The 2000s’ Biggest Country Wins: How George Strait’s “She’ll Leave You With a Smile” Claimed Its No. 1 Crown. ML
“She’ll Leave You With a Smile”
George Strait
Written by Odie Blackmon and Jay Knowles
Radio & Records
#1 (3 weeks)
December 20, 2002 – January 3, 2003
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
December 28, 2002 – January 4, 2003
Is this a mediocre song elevated by George Strait’s peerless vocal talent?
Or is this a sneakily great song discovered by George Strait’s legendary song sense?
Does it matter? Because goodness, is this an enjoyable record. We’re getting elbow deep into the era of unimpressive singers, making Strait stand out more as a singer than he ever did in the eighties and nineties.
He knows it, too, and it’s really on this album where his looser approach at the mic starts to surface. His albums were always good to great, but he takes more time in this decade to choose material and there’s less of an assembly line approach to his work.
All of this is to say that if he’d recorded this in say, 1998, I would probably lump it in with “True” as one of his lesser efforts.
But he sings this too damn well here, and that piano and fiddle instrumental break is the icing on the cake.
King George does a great job closing out the last year of the decade that will leave me with a smile.
“She’ll Leave You With a Smile” gets a B+.
Every No. 1 Single of the 2000s
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