Women love them. Men want what they have. Teenaged girls go crazy over them. I’m talking about Grammy, Country Music Association, and Academy of Country Music Awards winner Rascal Flatts. Gary LaVox, Joe Don Rooney and Jay Demarcus make up the voices in the silky smooth stylings of perhaps the hottest group of today’s music in any genre.
The sell out shows are just one indication of their popularity. Another is last week’s news that their 2004 album “Feels like Today” has gone quintuple platinum. In layman’s terms, it means that the band has sold five million copies. Joining the ranks of such legends as Alabama, Reba McEntire, Eminesence and Barbara Streisand.
All you have to do is google Rascal Flatts to see how many fans they have out there. Though women my age (40ish) could listen to their songs all day long and never tire of their love songs, a huge majority of their fan base is in the 13-20 age range. So, when I took the assignment to find the Top 10 songs from the band, I went to the experts. My teenaged daughters and their friends. At first they balked a little. “How can we narrow it down to 10?” they asked. “Why not the Top 25 or the best 50?” (Getting the picture here?) After almost an hour of arguing and laughing and even pulling out the cd’s, listening and arguing some more, we finally got it narrowed down to 10.
So, let’s get down to it. Some of these songs you may have heard on the radio, others may be totally new to you, if you aren’t a tried and true RF fan.
Here are the Top 10 Best Love Songs performed by Rascal Flatts.
10. This Everyday Love
For all of us who have someone steady in our lives. The married folks who are still so in love that we’re silly. From their self titled cd comes this reminder that you can’t get enough of every day love. It’s a simple hug while pouring the morning coffee. It’s plain, simple and ordinary. It’s the same old thing that we expect to happen. It’s the sound of a warm voice over the telephone that we all look forward to hearing when we say hello. It’s the smile that we see when we come into the house that sends a tingling down to our toes. It’s what we can’t get enough of. I have that love with my husband of 21 years. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s what I’ve come to expect. It’s the love that sustains us through money problems, sick children, broken down vehicles, girl Scouts, soccer games, dogs that play in the trash and bosses that drive us crazy. It’s knowing that when all is said and done, we’re still loved for who we are and what we’ve become together. It’s every day love. And it “will be that way tomorrow like every day before”.
9. She Goes All the Way
Get your brain out of the gutter and think with your heart! “Givin more than she takes, because it’s more than love she makes” Most women does give more to the relationship than they take out of it. That’s what we do. Come on people…this is one of the best love songs that RF has ever written. “the whole world disappears when we’re alone”? That’s what love is all about. Being so wrapped up in each other that nothing else matters. Only the sounds of two hearts falling in love. My favorite part of the song is when Joe Don takes over the lead and sings about “Whatever I ask, she says yes. All I have to do is dream” To me this song is the greatest tribute to their wives the guys could ever have written.
8. Waiting All My Life
“Everybody needs it. Everybody wants it. Everybody searchin’ for it” We’re talking about Love of course! What a thrill to your heart when you finally find that person. (Wait…didn’t I say that once before?) Seems like the RF guys agree with me. One of the things that the girls and I agreed on with Waiting….was when Gary, Joe Don and Jay sing “Your love Babe, I’ve been waiting all my life” we just melted. What is it about a guy calling a girl “Babe” that just does us in?
7. Love Another Day
The girls called this the best “there’s hope after the break-up” song. It’s still a great love song. It reminds you that you sometimes you have to lose to wind. That there is hope beyond broken hearts and shattered dreams. It’s a promise that “you’ll live to love another day, that happiness is on its way.” You just have to hold on. Part of teenage love is the disappointment of a crushed first love. But what does not break us makes us stronger. Part of the reason that I like this song so much is that it’s one of the bonus tracks added to the “Feels like Today” cd. It was cut in Jay’s garage and it isn’t perfect. But life isn’t perfect either.
6. To Make Her Love Me
Poor Andrew. He came in to see my oldest daughter in the middle of the chaos and arguing, and soon was right in the middle of it, trying to get in votes for the guys. He tried to convince us that Fast Cars and Freedom was a love song. When that didn’t work, he went to bat for “To make her Love Me.” He says this truly sums it up when a guys heart has been broken. That they aren’t much different than girls when they’ve been hurt, and you often asked God “if he can make the world in six days, hang the moon, make the stars shine…why can’t you make her love me.” All I can say is…way to go Andrew. So from the “Me and My Gang” album, Number 6 is one for the guys.
5. Love you Out Loud
A woman always wants to know if her man is proud to have her as his partner. What better way to show her than to stand on the roof top and climb a mountain and shout it to the entire city?. To sing of his love “on the radio, show it on a video and leave no doubt ” to the world that He loves of her with all of his heart. It’s the reason songs are written, what movies are made about, and what we would all love to experience. While the majority of us will not fall in love with a song writer, movie producer or mountain climber…it’s the thought that counts. This one is off the “Melt” cd and definately worth taking a second listen.
4. Take Me There
From their brand new album “Still Feels Good” comes this song of new love. We want to know if we’re important. It’s just built into most female DNA. When we fall in love, women want the man to love us enough to learn everything there is to know about us. We want them to know our heart. “Where our hopes and dreams and wishes live, where we keep the rest of our lives hid”. This guy want us to take him there? You betcha buddy. And my friend wants to know if you have any brothers.
3. The Day Before You
Have you ever felt like giving up on finding that special love? I remember about a year before my husband and I began dating, when I thought I would never find that special someone and live happily ever after. I was 19 after all and headed towards being an old maid! Life as a teenager is so dramatic. “Now you’re here, and everything changes, suddenly life means so much. I’ll never have to go back to the day before you.” Just gets you right there doesn’t it? The idea that I could make that much of a difference in someone’s life is just amazing. But my husband sings this to me all the time!
2. You
This one is my ringtone for my husband on my cell phone. When he calls my phone it sings “Every road that I’ve been down, the only truth that I’ve found. There’s only one thing I can’t live without…You.” How better to say I love you than that? The girls agreed with me that this not only needed to be on the list, but it needed to be at least in the top 5. When we listened to it again and one of them grabbed the case and looked at the words. For all of you who’ve had those bad relaionships, then you find that one that just clicks. This is the song for you. From the “Melt” cd comes this peppy ballad that talks about how the man was searching for something that he thought he could never find. In and out of bad love…and then he finds….You.
1. It’s Not Just Me.
Why would we choose a song for the number one spot that was never released as a radio single? My response to you would be…listen to this song and tell me why it was never released onto the radio. Another selection from their self titled debut album which hit the streets in June of 2000, the girls tell me this is the ultimate love song. It is what all girls want to know about the guys they love: to know that the guys feel the same way they do. To know that they live for love, to know that forever will never be enough for them. They want to know if the guy thinks that she’s the one that they’ve waited all their lives for. As I thought about what they were saying and listened to the words to this song, I realized that they’re exactly right. Even after being married as long as I have, I still occasionally need to know that hubby still feels the same way about me, that I do about him. I want to know if it is still “my face in your dreams at night.” I still want reassurance that it’s not just me. I want him to tell me.
So there you have it folks. The top 10 love songs from the mega group Rascal Flatts. Disagree? That’s ok. It will just give me a chance to listen to their music some more to make up my mind on which of us is correct!
