Garth Brooks Took the Message of ‘The Dance’ to Heart
Garth Brooks is country music royalty. The singer has a successful career, and even after taking a creative break, he returned stronger than before. Brooks has had several hits throughout his career, and perhaps to this day, his song “The Dance” remains his most popular. The singer revealed that he took the message of “The Dance” to heart.
Garth Brooks is the only artist to have achieved diamond status on 9 albums
Garth Brooks’ road to success wasn’t an easy one. The singer began his career by playing at clubs and bars in Oklahoma. Brooks was fond of rock music, with James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg being his major influences, but his decision to stick to country music came in 1981 when he heard George Strait’s “Unwound.”
Brooks released his self-titled debut album in 1989, which was a commercial success. The album charted second place on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and was No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album produced “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),” a Country Top 10 success.
The album also had “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” “The Dance,” and “Not Counting You,” which were all critical and commercial successes. “Not Counting You” reached No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs chart while “The Dance” reached No.1. The eponymous album exposed Brooks to a larger audience, and his second album, No Fences, gave him even more fame.
No Fences spent 23 weeks at the top of the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It also reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and became the singer’s highest-selling album. Brooks has 13 studio albums and, as of 2020, has sold 156 million domestic units.
He is one of the world’s best-selling music artists, with 170 million records on his notch. He is also the only artist in history to have nine albums that reached diamond status in the U.S. The Beatles previously held the record with six albums.
Garth Brooks took the message of ‘The Dance’ to heart
“The Dance” was written by songwriter Tony Arata who felt inspired after watching Peggy Sue Got Married. The 1986 film follows a woman who travels back in time to her high school days to try and change her future’s outcome but realizes every decision she makes leads her to the present.
Arata tried pitching the song to different artists in Nashville, but nobody wanted to touch it due to its unusual subject matter. However, when Garth Brooks heard Arata perform the song at the Bluebird Café, he asked to cut it once he signed his record deal. The song was a commercial success and skyrocketed Brooks to fame. The singer even claimed that “The Dance” is his favorite out of all his songs.
In a 2021 interview with CBS This Morning featured on YouTube, Brooks explained that he took the message of “The Dance” to heart. The singer told host Gayle King that during his early days in the spotlight, he made some questionable decisions that he wished he could take back. However, looking back, he says that he doesn’t want to change anything in the past if it meant changing his life in the present.
Garth Brooks retired from music but came back even stronger
Immense fame can take its toll on a person, and Garth Brooks, having been in the spotlight for a decade, felt it firsthand. The singer felt a pull between his career and family, and he knew something had to give. Brooks retired from music in 2001 to care for his family but returned in 2005.
During his retirement, Brooks signed an exclusive distribution deal with Walmart that saw him sell millions of album units while releasing new singles, albeit irregularly. In 2009 he did a concert residency that lasted until 2014 and went on a joint world tour with his wife Trisha Yearwood after the residency.
