Every No. 1 Single of the 2000s: Steve Holy, “Good Morning Beautiful”

 

 


“Good Morning Beautiful”

Steve Holy

Written by Todd Cerney and Zack Lyle

Radio & Records

#1 (5 weeks)

January 25 – February 22, 2002

Billboard

#1 (5 weeks)

February 2 – March 2, 2002

Last week, I saw Trisha Yearwood and Kane Brown shows on consecutive nights.

I’m going to write about those shows soon. I thought about them immediately when I got to “Good Morning Beautiful.” You see, Trisha Yearwood closed her show with a majestic encore that I genuinely felt privileged to have been in the room to have heard.

The next voice I heard after that was Ashley Cooke warbling “your place” to a half-filled arena. The poor girl never had a chance.

So here we have Steve Holy, who is very much not a one hit wonder. He was one of those zombie Curb artists who would keep releasing singles for years until another one sticks, and he has another chart-topper five years down the road.

But here he has to follow “Where Were You,” somehow matching the 9/11 memorial’s five weeks at No. 1. Holy also never had a chance, though he acquitted himself well enough with a perfectly fine ballad that has some nice fiddle work to accent his perfectly fine vocal performance.

It’s one of those ballads that was more about getting radio listeners to not turn the radio dial off before the commercial break, rather than giving them a reason to tune in. Ballads like this broke everyone from one hit wonders like James Bonamy to inevitable Hall of Famers like Keith Urban.

But you’re not going to see much of that again moving forward. Not after 9/11 and the God and Country era that eventually devolved into Bro and now Bruh Country. It sounds so quaint today, like a sleepy nursery rhyme spin on “Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.”

What more can I say?

“Good Morning Beautiful” gets a B.

Every No. 1 Single of the 2000s

Previous: Alan Jackson, “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”|

Next: Tim McGraw, “The Cowboy in Me”

YouTube player

Open in Spotify

17 Comments

  1. I think he’d have had something if he stuck with the rowdier Chris Isaak stylings he had on “Don’t Make Me Beg”. Other than Eric Heatherly’s fantastic turbo-charged cover of “Flowers on the Wall”, and much later on Jace Everett’s “Bad Things”, not a lot of country acts were swiping Isaak, but they made damn good songs every time they did.

    I used to hate this song, but I think it was a combination of 14-year-old me still getting the last “ew, romance is icky” out of my system and overplay of a merely pleasant and inoffensive song. You can hear how dated Wilbur C. Rimes’ production is at times, especially in the guitar solo, but I think that adds to the charm. I don’t think this would have worked as well with a glossy Dann Huff makeover.

    • I had no idea until I read it why Eric Heatherly’s cover of “Flowers On The Wall” resonates so much with me. I love the Statler original, of course, but there is something about that cover that sticks with me.

      Of course it’s the similarities to Chris Isaak. He’s one of my favourite artists.

      Very off topic, but I had to comment.

    • Eric Heatherly was another great unique talent that deserved better from radio. I love the whole 50s rockabilly vibe that he had, and I really enjoy his debut album, Swimming In Champagne. Besides that excellent Statler Brothers cover, I also really love the dreamy, moody title cut, as well, and wish it did better as a single.

      And man, was there a more cool sounding single from the mid 2000s than Jace Everett’s “Bad Things”? I absolutely loved it when I first saw its video on GAC. It would’ve been HUGE if I had my way. At least it was able to get tons of exposure from True Blood, though!

      • Oh yes! After discovering Eric Heatherly’s cover of Flowers On The Wall, I checked him out on Youtube and love the title cut of Swimming In Champagne as well.

  2. It’s gonna be hard for me to give this song a fair hearing because of my personal history with it. My girlfriend in 2017 and 2018 used this song as the ringtone of her alarm. Her preference was to set the alarm very early and keep hitting snooze for at least an hour. Every nine minutes every morning, I was awakened anew by the voice of Steve Holy. Needless to say, I’m still recovering from the trauma!

    Seriously though, I’m a bit saddened that Steve Holy’s two biggest hits were so unremarkable because he was versatile and a breath of fresh air who deserved better. He could have really been somebody if the center of gravity in the country music universe hadn’t shifted under his feet in the 2000s. “Good Morning Beautiful” is a perfectly serviceable love ballad that made for effective radio fodder but wasn’t the sharpest arrow in Holy’s quiver, which was made perfectly clear to me when my mom purchased his debut CD from the bargain bin a few years after its release. I had enjoyed the rockabilly vibe of “Don’t Make Me Beg” and really loved the silky-smooth “The Hunger” during its run on radio, but I didn’t have high expectations when I popped it in the CD player. I was stunned by how much I loved it. While Holy’s vocals were not on par with Orbison or Malo, he effectively powered through a number of songs that would have been right at home on a 90s Mavericks record as well as thundered through some rockers that sounded like “Man of Me”-era Gary Allan, capturing the vibe of both equally well. Holy kept trying to find his footing in the years to come and continued to make some valiant efforts that mostly went unheard, his legacy reduced to relative mediocrities.

