"Sissy's Song" is a song written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer

Alan Jackson Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is known for performing a style widely regarded as "neotraditional country", as well as writing many of his own songs. Jackson has recorded 21 studi ...

. It was released in March 2009 as the fourth single from his album '' Good Time'', and his fifty-sixth single release overall (and to date his last top ten hit). Jackson wrote the song after the sudden death of a housekeeper that worked at his house.

Composition

"Sissy's Song" is an acoustic mid-tempo country ballad, written by Jackson as a tribute to a housekeeper named Leslie "Sissy" Fitzgerald, who worked daily at Jackson's house. Jackson wrote the song after Sissy died in a motorcycle accident on May 20, 2007. He then went to the recording studio, and working with longtime producer

Keith Stegall Robert Keith Stegall (born November 1, 1955) is an American country music recording artist and record producer. Active since 1980, Stegall has recorded two major-label studio albums: 1985's ''Keith Stegall'' and 1996's ''Passages'', although he ...

, made a recording of the song with just his vocals and

steel-string acoustic guitar The steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar that descends from the gut-strung Romantic guitar, but is strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound. Like the modern classical guitar, it is often referred to simply ...

to be played for the family at her funeral. The song expresses Jackson's feeling for Sissy, in addition to hoping that "she flew up to heaven on the wings of angels."

Critical reception

Karlie Justus, of Engine 145, gave the song a "thumbs up" rating. She said that the song was both "deeply personal and universally relatable", and that it showed his sense for simplicity and authenticity. However, she considered some of the lyrics stilted and cliché in nature. Lynn Douglas, reviewing the song for Country Universe, gave it a B+ rating. She described the song as "a reflective and moving experience."

Music video

The song's

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

was directed by Scott Scovill. It is shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

and is at a church and it features footage of Jackson performing the song. It was shot in a historic church, located south of Nashville.

Chart performance

"Sissy's Song" debuted at number 45 on the U.S. ''Billboard''

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

for the chart week of February 28, 2009.

References

External links

Music video
at CMT {{Alan Jackson singles 2009 singles Alan Jackson songs Songs written by Alan Jackson Commemoration songs Country ballads Song recordings produced by Keith Stegall Arista Nashville singles Black-and-white music videos 2008 songs