"Die a Happy Man" is a song co-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

Thomas Rhett Thomas Rhett Akins Jr. (born March 30, 1990) is an American country music, country singer-songwriter. He is the oldest son of singer Rhett Akins. Rhett has released seven studio albums for Big Machine Records' Valory Music imprint: ''It Goes ...

. It was released on September 28, 2015, by Valory Music Group as the second single from his second studio album, '' Tangled Up''. Rhett wrote the song with Sean Douglas and Joe Spargur. American singer

Tori Kelly Victoria Loren Kelly (born December 14, 1992) is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained recognition on YouTube before making it through to Hollywood week on the ninth season of ''American Idol'' in 2010 and eventually releasing her debu ...

is featured on a pop remix included on the deluxe edition. The song peaked at number 21 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming his highest-charting single on that chart.

Content

"Die a Happy Man" is composed in the key of

D major D major is a major scale based on D (musical note), D, consisting of the pitches D, E (musical note), E, F♯ (musical note), F, G (musical note), G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, and C♯ (musical note), C. Its key signature has two S ...

, featuring a moderately slow tempo and a chord progression of D-Bm-G-D. The song features organ, acoustic guitar, and

steel guitar A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar i ...

. Rhett wrote the song about his wife,

Lauren Lauren is mostly a feminine given name. The name's meaning may be "laurel tree", "sweet of honor", or "wisdom". It is derived from the French name Laurence, a feminine version of Laurent, which is in turn derived from the Roman surname Laurent ...

, and said he was inspired by

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

's " Thinking Out Loud". According to an interview with Smooth Radio, he wrote the song with Sean Douglas and Joe Spargur while "in a parking lot in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

". The chorus of the song is similar to that of "Emerald Dream" by Niklas Johansson.

Reception

Critical

Billy Dukes of '' Taste of Country'' reviewed the song favorably, saying that "Thomas Rhett may have just released the love song of the year. "Die a Happy Man" is a slow burner that melts like candle wax. With just a few pulls from a blues-soaked guitar, the mood is set for this increasingly dynamic singer to heat up any room." ''Taste of Country'' and ''

American Songwriter ''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee. History The ''American Songwri ...

'' have both named "Die a Happy Man" as Rhett's best song.

Commercial

On the week of its release, the song debuted at number 17 on the

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. ...

chart, number 92 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 advertis ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

and number 41 on the

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since October 20, 2012, although the magazine also retrospectively recognizes the Hot Country Songs charts from January 20, 1990, through October 13, 2012, ...

chart, with 40,000 copies sold for the week. The second week, it rose to number 30 on the Country Airplay chart, and sold 33,000 copies. It reached number one on the Country Digital Songs chart in its third week, selling 39,000 copies. It topped the Hot Country Songs chart in its sixth week, and then topped the Country Airplay chart in January 2016, staying at number one on all three country charts simultaneously for multiple weeks. On the Country Airplay chart for the week of January 30, 2016, the song logged its fifth consecutive week at number one, making it the first song to spend more than four weeks at number one since Lady Antebellum's " Need You Now" stayed at the top for five weeks in 2009, and the first song by a solo male artist to spend five weeks at the top since

Kenny Chesney Kenneth Arnold Chesney (born March 26, 1968) is an American country singer. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, he released his debut, '' In My Wildest Dreams'', in 1994, and has since released 19 follow-ups. His albums spawned 27 singles tha ...

's " Never Wanted Nothing More" in August 2007. The following week, it topped the Country Airplay chart for a sixth and final week, becoming the first song to spend six weeks at number one since

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

's " Our Song" in December 2007 – January 2008. It peaked at number 21 on the Hot 100 for the week of January 2, 2016. The single was certified 2× Platinum on May 18, 2016, 3× Platinum on February 21, 2017 and by August 2021 was certified 7× Platinum. The single reached the one million download sales in February 2016. As of September 2017, "Die a Happy Man" had sold 1,914,000 downloads.

Music video

The music video was directed by TK McKamy and produced by Dan Atchison. The video was shot on location on the North Shore of

Oahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

at the same time as his video for "Vacation". It premiered in June 2015. Rhett's wife, Lauren, appears in the video.

Chart performance

"Die a Happy Man" topped the

chart on November 14, 2015. The song remained on top for seventeen weeks before being knocked off by " You Should Be Here" performed by Cole Swindell.

Thomas Rhett version

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Nelly version

"Die a Happy Man" was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of ...

by American rapper

Nelly Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and embarked on his musical career in 1993 as a member of the Midwest hip hop g ...

in 2016 and released as a single on February 5, 2016 by RECORDS and

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

. His version draws inspiration from

hip-hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

and

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

and employs

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

Commercial performance

His version debuted at number 83 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with first-week US sales of 35,000.

Track listing

*Digital download #"Die a Happy Man" — 3:34

Charts

Awards and nominations

References

{{authority control 2015 songs 2015 singles Country ballads 2010s ballads Thomas Rhett songs Big Machine Records singles Republic Records singles Epic Records singles Songs written by Thomas Rhett Song recordings produced by Dann Huff Music videos directed by TK McKamy Songs written by Sean Douglas (songwriter) Nelly songs 2016 singles Songs written by Joe London Pop ballads