfacts®:

A #2 Country hit for Randy Travis, this song was first recorded by Mark Collie in 1995. It was written by Glen Burtnik and Trey Bruce. Burtnik, who was a member of Styx, writes mostly in the pop and rock genres, but Bruce is a Nashville writer who has also written songs for Trace Adkins and Faith Hill. The songwriters teamed up for a writing session where they hashed out this song about a guy who must make some hard decisions when he finds out his girlfriend is pregnant.

In our 2011 interview with Glen Burtnik, he explained: "I'd been dragging the initial idea around for a couple of years and finally wrote the tune with Trey Bruce. My publisher, Warner Chappell music didn't care for it. Trey got it to Mark Collie, who released it (on Giant Records), the producer of which liked it and a couple of years later recorded Randy Travis's version. My biggest country hit. I'm proud of that one. Publishers are apparently useless." (See our entire Glen Burtnik interview.)

Comments: 1

Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn this day in 1998 {January 24th} Randy Travis' "Spirit of A Boy, Wisdom of A Man"* paked at #2 {for 1 week} on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, the week it was at #2, the #1 record for that week was "Stand Beside Me" by Jo Dee Messina ...
And it reached #7 on the Canadian RPM Country Singles chart...
The rest of Billboard's Country Singles' Top 10 on January 24th, 1998:
At #3. "For A Little While" by Tim McGraw
#4. "Right On The Money" by Alan Jackson
#5. "Wrong Again" by Martina McBride
#6. "There You Have It" by Blackhawk
#7. "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Mark Chessnutt
#8. "Uubelievable" by Diamond Rio
#9. "Wrong Night" by Reba McEntire
#10. "Hold On To Me" by John Michael Montgomery
Randy Travis, born Randy Bruce Traywick, will celebrate his 61st birthday in four months on May 4th, 2020...
* "Spirit of A Boy, Wisdom of Man" was Randy Travis' sixth of seven records to peak at #2 on the Hot Country Singles chart, the seventh was a duet with Carrie Underwood, "I Told You So" in 2009...

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