"Last Dollar (Fly Away)" is a song written by

Big Kenny William Kenneth Alphin (born November 1, 1963), best known by his stage name Big Kenny, is an American country music singer. He and John Rich (musician), John Rich comprise the duo Big & Rich, who recorded four studio albums and charted fifteen s ...

, one half of the duo

Big & Rich Big & Rich is an American country music duo composed of Big Kenny and John Rich, both of whom are songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists. Before the duo's foundation, Rich was bass guitarist in the country band Lonestar, while Kenny was a sol ...

, 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 ...

artist

Tim McGraw Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. He has released 17 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, five for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those albums have reached number one on ...

. It was released in January 2007 as the first single from his album ''

Let It Go "Let It Go" is a song from Disney's 2013 computer-animated feature film '' Frozen'', whose music and lyrics were composed by husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The song was performed in its original show ...

''. "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" reached 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 advertis ...

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, becoming McGraw's first Number One country hit since " Back When" in late 2004. Big Kenny later recorded the song for his 2010 album, ''Big Kenny's Love Everybody Traveling Musical Medicine Show Mix Tape, Vol. 1''.

Background

William Kenneth Alphin, otherwise known as

, one-half of country rock duo

, wrote "Last Dollar" after a disastrous night of gambling in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

in 2002. He and his manager were in the city as part of the

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

farewell tour. Alphin had $200 to his name and $140,000 in credit card debt, and in hopes of increasing his cash on hand, he went to the blackjack tables. At one point, he had won nearly $1,000, but instead of stopping, he continued to play. Eventually, he lost all but $21. He gave the dealer a $20 tip, leaving Alphin with literally his last dollar. "That night as I looked down at the sole breaking off of my shoe it hit me like a ton of bricks," Alphin said. "But with that realization came the freedom of knowing that I also had nothing to lose." From that point, Alphin's career took off, both as a songwriter and as part of the duo

. Several years after the incident, he played some of his songs for McGraw. "I'll never forget the day I played him the song," Alphin said. "We were at Blackbird Studio and Tim was making a new album. As we sat together in my truck, I played him a couple of the songs that I was recording. The second song I played was "Last Dollar." He looked over at me and said, "Are you gonna let me record that?"

Content

The song is an up-tempo in the key of

E Major E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat maj ...

. Its lyrics take the point of view of a man who is "down to islast dollar", but still in a positive mood ("One, two, three, like a bird I sing / 'Cause you've given me the most beautiful set of wings"). McGraw's daughters, Gracie, Maggie, and Audrey, sing on the song's final chorus. When Alphin heard McGraw's final version, with the children joining in at the end, "I nearly lost it," he said. "That moment of reflection in Las Vegas all that time ago gave me the hope to keep going and now five years later, that hope is a hit song for my friend Tim McGraw."

Critical reception

Kevin John Coyne, reviewing the song for Country Universe, gave it a B rating. He said the song is "a wry twist on the 'I’m poor, but rich because I have you' nonsense that often passes for a love song in country music." He then added that the only problem with the single is the high number of production tricks.

Music video

The music video is partially a live video, and was directed by Sherman Halsey, and it premiered on CMT on New Year's Day 2007. At the end, his kids, and his wife

Faith Hill Audrey Faith McGraw (; born September 21, 1967), known professionally as Faith Hill, is an American Country music, country singer. She is one of the most successful country music artists of all time, having sold almost 50 million albums worldwide ...

are shown, as well as producer

Byron Gallimore Byron Gallimore (born in Puryear, Tennessee) is an American record producer known for his work in the field of country music. He has worked with artists Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sugarland, Lee Ann Womack, and Jo Dee Messina. Faith Hill's 1999 albu ...

and his kids. The video is very grainy and many of the shots are vintage-looking or very blurry. A 1940s style camera was used for the filming.

Track listing

US promotional CD single Curb CURBD-2015 # "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" Album Version 4:29 # "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" Radio Edit 3:57 # Suggested Callout Research Hook :10

Chart performance

"Last Dollar (Fly Away)" debuted at number 50 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs for the week of January 13, 2007. The song reached Number One on the ''

'' US Hot Country Songs chart dated April 14, 2007."Country Standard Time: Tim McGraw checks in at number one on Billboard overall, country music charts"
/ref> "Last Dollar" also entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 81 on April 7, 2007; one week later, it reached its peak at number 13 on that chart.

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

"Last Dollar (Fly Away)"
video at CMT.com {{authority control 2007 singles 2007 songs Tim McGraw songs Songs written by Big Kenny Song recordings produced by Byron Gallimore Song recordings produced by Tim McGraw Curb Records singles Music videos directed by Sherman Halsey