"Body Like a Back Road" is a song co-written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Sam Hunt Sam Lowry Hunt (born December 8, 1984) is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Hunt played football in his high school and college years and once attempted to pursue a professional sports career before signing with MCA ...

. It was released to country radio, by MCA Nashville on February 2, 2017, as the lead single from his second studio album ''

Southside Southside or South Side may refer to: Places Australia * Southside, Queensland, a semi-rural locality in the Gympie Region Canada * South Side, Newfoundland and Labrador, a community in the St. George's Bay area on the southwest coast of Newf ...

''. The song is written by Hunt, Zach Crowell,

Shane McAnally Shane McAnally (born October 12, 1974) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. Originally a solo artist for Curb Records in 1999, McAnally charted three singles on Hot Country Songs, including the No. 31 " Are Y ...

and

Josh Osborne Josh Osborne (born c. 1980) is an American songwriter with several number-one singles to his credit. Early life Josh Osborne was born in Pike County, Kentucky, and raised in Virgie, Kentucky. Osborne grew up on US 23, renamed Country Music Hig ...

. It was released to American

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

radio on April 3, 2017, becoming his second

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

single promoted to a

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

format. The song is Hunt's most successful song to date. It broke two records within a month of one another; in early June 2017, the song was the longest running number one since

Leroy Van Dyke Leroy Frank Van Dyke (born October 4, 1929) is an American country music and honky-tonk singer and guitarist, best known for his hits " The Auctioneer" (1956) and " Walk on By" (1961). Biography Van Dyke was born in Mora, Missouri. He lived ...

's " Walk On By" 55 years earlier. With 20 weeks at number one on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

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 from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...

chart – this made Hunt the solo country artist with the second longest run at the top of the 59-year old Hot Country Songs chart. (Hank Snow's, " I'm Moving On" spent 21 weeks). The song broke records again in late July 2017, becoming the only song in the history of the Hot Country Songs chart to stay at number one for more than 24 weeks, a record previously held since 2012 by

Florida Georgia Line Florida Georgia Line is an American country music duo founded in 2010 by Tyler Hubbard of Georgia and Brian Kelley of Florida, both of whom are vocalists and songwriters. Their 2012 debut single "Cruise" broke two major sales records: it was d ...

's "

Cruise A cruise is any travel on a cruise ship. Cruise or Cruises may also refer to: Tourism * Booze cruise * Music cruise * River cruise Aeronautics and aircraft * Cruise (aeronautics), a distinct stage of an aircraft's flight * Aviasouz Cruise, a R ...

". The song spent a total of 34 weeks on top of the Hot Country Songs chart. Additionally, the song peaked at number six on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming Hunt's highest-charting single, and his first top 10 single overall, on that chart. With this peak, the song became the highest-charting country song on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 since "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line, which reached number four in 2013.

Background

The song was written by Hunt with his producer Zach Crowell, Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally. According to Hunt, the song was written after his engagement to Hannah Lee Fowler. Hunt described it as "a lighthearted song" as he wanted to release something lighter than the "heavy direction" that his new album was taking. Hunt said: "I connect music to the emotions that come from relationships, so most of the songs that I write are inspired by those circumstances, emotions, feelings, all that kind of stuff." He had previously broken up with Fowler, and wrote "Drinkin' Too Much" as an apology (the break-up also inspired a few other songs in ''

Montevallo Montevallo is a city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States. A college town, it is the home of the University of Montevallo, a public liberal arts university with approximately 3,000 students. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city ...

''). The couple got back together, and a few days after "Drinkin' Too Much" was released in January 2017, he announced their engagement.

Composition

The song is composed in the key of

F major F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor. The F major scale is: : F major is ...

with a tempo of 96–100 beats per minute.

Commercial performance

In the US, the song reached number one on the ''

chart and remained there for 34 consecutive weeks until it was knocked off by "

What Ifs "What Ifs" is a song recorded by American singer Kane Brown featuring fellow American singer Lauren Alaina for Brown's Kane Brown (album), self-titled debut album. The song was released with the album through RCA Records Nashville, RCA Nashville a ...

" performed by

Kane Brown Kane Allen Brown (born October 21, 1993) is an American singer. Brown first came to the attention of the public through social media. He released his first EP, titled '' Closer'', in June 2015, and followed it with a new single, "Used to Love Y ...

and

Lauren Alaina Lauren Alaina Kristine Suddeth (born November 8, 1994) is an American singer and songwriter from Rossville, Georgia. She was the runner-up on the tenth season of ''American Idol.'' Her debut studio album, ''Wildflower,'' was released on October ...

, breaking the record set by "

" by

for the most weeks atop the chart (24 weeks). The record was later broken by

Bebe Rexha Bleta Rexha (; born August 30, 1989), known professionally as Bebe Rexha ( ), is an American pop singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single " The Monster" (which lat ...

and

's collaboration " Meant to Be" which stayed atop the chart for 50 consecutive weeks. It is Hunt's longest chart-topping single, overtaking " Take Your Time", which stayed on top of the Hot Country Songs chart for 11 weeks. "Body Like a Back Road" also reached number one on the

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

chart and stayed at that spot for three consecutive weeks. On the week after Hunt's performance at the

ACM Awards The Academy of Country Music Awards, also known as the ACM Awards, were first held in 1966, honoring the industry's accomplishments during the previous year. It was the first country music awards program held by a major organization. The academy ...

, the song sold 70,000 copies and jumped up six places from number 12 to number six on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming Hunt's highest-charting single, and his first top 10 single overall, on that chart. With this peak, the song became the highest-charting country song on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 since "

" by

, which reached number four in 2013. The song also crossed over to pop radio. The song was certified 4× Platinum on October 16, 2017. It was the third best-selling song in the US in 2017, and the best-selling country song, with 1,818,000 copies (3,723,000 units including streams) sold in the year. It has sold 1,951,000 copies in the United States as of June 2018.

Criticism and critical reception

The song has however been in the midst of controversy and being called out by some reporters and neo-traditional country artists for lack of similarity to country music's "roots." Many also took issue with the comparison between a woman's body and a back road. The song has received generally negative reviews. Multiple critics have cited "Body Like a Back Road" as one of the worst songs of 2017.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Notes

References

{{authority control 2017 songs 2017 singles Sam Hunt songs MCA Nashville Records singles Songs written by Sam Hunt Songs written by Zach Crowell Songs written by Shane McAnally Songs written by Josh Osborne Billboard Hot Country Songs number-one singles of the year Billboard Country Airplay number-one singles of the year Songs about roads