Chains (Patty Loveless song)

"Chains"
Loveless performing "Chains" on the Ralph Emery "Nashville Now" show on The Nashville Network
Single by Patty Loveless
from the album Honky Tonk Angel
A-side	Chains
B-side	I'm On Your Side
Released	December 1989
Format	7"
Recorded	May 1988
Genre	Country
Length	2:27
Label	MCA Records 53764
Writer(s)	Hal Bynum Bud Reneau
Producer	Tony Brown
Patty Loveless singles chronology
"The Lonely Side of Love" (1989) "Chains" (1989) "On Down the Line" (1990)

"Chains" is a single release by Patty Loveless, recorded at MCA/Nashville in the spring of 1988. It was included on her third album with MCA Records, Honky Tonk Angel, with the single being released in December 1989. It was the fifth single released from the album.

Background

"Chains" was Loveless' second career No. 1 hit, with both this song and the earlier "Timber I'm Falling In Love" coming from Honky Tonk Angel.

In its original form, the song had a much slower tempo than the one recorded by Loveless. Tony Brown, one of her producers at the time, decided to speed up the tempo for the arrangement she recorded.

According to Loveless, "I remember they were putting it on hold for George (Jones), but somehow it got pitched to me too. Sometimes that happens, it does you know, by fault sometimes. And I remember Nancy was telling George you need to cut this song. But he didn't cut it, and after I did, it became a number one for me, and George and I remember talking about it backstage one night at the Opry, and we were getting ready to do an awards show together. And he says, he was talking to Nancy, and Nancy was standing beside us, this is George's wife, and he says "See honey, I told you that was more a woman's song than a man's song."^{[citation needed]}

The song charted for 26 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart, reaching No. 1 during the week of March 10, 1990.

Chart positions

Chart (1990)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1

Sources

• Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.

Preceded by "No Matter How High" by The Oak Ridge Boys	Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks number-one single March 10, 1990	Succeeded by "Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart" by Randy Travis
	RPM Country Tracks number-one single March 24, 1990