    As generally ambivalent as I am to “Good Morning Beautiful”, I’m glad Steve Holy had a hit with it. It was a decent love song put in capable hands.

    Grade: B

  3. Are you sure you have the dates right here? I’m pretty sure Steve Holy’s time at #1 was in the early weeks of 2002, not late 2001.

    • Happens with cloud saves sometimes when I’m working on different devices. I duplicate the old posts for templates so when you see older dates or artwork or blurbs or anything like that, it just means something didn’t save when I switched devices. I appreciate the comments because it’s the flag to go back and fix it. I wouldn’t notice it otherwise.

  4. A pattern is setting up ahead of my post here that I didn’t see coming. Defending Steve Holy is going to be the third time I had to defend country music against some pretty harsh critics at this point in country music history. I had not had to do that since the ’80s.

    Admittedly, Curb had the most inept marketing team. Could Holy have been presented as being any more generic and nondescript? I weep when I think of Curb’s decision to sequentially title Merle Haggard’s albums “1994” and “1996” with the identical artwork.

    Another friend brutalized this album for how innocuous Holy looked in the cover art. I couldn’t convince him that Holy was a talented singer who deserved far better than he got. He was more than a capable artist. He refused to listen to the album which completely surprised me with its depth and energy, none of which was hinted at by this hit single.

    Just like MarkMinnesota, Holy invoked the Mavericks, which is no easy thing to do.

    This song is a song for lovers of a certain age. It is sweet, tender and adorable which also makes it simultaneously maudlin, sappy, and saccharine. Lessor songs have launched larger careers. In many ways, this should have been Holy’s launching pad.

    Instead, Curb functionally grounded him before take-off.

  5. Curb never gave any country act much promotional push. I actually purchased the BLUE MOON album as a cut-out BEFORE “Good Morning Beautiful” made its chart run. “Good Morning Beautiful” originslly was not on the BLUE MOON album – it was added as a “bonus track” when Curb reissued the album when “Good Morning Beautiful” became a hit.

    It is not a great song but it is nicely executed – worth a B+

    • I remember hearing Steve Holy say on American Country Countdown that record stores were actually returning unsold/returned copies of the album to Curb because they saw “Holy” and thought he was a Christian singer.

  6. I really adore this song, and it was one of my favorites that was on the radio during late 2001/early 2002. I’ve always had a strong liking for sweet, tender love ballads with pretty melodies that almost resemble lullabies, and the gradual decline of such songs being heard on the radio by the middle of the decade is just one of the many things that made me start to lose interest in country radio around that time. The “softy” in me just overall prefers these kind of songs over the chest thumping, aggressive country pride/patriotic and partying anthems that would soon take over the airwaves.

    One thing I loved about “Good Morning Beautiful” right away was how charmingly “behind the times” it sounded. Sonically and melodically, it reminded me of a kind of country ballad I could still hear regularly on the radio in the mid-late 90s, and I especially loved how Wilber Rimes’ production was full of reverb. I always liked hearing the reverb in Steve’s vocals throughout the song, especially when he sings “I can face the daaaawn” in the first verse. In a time when “dry” vocals with very little to no echo was becoming the current trend, Holy’s reverb heavy vocals almost felt like a throwback to early 90s country to me, which was a good thing. I just loved how echoey the entire song sounded, in general. I could picture it being played in a huge fancy auditorium. I especially always loved the piano solo in the instrumental break, and I could always picture my then choir teacher in high school, Mr. Goodwyn, waving his wand around in the air as that piano played, the same way like he always did in our classes. I also love the unique, cool sounding electric guitar solo, and I kind of have to disagree with Bobby about it sounding dated, because to me that’s one of the only parts of the song that actually sounds more modern and “futuristic” in an early 2000s way. That solo actually kind of reminds me of the equally cool guitar solo in Gary Allan’s “I’ll Take Today.”

