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I Loved Her First

Field	Value
name	I Loved Her First
cover	I Loved Her First single cover.jpg
type	single
artist	Heartland
album	I Loved Her First
released	June 5, 2006
genre	Country
length	3:32
label	Lofton Creek
writer
producer	Walt Aldridge
next_title	Built to Last
next_year	2007

"I Loved Her First" is a song recorded by American country music band Heartland. It was released in June 2006 as the lead single from their debut studio album I Loved Her First (2006). The song reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in late 2006, becoming the band's only number-one hit and only Top 40 hit on that chart. The song was written by Walt Aldridge and Elliott Park.

Content

The song is a mid-tempo ballad in triple meter. In it, the male narrator is talking to the man who is about to marry his daughter, telling him that he is having difficulty giving her away because he "loved her first." The song is a signature Father-Daughter song to dance to at wedding receptions for numerous brides and their fathers.

Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard magazine reviewed the song favorably, calling it a "beautifully written tearjerker that will hit home with dads everywhere who can't believe their little girls have grown up so soon." She calls Albert's performance "wonderful" and says that it "wrings every drop of emotion from the tender lyric."

Music video

The music video was directed by Todd Schaffer and premiered in mid-2006. It features the group singing and a family at a wedding reception.

Chart performance

"I Loved Her First" debuted at number 57 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of July 8, 2006. Driven by a viral video of a father singing the ballad in sign language at his daughter's wedding, it reappeared on the chart almost nine years later at number 7 on the chart dated February 21, 2015. The song has sold over one million copies.

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2006)	Peak
position
US Billboard Pop 100	56

Chart (2015)	Peak
position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)	7

Year-end charts

Chart (2006)	Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)	30

Certifications

References

Morris, Edward. (2006-11-13). "Heartland Scores a No. 1 Its First Time Out". [[Country Music Television.
''[[Billboard magazine. Billboard]]'', July 29, 2006
Jessen, Wade. (February 12, 2015). "Sam Hunt Scores Second No. 1 on Hot Country Songs, Heartland Returns". [[Prometheus Global Media]].
(2006). "Best of 2006: Country Songs". [[Prometheus Global Media]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

2000s-ballads 2006-songs 2006-debut-singles songs-written-by-walt-aldridge heartland-(band)-songs lofton-creek-records-singles country-ballads songs-about-marriage

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