29 Years Ago, George Strait Was at No. 1 With an Album Built Around a Major Hit That Almost Went to Tim McGraw

On June 18, 1997, George Strait was at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart with Carrying Your Love with Me. It reigned over the chart for six consecutive weeks. Additionally, the LP produced four singles, three of which shot to the top of the Hot Country Songs chart. Tim McGraw almost recorded the LP’s title track and biggest hit. However, when he learned that Strait had claimed the song, he backed off.

The neotraditional boom that many think of as “90s country” was coming to an end in 1997. LeAnn Rimes, Kevin Sharp, Shania Twain, and other artists who leaned more toward pop than country were dominating the charts at the time. Strait once again found himself going against the grain by recording the traditional-sounding music that made him one of the genre’s biggest stars. Many fans saw Carrying Your Love with Me as a breath of fresh air.

[RELATED: Watching a Young George Strait Perform This Late 80s Hit Makes Me Want To Break Out My Stetson Hat and Brushpopper Shirt]

Strait introduced the album with “One Night at a Time,” which went to No. 1. The record’s title track gave him another chart-topper. His cover of Vern Gosdin’s “Today My World Slipped Away” peaked at No. 3. He went back to the top with “Round About Way,” the final single from the album.

George Strait Almost Missed Out on the Title Track

Steve Bogard and Jeff Stevens wrote “Carrying Your Love with Me,” and it became a huge hit for George Strait. While his label put it on hold almost immediately, the song had also been pitched to Tim McGraw, according to Songfacts.

“We pretty much wrote it in a few hours,” Bogard recalled. “Our publisher, Michael Knox, called Larry Willoughby, the A&R man for MCA, and he came over and heard it in my little office live. Jeff was playing guitar and singing and I was playing bass and singing harmony,” he added.

Willoughby immediately put the song on hold. “They…made us promise not to play the demo, which we hadn’t done yet, for anyone until he could send it to George. I’m glad we didn’t. It was a great cut,” he added

McGraw later contradicted this chain of events during an appearance on Tracy Lawrence’s podcast TL’s Road House. “It just so happened that one of the songwriters pitched it to him, and one of the songwriters pitched it to me at the same time,” he recalled. He put the song on hold before he found out that Strait had done the same.

“I’m like, ‘I’m not getting into a pissing match with George Strait.’ So, it’s George Strait’s song,” McGraw said. “It still stings a little when I hear it. It’s one of the ones I hate missing out on,” he added. McGraw admitted that “Carrying Your Love with Me” is still one of his favorite songs from Strait’s deep discography.

Featured Image by Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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