“Don’t Happen Twice”
Kenny Chesney
Written by Curtis Lance and Thomas McHugh
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
June 1, 2001
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
June 9, 2001
His label did a great job with Greatest Hits, positioning Kenny Chesney well for his next act: country superstar who sings about tropical islands.
He was still pretty landbound here though, as “Don’t Happen Twice” captures Kenny Chesney at the moment he was modeling his entire career after Tim McGraw so blatantly it would make Linda Davis blush.
This single is the worst offender of that brief career era, a line by line rewrite of “Something Like That,” a hit that I find overrated to begin with. You can see the songwriters’ stitching everywhere. It feels less like a fully realized song and more like a Songwriting 101 class exercise.
Thankfully, Chesney’s superstardom will be peppered with a few truly great singles, and love ’em or hate ’em, all of the singles after this are going to sound like Kenny Chesney record, as this is his last big hit before he firmly establishes his own identity.
“Don’t Happen Twice” gets a C.
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There are a handful of massive country stars that I just don’t get the hype and Kenny is one of them. However, he always sings pretty well. I give this a “B-“.
At every stage of Kenny Chesney’s unlikely ascent to superstardom, I scratched my head and wondered what I was missing about this guy. It wasn’t as if there was a lot to hate aside from the occasional cringe novelty song (“She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”) or complete dud that should never have been allowed to occupy scarce space on the charts (“Keg in the Closet”), but there was little to justify him being a top-tier hitmaker. Even on his better songs, there was an air of familiarity to the storytelling or strict adherence to exhausted formulas done less well than the flagship versions, further beset by mediocre vocals and uninspired beats and melodies. I actually preferred when Chesney leaned into the beach vibe because at least it gave him an identity which I always found lacking in the first half dozen years of his career. And I’ll also compliment his songwriting whenever the subject matter was revisiting home, ironically nailed best on songs that he wrote that were hits for others (“Turning Home” by David Nail, “Half of My Hometown” by Kelsea Ballerini).
Kenny’s big hit in the spring of 2001 represented a perfect example of my confusion about why he was such a big deal. The video featuring Tim McGraw was an interesting anecdote as I’m surprised Tim didn’t strangle him rather than hug him for stealing his hit. I always considered “Something Like That” a textbook study of an uptempo first-time love song executed brilliantly, whereas Kenny’s ripoff was a textbook example of turning something shiny and polished into uninspired wallpaper. “Don’t Happen Twice” had everything “Something Like That” had except for energetic vocals, memorable lyrical touchstones, and an engaging beat. The guitar work during the bridge of “Don’t Happen Twice” was pretty good. I’ll pay it that much of a compliment.
After an extended stretch of solid #1s in a row in early 2001, the streak was bound to end at some point, and it definitely ended here.
Grade: C
“At every stage of Kenny Chesney’s unlikely ascent to superstardom, I scratched my head and wondered what I was missing about this guy.” – To be fair, can’t we say this about a lot of male country singers, not to mention our current President they all seem to love? Anyway, I think it just comes down to mediocre white men loving other mediocre white men.
Contemporary male country singers, at least those who rose to the level of superstardom, fit the profile you’re describing more than they did 25 years ago. Most of the stars back in 2001 impressed me more than Kenny Chesney did. But now, Chesney impresses me more than guys like Aldean and Hubbard.
Hmm…I (mostly) liked Chesney up to and including his Greatest Hits era. Once he went “supernova”, so to speak, I found him less enjoyable; the new template was in place, and he hasn’t
veered much from it since (though I can’t see he hasn’t released ANYTHING I haven’t enjoyed–I didn’t mind There Goes My Life and I liked Out Last Night quite a bit). As for Don’t Happen Twice, I wouldn’t place it fully in the “pass” column, but I preferred his prior single I Lost It far more.
Is there another artist whose Greatest Hits album was their true breakout like Kenny? Obviously he had enough hits from the 90s to warrant a GH package, but this took him to the next level. I wore this album out as a kid – I’m surprised I Lost It didn’t go #1 (it certainly did in my house). While nostalgia clouds my feelings for this song, I think the comparison to Something Like That is correct and not something I would have thought about at the time.
Chesney has a great ear for material. In the earlier phases of his career, he was able to mine sounds and eventually craft an identity that made him into the star, and now hall of famer, that he is. But also evident is that Chesney recorded many songs, hits or not, that were written by excellent songwriters and had greater lyrical depth. This song falls into the former category, but the artistic pivot is a more accurate reflection of him as an artist, and I find that side of Chesney more enjoyable on the whole. But I suppose as a Floridian, I find myself in settings where Chesney is the appropriate music more often than others.
I agree with Bob, I didn’t think this was derivative of “Something Like That”. It has a couple similarities, but none to the point I found it derivative to an “I Still Miss You”/”Every Time I Hear Your Name” level. And I dig the hook. I agree that “I Lost It” and “What I Need to Do” are better songs, and I applauded him for taking a chance on re-releasing “The Tin Man”, but this one just never felt bland or derivative to me.
This is a weird period for Kenny, as he was trying to break free of ’90s formulae but hadn’t yet settled on his beach bum persona yet. I think “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems” is the clear point where his current sound started to take hold.
I feel like I’m way too forgiving on Kenny Chesney at times. The only song of his I actively dislike is “The Boys of Fall”, and he’s had a few I feel are just bland, but this isn’t one of them. It works for me, and I struggle to articulate why.