Find Out Who Your Friends Are

Infobox Single
Name = Find Out Who Your Friends Are


Cover size =
Caption =
Artist = Tracy Lawrence
from Album = For the Love
Released = start date|2006|8|21
Format = CD single, 7"
Recorded = 2006
Genre = Country
Length = 3:49
Label = Rocky Comfort
Writer = Casey Beathard, Ed Hill
Producer = Flip Anderson, Julian King and Tracy Lawrence
Certification =
Last single = "If I Don't Make It Back"
(2005)
This single = "Find Out Who Your Friends Are"
(2006)
Next single = "Til I Was a Daddy Too"
(2007)

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are" is the title of a song written by Casey Beathard and Ed Hill, and by American country music artist Tracy Lawrence. It was the lead-off single for his album "For the Love", which was released in early 2007 on Rocky Comfort Records, a label which Lawrence owns. Originally released in August of 2006, the single did not enter the Top 40 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs charts until January of 2007.

After the release of "For the Love", radio stations began to play an alternate version of the song which featured guest vocals from Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, thus helping to boost the song to Number One on both the "Billboard" and "Mediabase" country singles charts. Upon reaching Number One in June 2007, "Find out Who Your Friends Are" set a new record for the slowest-climbing Number One single in the history of the "Billboard" country music charts, as well as the second-slowest climbing on any "Billboard" singles chart. In addition, it became Lawrence's first "Billboard" Number One since 1996's "Time Marches On".

Content

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are" is a mid-tempo in which the narrator tells of various situations where a person might be in trouble, and thus might need a friend's help — such as having a car stuck in a ditch, or being short on money. The song's chorus states that in such moments, a person finds out who his or her friends are:

:"You find out who your friends are:"Somebody's gonna drop everything:"Run out and crank up their car:"Hit the gas, get there fast:"Never stop and think 'what's in it for me' or 'it's way too far':"They just show on up with their big ol' heart:"You find out who your friends are"

Upon hearing the song, Lawrence stated that he immediately identified with it, and thought that it would be a good choice for a lead-off single to his album. According to him, "The message is universal for everybody you know... I enjoy singing stuff that has a good message." [ [http://www.netmusiccountdown.com/inc/news_article.php?id=12763 Tracy Lawrence Identified Immediately With "Friends"] ]

Chart performance

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are" made its debut on the Hot Country Songs charts dated for September 19, 2006. The song did not enter Top 40 until the chart dated for January 13, 2007, although it fell out of the Top 40 a week later. By the January 27 charts, the song had re-entered.

It reached Number One on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart dated June 23, 2007, where it stayed for one week. The song became Lawrence's first "Billboard" Number One single since "Time Marches On" in 1996, and his first Number One on any major trade chart since 1997's "Is That a Tear", which reached Number One on the former "Radio & Records" country charts.cite web |url=http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=33345 |title=Tracy Lawrence Make History With Hit Single "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" |accessdate=2007-09-13 |date=2007-06-12 |work=Top40-Charts.com]

Having reached the top of the charts on its forty-first chart week, the song also set set a new record for the slowest climb to Number One on the country charts, [ [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/music/news/e3i87a868b9f5d172aac14efe5902053dd5 Rihanna's Hot 100 hat trick with 'Umbrella'] ] as well as a record for the second-slowest climb for a Number One single on any "Billboard" chart. [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/chart_beat/chat_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003599774 Chart Beat Chat] ] "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" also replaced Emerson Drive's "Moments" at Number One, marking the first time since 1950 that two artists on independently-distributed labels reached Number One back-to-back on the singles charts. [ [http://billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/charts/chart_alert/e3i2d5887633794139a17ba23965933e332 T-Pain toasts first No. 1 album] ] In addition, Lawrence became the first artist to reach Number One with the first release from a self-owned record label. [ [http://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=671&t=Tracy_Lawrence_finds_out_hes_number_one Tracy Lawrence finds out he's number one] ] [http://www.k2radio.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104651&article=2280665 Tracy Lawrence Makes History on Country Singles Chart] ]

Cease and desist order

Lawrence's album "For the Love" features two versions of the song: one version sung by Lawrence himself, and a remixed version featuring guest vocals from country music artists Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, both of whom are friends of Lawrence's. [http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i3f833fa6582a0cfb5c4ae71754fd1f45 Sony BMG Nashville 'Demands' Radio Stop Playing Album Cut] ] Only the solo version was released to radio as a single; however, upon the release of Lawrence's album, several radio stations began playing the version with McGraw and Chesney's vocals instead. (Both versions were counted as one song when the singles charts were tabulated.)

The week before the single reached Number One, Sony BMG (the parent company of BNA Records, the label to which Chesney is signed) e-mailed a cease-and-desist order to several radio stations that were monitored by "Billboard", demanding that these stations cease playing the version featuring McGraw's and Chesney's vocals. According to the letter, which was written by Sony BMG's president, Sony BMG "did not grant 'singles' rights to Rocky Comfort with respect to the album versions of this song and has not authorized any radio station to play this recording". [http://www.hollywoodreporteresq.com/thresq/litigation/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003596161 Sony BMG Nashville Demands Radio Cease Playing Song] ] Despite the demands from Sony BMG, radio stations did not stop playing the version with McGraw and Chesney. [http://billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i7f061da19523bf1b16e28b782412e1ae?imw=Y Sony BMG Nashville Apologizes To Radio] ] One day after the release of that letter, Sony BMG issued a formal apology to the radio stations to which the cease-and-desist order had been sent.

Music video

A music video for the song debuted on the television network CMT on August 16, 2007, at which point the song had fallen from the charts and entered recurrent rotation. In the video, a man (Ronnie Gilley of Enterprise, AL) hits a circumstance similar to the lyrics of the song and finds himself stranded "in the middle of nowhere." Though his cellular reception is very poor, he is able to contact George Jones, who then calls Darryl Worley (who is relaxing in a pool with several women) and several others; everyone contacted arrives in a cavalcade of vehicles to help with the predicament.

Chart performance

References

External links

*" [http://www.cmt.com/videos/tracy-lawrence/160946/find-out-who-your-friends-are.jhtml Find Out Who Your Friends Are] " video at CMT.com
* [http://www.cmt.com/lyrics/tracy-lawrence/find-out-who-your-friends-are/13937587/lyrics.jhtml Song lyrics] at CMT.com