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Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine about the hits from

coast to coast. I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's

Why Is This Song Number One series? On our last episode, I gave a brief

history of late 20th century country music crossover on the pop charts, including how the film

Urban Cowboy spawned a boom for such artists as Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, and Eddie Rabbit,

which was followed by a mid-80s bust that saw country's presence on the pop charts greatly diminished. And I talked about how

the rising star Garth Brooks helped by new sound scan technology on the billboard charts staged a comeback

for country in the early 90s.

Garth took on Guns and Roses, Madonna, and Mariah Carey on the charts, and won.

What would happen when he took on the Beatles?

Well, it turned out that he'd like, and all the dreams that they'd been living in the

car.

Garth Brooks had let two years go by without a new studio album, an unprecedented gap for him.

In interviews, he said he needed the break to tend to his family and shore up his marriage.

When he finally began recording a new album in 1995, it had the makings of another smash.

When it comes down to temptation, she's on board. of another smash.

She's every woman, a James Taylor-like ballad, was issued several months ahead of Garth's next album, and it soared to number one on

Hot Country singles in just seven weeks, a sign Brooks had stayed away long enough to be missed

and could pick up where he'd left off. But he was also trying out new styles. In addition to his

early love for acoustic soft rock, Brooks also loved

his share of flashy 70s hard rock, from Aerosmith to Queen. Having already turned a Billy Joel

...