    I also just love how simple and sweet “Good Morning Beautiful” is lyrically with nothing suggestive about it, which is very refreshing to my ears today, where it seems like in current mainstream country, almost all love songs end up being sex jams. In this song, the formerly unhappy narrator is just simply telling his significant other how much better his life is now that she’s in it, and that he now actually looks forward to waking up every morning because she’ll be there with him. It’s a sweet, relatable sentiment, and Holy delivers it in a soft and tender, sincere performance that’s very soothing and comforting. And I especially always loved how he sang “I never worry if it’s raining outside, cause in here with you, girl, the sun always shiiiiiines!” during the bridge. That part still always puts a smile on my face to this day! :)

    I also really enjoy the music video to “Good Morning Beautiful,” and just like the song itself, there’s a simple and sweet charm to it. I especially always love the pillow fight, which brings a certain innocence to it that’s very charming. The video itself is also very cool looking, and despite the song bringing to mind a cozy bedroom, I love how metallic and futuristic everything looks from the couple’s fancy bed, the clothes they’re wearing, and even Steve’s sleek and shiny outfit during his “performance” shots. Another favorite part of the video for me is when that metal wall suddenly opens up during the futuristic sounding guitar solo, and out comes this red light, almost like a laser. Again, it’s just so cool looking in a futuristic way, and it’s something you don’t see too much in other country videos. It just one example of how I feel like a lot of stuff in the early 2000s looked a lot more progressive and futuristic than what we’ve been getting in the last 20 years. On another note, this is also when I noticed that Steve’s poses and “singing stance” kind of reminds me of Tim McGraw’s.

    Not only was it very thrilling for me to see “Good Morning Beautiful” do so well on the charts because I loved the song, but it was also refreshing to see Steve Holy finally being rewarded with an actual hit after feeling like he was not being given enough recognition with his previous singles, “The Hunger,” “Blue Moon,” and “Don’t Make Me Beg,” all of which I also enjoyed. I knew this was a pretty big hit for him, but I didn’t realize it was a five week stay at the top, which is pretty darn impressive for both a song like this that didn’t exactly fit the post 9/11 mood and for a new artist whose first three singles were only modest hits. While sweet love songs like this were sadly becoming less common on the radio as the decade went on, “Good Morning Beautiful” did thankfully remain a relatively strong recurrent for us on WFLS even into the mid 2000s.

    This song was always a favorite of my dad’s as well, and we’d always enjoy it whenever it came on the radio while we were together in his car. It was even on a karaoke CD that my parents bought from Target in the mid 2000s, and it was one of the songs my dad liked singing for karaoke during that time, lol.

    In the Fall of 1999 and Winter of early 2000, my dad and I also always enjoyed hearing Steve’s “Don’t Make Me Beg” whenever it came on the radio, and my dad especially always liked singing along to the echoing backup vocalists in each chorus, lol. I remember the first time I heard it one night in my bedroom during the Fall of ’99 before falling asleep, and it was one of those random, cool surprising moments in which I was getting to hear something fresh and unique. The swinging, almost jazz like arrangement, Steve’s smooth charming vocals, and the choruses with the backup vocals echoing him were like nothing I’d heard on country radio before. It was such a cool way to introduce Steve to the mainstream country audience, and I still wish it was a bigger breakthrough hit for him. “Don’t Make Me Beg” still takes me back to that time in late 1999 not long after my parents and I saw the movie End Of Days with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gabriel Byrne and when my parents and I were going to Olive Garden regularly for dinner on Friday nights. Before I even knew what Steve looked like, I used to picture him looking like Gabriel Byrne in that long black coat after having seen that movie, lol. Now that I do know what he looks like, he kind of resembles Tim Robbins to me.

    I also really loved “The Hunger,” and I remember hearing that one for the first time during my freshman year in high school. Again, it sounded so different than anything else on the radio, and I especially loved the opening guitar line immediately. It just has such a cool vibe to it for a mid tempo contemporary number, and the melody is one that can stay in your head forever. The lyrics are also very relatable, and I love the detailed, storytelling aspect of it that makes you care about the two characters it centers around. I remember being pretty disappointed at how low it peaked on the charts.

    My dad and I also really enjoyed “I’m Not Breakin’,” Steve’s follow up release to “Good Morning Beautiful,” later in 2002. Once again, it was a song that blew me away the very first time I heard it on the radio, and it was one I couldn’t wait to hear again, similar to how I felt about Gary Allan’s “Smoke Rings In The Dark” when I first heard it. It’s funny that Bobby brought up the Chris Isaak similarities, because when my dad heard the song the first couple times, he’d say it sounded like Isaak. I’ve personally always loved it when country artists showed influences from people like Chris Isaak and Roy Orbison, and sadly it seemed like that was already becoming less trendy in the mainstream by 2002, as “I’m Not Breakin'” was yet another disappointing chart performance in Holy’s career. On the times I did get to hear it on the radio, though, it was always so good to hear, and those falsetto vocals and moody guitar licks would always be so satisfying. Diamond Rio’s “Beautiful Mess” and Gary Allan’s “Man To Man” are the last Isaak/Orbison influenced style of songs that I remember ever being successful on country radio.

