“Georgia Woods”, along with this, are the only two tracks he has consistently featured in his live set list. And I think he knows as well as we do that “Georgia Woods” wouldn’t work as a single, since it’s the outro guitar solo that really makes the track stand out, much like “Stupid Boy” has enjoyed staying power for its bleeding-heart outro. His own fans would be infuriated if that outro were cut out in a radio edit.

Knowing Urban’s dichotomous appeal as a homegrown guitar hero and a hopeless romantic balladeer, you would assume “All For You” would be released to keep consistent with the rocker-ballad-rocker-ballad caterpillar trend. Yet he released three consecutive mid-to-up-tempo singles between the “18 Kids” and early-”Defying Gravity” cycles, and two of the three were chart-toppers. So I have a hunch “You Gonna Fly” is following. I do like that song’s production in that it feels “swampier” by his standards if that makes any sense, with the banjo and steam-rising-over-the-water kind of electric guitar crunches in the intro…….while lyrically I’m not as enthused.

Honestly, if anything, I’m surprised some of the lyrics haven’t set off even the slightest bit of vocal curiosity. Given how touchy country radio programmers are about the sensuality and innuendos in countless tracks, I bet in the back of some of their minds the title “Long Hot Summer” got them thinking the wrong thing, especially when considering the mentioning of things “starting to rise” in the latter part of the first verse. I can even envision Urban and Marx blushing over a possible interpretation of the title, and then compulsively toning the rest of the writing down to make it sound more poetically puppy-love, as with the latter two lines in the chorus.

Then again, I may just have the sole dirty mind here.

It was already an obvious and well-seasoned tailor-made-for-radio track on album. The three main changes I noticed between the album version and the single edit are:

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1) The fade-out at the end of the song (I too rather like the electric guitar strumming closes out the track)

2) Urban’s phrasing entering the second chorus (the way he utters “gonna be a…” at a higher register, as opposed to a lower note in the original take)

3)How the acoustic guitar stands out ostensibly at the beginning of the final chorus, as opposed to the album version where, though it softens musically at that moment, isn’t as dramatic.

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I’m inclined to favor the album version vocal more, but these edits nonetheless won’t hurt this track’s momentum or my opinions of this single none. It’s still likely headed for the top spot.