"I Loved Her First" is the debut song 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 ...

band Heartland. It was released in June 2006 as the first single title track from their debut studio album '' I Loved Her First'' (2006). The song reached Number One 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. ...

charts in late 2006, the band's only number-one hit and only Top 40 hit on that chart. The song was written by

Walt Aldridge James Walton Aldridge Jr. (born November 12, 1955, in Florence, Alabama) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, engineer and record producer. Aldridge is known primarily as a Muscle Shoals songwriter, having had songs recorded by a divers ...

and Elliott Park.

Content

The song is a mid-tempo ballad in

triple meter Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row ...

. In it, the male narrator is talking to the man who is about to marry his daughter, telling him that he is having difficulty giving her away because he "loved her first." The song is a signature Father-Daughter song to dance to at wedding receptions for numerous brides and their fathers.

Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price, of ''

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 ...

'' magazine reviewed the song favorably, calling it a "beautifully written tearjerker that will hit home with dads everywhere who can't believe their little girls have grown up so soon." She calls Albert's performance "wonderful" and says that it "wrings every drop of emotion from the tender lyric."''

'', July 29, 2006

Music video

The music video was directed by Todd Schaffer and premiered in mid-2006. It features the group singing and a family at a wedding reception.

Chart performance

"I Loved Her First" debuted at number 57 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of July 8, 2006. Driven by a

viral video Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...

of a father singing the ballad in sign language at his daughter's wedding, it reappeared on the chart almost nine years later at number 7 on the chart dated February 21, 2015. The song has sold over one million copies.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2000s ballads 2006 songs 2006 debut singles Songs written by Walt Aldridge Heartland (band) songs Lofton Creek Records singles Country ballads Songs about marriage