"Ace in the Hole" is a song written by Dennis Adkins, and recorded by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
artist
George Strait
George Harvey Strait Sr. (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. Strait is considered one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. In the 1980s, he was credited for ...
. George's touring band is called "The Ace in the Hole Band." It was released in July 1989 as the third single from his album ''
Beyond the Blue Neon
''Beyond the Blue Neon'' is the ninth studio album by American country music artist George Strait and 12th overall. It was released by MCA Records on February 6, 1989. It is certified platinum by the RIAA, and it produced the singles "Baby's Go ...
''. It became his 18th #1 single as well as his 11th in a row.
Content
This song visualizes life as a game where you have to keep a few tricks up your sleeve to get ahead. According to the lyrics, everyone needs to fight in order to succeed and have a good life, and in order to beat out the competition, you need some good people around you.
Chart performance
"Ace in the Hole" reached number 1 on the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart
and on the Canadian ''
RPM
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
'' Country Tracks chart.
Year-end charts
References
1989 singles
George Strait songs
Song recordings produced by Jimmy Bowen
MCA Records singles
1989 songs
{{1989-country-song-stub