    And like others here have already mentioned, Steve Holy’s debut album, Blue Moon, is full of great hidden gems that one would not expect to hear if they had only heard “Good Morning Beautiful.” I love how it covers a lot of different ground stylistically while still presenting Holy with his own unique style. I also remember being blown away by just how many of the songs I enjoyed on it and how unique it sounded, overall, when I picked up a cheap copy of it at Walmart in the mid 2000s. Besides the singles, some of my other favorites on it are the Orbison flavored “Just A Kiss,” the James House/Dean Miller penned honky tonker, “Tear One,” the ultra cool swinging “Someone’s Out To Get Me,” “Cold Kisses,” “One Beat At A Time,” “You’re Gonna Miss My Love,” and “She’s So.” It was an album that was so refreshing to me in the mid 2000s, and these were the kind of songs that I wished I could’ve still been hearing on the radio.

    Steve just had a great sound and style going on at the time, and it’s just too bad the rapidly changing landscape of mainstream country in the post 9/11 2000s pretty much made him switch to a more play it safe approach after “I’m Not Breakin'” underperformed. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy any of his subsequent releases, though. I especially also love his 2004 release, “Put Your Best Dress On,” which again, probably would’ve done a lot better in the late 90s when there were more such classy, romantic ballads coming out. Unfortunately, I won’t be having the same level of enthusiasm for Holy’s next number one coming up later, but at the time, I was happy to see him finally get another hit.

    • “I’m Not Breaking” was fantastic. You’re right about the Isaak/Orbison vibe. I invoked The Mavericks in my review which I’d put in the same orbit as Isaak and Orbison. When “I’m Not Breaking” didn’t catch on even after the momentum from “Good Morning Beautiful”, it was clear country radio was determined to go in a very different place than the vibe Steve Holy trafficked in. A real shame.

      As for that debut album, “Cold Kisses”, “Just a Kiss”, and “Tear One” all seemed like they could have been comfortable fits on a Mavericks album. “The Hunger” and “Don’t Make Me Beg” were their own unique vibes that, as you say, both sounded fresh and unique to country radio. “You’re Gonna Miss My Love” was a stone-cold rocker. But my favorite cut of the album was “Someone’s Out to Get Me”, which managed to be playful and unsettling at the same time with that dope arrangement.

      Sad to think that this could have been the flavor of 2000s country music, in sharp contrast to what we ended up getting.

      • I honestly thought for the longest time that “Good Morning Beautiful” was Steve Holy’s debut single until a local station went through a spell in 2005 where they were playing “Don’t Make Me Beg” at least once a day for weeks on end and I went, “Oh yeah, THAT song, that was cool!”

        • Bobby, it sounds like you actually had a pretty cool station, which is a lot more than I can say about our two main stations by the mid 2000s, which pretty much followed what was popular. We did have WKIK out in Southern Maryland that similarly played many recurrents from the 90s that most all other stations had forgotten about. They didn’t always come in good, since it was a long way from us, but on the times it did, it was always refreshing.

          My dad also had a similar reaction to hearing “Don’t Make Me Beg” again when I played Steve’s CD in his car one night. He was like “I haven’t heard that in forever!” :)

      • Mark, I could not agree with you any more! I already felt that way about Steve’s debut in the mid 2000s after I picked up a copy. I remember thinking “Why can’t I be hearing stuff like THIS anymore on the radio?!” That radio was no longer interested in supporting songs and artists with that certain rockabilly, Chris Isaak/Roy Orbison vibe, or heck almost anyone with an original, unique sound, by the mid 2000s was yet another reason why I resented country radio during that time. Even Gary Allan, who had mostly fit in that same lane, was slowly pivoting away from that style by the middle of the decade, at least as far as singles went. By the way, I love your Mavericks comparisons, as someone who is a big fan of theirs, especially their 90s work.

  7. I’m pleasantly surprised by all the Steve Holy praise here! I do think he was a great singer and elevates a middling song lyrically here into something more enjoyable. I agree with Jamie that the production here invokes a scene of light shining through a bedroom window in the morning to wake someone up.

Leave a Reply to Bobby Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.


*