"What a Beautiful Day" 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

Chris Cagle Christopher Norris Cagle (born November 10, 1968) is an American country music artist. He was first known for writing songs for David Kersh before signing to Virgin Records Nashville in 2000. Cagle made his debut on ''Billboard (magazine), Bill ...

. It was released in November 2002 as the lead single from his self-titled album. The song reached the top 5 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 Singles & Tracks 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, peaking at number 4 and also peaked at number 41 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, making it a minor crossover hit. It was written by Cagle and

Monty Powell Monty Powell (born June 1, 1961) is an American country music songwriter best known for collaborating with Keith Urban, and for producing albums by Diamond Rio. Powell's first songwriting credit was a jingle for an Allstate commercial. After movi ...

Content

The song is a moderate up-tempo mostly accompanied by

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

. It describes a day-by-day chronicle of a man and woman who meet, eventually falling in love and marrying. It starts with day one, on which the two lovers met; day two, where they "grabbed a bite to eat and talked all afternoon"; day fourteen, where they watch a movie together; and so forth. Throughout the rest of the song, various random days throughout the relationship are highlighted in a similar fashion, most notably in the bridge, where the singer looks forward to a long marriage with his lover ("Day eighteen thousand, two hundred and fifty-three / Well, that's fifty years — yeah, here's to you and me").

Music video

The music video was co-directed by Eric Welch and Chris Cagle and premiered in early 2003.

Chart performance

"What a Beautiful Day" debuted at number 58 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart for the week of November 9, 2002. It re-entered the chart at number 57 as an official single for the week of November 23, 2002.

Year-end charts

References

2002 songs 2002 singles Chris Cagle songs Songs written by Chris Cagle Capitol Records Nashville singles Songs written by Monty Powell {{2000s-country-song-stub