In an Oct. 14, 2008, statement to fans, the platinum-selling Tim McGraw shared that he was both “saddened and disappointed that my (Curb Records) label chose to put out another hits album instead of new music.”
According to McGraw’s Web site, the singer had been working on new a new studio album for more than a year and had debuted three new songs on his latest “Live Your Voice Tour” tour. It was his “desire to have the new record out this fall,” contended the online statement, “but Curb wanted to release a greatest-hits CD to extend McGraw’s recording contract term.”
Tim McGraw and Curb Records: A History of Marketing Country-Music Hits
A recording artist with Curb throughout his professional career, McGraw experienced his first commercial-radio breakthrough in 1994 with Indian Outlaw, a single that peaked at No. 8 on the U.S. country charts. Since that time, the 41-year-old has—among other career feats—sold more than 40 million albums to date, scored 31 No. 1 singles on Billboard’s country charts and his “Soul2Soul II” tour with wife/country star Faith Hill became the highest-grossing tour in country music history.
Nevertheless, the three-time Grammy-winning vocalist isn’t keen on the timing of Curb executives’ decision to release what is his third greatest-hits package.
“I’ve only had one studio album since my last hits package,” McGraw said in his Oct. 14 statement. “It has to be just as confusing to the fans as it is to me. I had no involvement in the creation or presentation of this record.
“Sure I love the songs and I don’t want to take anything away from all the creative people who were a part of making those records,” he noted. “But the whole concept is an embarrassment to me as an artist.”
Then, referring to Curb Records, McGraw added, “In the spirit of an election year, I would simply say to my fans 'I’m Tim McGraw and I don’t approve their message.'"
Curb Records Executive Vice President and General Manger Dennis Hannon disagreed with McGraw’s Oct. 14 statement that the singer/sometime actor had no involvement in the latest hits compilation’s release. And in his own statement, Hannon declared he did communication with McGraw's representatives regarding all aspects of Greatest Hits 3.
Greatest Hits CD: Record Executive Talks Country-Music Sales
Curiously, while McGraw’s statement made no mention of the new CD’s sales, Hannon stirred things up a bit, saying, "We share Tim McGraw's disappointment with the first week's sales levels, and we acknowledge that unfortunately the week that this album was released was right at the peak of the collapse of the economic and finance markets.”
Hannon’s statement went on to report the label is planning to “work hard to try to take the current single, Let It Go, to No. 1 in hopes that the economic climate is improving and that sales will also improve.”
According to the U.S. country charts, however, McGraw’s third hits package, even if it was released without his blessing, was the top-selling country CD in the nation as of Oct. 16, 2008, with more than 44,000 copies sold its first week of release, making it the 11th album of McGraw’s career to debut at No. 1 on America’s country album charts.
Regarding Curb’s decision to release the hits CD, Dr. Geoff Hull, an attorney and professor emeritus in the recording industry department at Middle Tennessee State University, said that in most cases, the label would have the right to release a greatest-hits package, although the timing and frequency of such things may have been dealt with in the contracts.
Nashville Record Label No Stranger to Country-Music Controversy
“Curb did a similar thing a few years ago with a LeAnn Rimes album,” Hull observed. “They released a bunch of things that she had ‘in the can’ but had not previously been released. She objected because she, like McGraw, wanted the new studio album to be released. (But) whether that made any difference in sales or not is difficult to say.”
In most instances such as this, Hull added, “The label would view this as a marketing decision that they should have control over.” Moreover, record labels also “definitely want a ‘new’ album out from one of their top artists during the holiday-buying season,” he noted, and Curb’s ensured they have McGraw product in time for the approaching peak holiday season; never mind the country-music controversy.
McGraw’s first Greatest Hits CD was released in 2000. It topped the charts for nine weeks and sold 6 million copies. His second greatest-hits package, Tim McGraw Reflected: Hits Vol. 2, was released March 28, 2006, and has sold 2.2 million copies. With its Oct. 7, 2008, release, Greatest Hits 3 debuted at No. 1 and No. 2 on the U.S. and Canadian country album charts, respectively.
While the latest 12-song hits package contains no new material from the Louisiana native, it does boast a live version of one of his prior hits, Real Good Man, as well as two collaborative singles, Find Out Who Your Friends Are, a former No. 1 number with fellow country singers Tracy Lawrence and Kenny Chesney, and Nine Lives, a track he cut with British rockers Def Leppard that’s included on that band’s latest album release, The Sparkle Lounge.
Sources
“McGraw’s greatest is top selling country CD,” Country Standard Time, Oct. 15, 2008.
Personal communication, Geoff Hull, Oct. 21, 2008.
Tim McGraw Web site, Oct. 14, 2008, statement to fans. Retrieved Oct. 21, 2008, from www.timmcgraw.com.
Tim McGraw, Wikipedia. Retrieved Oct. 21, 2008.
Lisa L. Rollins - Texas native Lisa L. Rollins, Ph.D., is an award-winning feature writer, interviewer and journalism educator.
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