07/29/2022
Back when Tim McGraw was a new artist and had only released one album with moderate success, he and his producer Byron Gallimore were hungry for their next big song after being given the green light from their record label Curb Records to begin production on Tim's second album NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON.
Tim and Byron listened to hundreds of songs and recorded quite a few, including INDIAN OUTLAW, which was written by our mutual friends Tommy Barnes and Gene Simmons. During that time, Byron attended our publishing company showcase where we performed our newest songs. Byron called Eric Zanetis the next morning asking for a copy of one song in particular we played for them... DON'T TAKE THE GIRL. Eric had it to him in 15 minutes.
Byron played it for Tim and Tim loved it! He even started playing it with just his guitar on the new cable television station TNN The Nashville Network. Soon after that, Tim and Byron went into the studio to record it for the record, but the record label rejected the song, saying they didn't think it was good enough for the album. Undaunted, Byron and Tim recorded DON'T TAKE THE GIRL a second time and this time the label approved of it for the album. Still, the label did not select it to be a single to be released to radio stations. It was just too different, they said.
On March 5, 1994, Tim played the song live for radio programmers and disc jockeys from around the country at the annual Country Radio Seminar held in Nashville. The writers of the song, Craig J. Martin and Larry W. Johnson, who wrote for Eric Zanetis Publishing Company (now known as Diamond Garden Music), were there in the room. Afterwards, about two dozen of the roughly 200 radio programmers and disc jockeys attending the event shook Craig and Larry's hands and said they were going to play DON'T TAKE THE GIRL as soon as they got back home.
Sure enough, when they got home to their respective cities throughout the country, they began playing DON'T TAKE THE GIRL and by June 4, 1994 it was Number One on the Billboard Country Single's Chart, and without even promoted by the record label as a single! This was indeed a remarkable and unexpected launch of a totally unknown song in less than 90 days!
Even Phil Gernhardt of Curb Records called Eric Zanetis and asked if he was promoting the song on his own, to which Eric replied, no, what are you talking about? DON'T TAKE THE GIRL's immediate success surprised everybody, including the record label.
Eric had always told his songwriters that a good song would promote itself, and DON'T TAKE THE GIRL's immediate popularity proved him right.
DON'T TAKE THE GIRL quickly garnered over 5 million radio airplays and the album NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON sold over 25 million records. The song and other great songs from the album helped make Tim McGraw a household name.
