"That Summer" 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 ...

artist

Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American Country music, country singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him his immense popularity, particularly in the United States, ...

. It was released in April 1993 as the fourth and final single from his album '' The Chase'' and also appears on ''

The Hits The Hits was a music video Television channel, channel broadcast in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, owned by Box Television. On 15 August 2008 it was rebranded as 4Music. Overview and availability The channel showcased a ra ...

'', ''

The Ultimate Hits ''The Ultimate Hits'' is the third compilation album by American country music artist Garth Brooks, released by Pearl Records on November 6, 2007. The 3-disc set, composed of two compact discs comprising 34 songs, four of which were new: " Mor ...

'', ''The Limited Series'' and '' Double Live''. It reached number-one on the ''Billboard'' Country Charts in 1993. The song was written by Brooks,

Pat Alger Patrick J. Alger (born September 23, 1947, in LaGrange, GeorgiaCarlin 2003, p. 3.) is an American country music songwriter, singer and guitarist and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (2010) and the Georgia Music Hall of ...

, and Brooks' then-wife Sandy Mahl.

Background and writing

On the 1996 television special, ''The Garth Brooks Story'', Garth talks about writing the song:

''"That Summer started out as a single guy and a married woman meeting at a party. The married woman being ignored by whom she was with, and they snuck off together. Allen Reynolds told me, "Man, I just don't find myself pulling for these characters. It doesn't seem innocently cool." I was thinking that he was right. Going home that night in the truck I started singing she has a need to feel the thunder. Sandy started helping me write the chorus and we got the chorus done. Probably one of the neat things that I love about That Summer is that I think the song is very sexy."''

Content

The song is about a teenage boy "far from home" who goes to work for a "lonely widowed woman hellbent to make it on her own". The woman apparently lives on a wheat farm ("wheat fields as far as I could see"). The apparently much older woman slowly takes a liking to the young boy, to the point where one night she dons a dress "she hadn't worn in quite a while"; it is then implied by the rest of the second verse that the teenage boy loses his virginity by having sex with the more than willing older woman. The third verse takes the now-adult man back to the scene of his

coming of age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

, having not seen the woman (who has presumably died by then) since long ago. Although the man has been with several other women by this point, he still experiences flashbacks to his experience with the older woman.

Charts

"That Summer" debuted at number 54 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of May 8, 1993.

Background and writing

Content

Charts

Year-end charts

References

See also