"An American Family" is a song written by Bob Corbin, 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, ...

group

The Oak Ridge Boys The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet originating in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The group was founded in the 1940s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in Southern gospel during the 1950s. Their name was change ...

. It was released in 1989 as the first single from the album ''

American Dreams ''American Dreams'' is an American drama television series that ran on NBC for three seasons & 61 episodes, from September 29, 2002, to March 30, 2005. The show tells the story of the Pryor family of Philadelphia during the mid-1960s, with many ...

''. The song reached #4 on the ''

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Hot Country Singles & Tracks 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.

Content

The song describes a typical American family, and notes that they aren't a big deal and "ain't gonna go down in history", but they are just part of "a little story of an American family." The first verse of the song describes a husband, who worked in a rail yard and is nearing retirement, and his loving wife. The second verse tells how the wife waited for her husband while he fought in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and how their son fought in the

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. It also describes two other children, a son who is a lawyer in

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, and a daughter who married and stayed in her hometown. The Oak Ridge Boys re-recorded the song for their patriotic album "Colors" in 2003. This version included a new bridge and chorus at the end of the song which referenced the

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

terrorist attacks. The additions shift the focus of the song from a single family to America as a country, and say that all Americans are part of an American family that pulls together during hard times. The 2003 version was recorded with

William Lee Golden William Lee Golden (born January 12, 1939) is an American country music singer. Between 1965 and 1987, and again since December 1995, he has been the baritone singer in the country vocal group The Oak Ridge Boys. Career Golden joined The Oak Rid ...

, while Steve Sanders sang baritone on the original version.

Chart performance

Year-end charts

References

Songs about the United States Songs about families 1989 singles The Oak Ridge Boys songs Song recordings produced by Jimmy Bowen MCA Records singles 1989 songs Songs written by Bob Corbin (songwriter) {{1989-country-song-stub