"God Love Her" is a song co-written 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

Toby Keith Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961), known professionally as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. He released his first four studio albums—1993's ''Toby Keith'', 1994's ''Boomtown'', 1996' ...

. It was released in November 2008 as the second single from his 2008 album ''

That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy ''That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy'' is the twelfth studio album by American country music artist Toby Keith. It was released on October 28, 2008 by Show Dog Nashville, Keith's own label. The album's lead-off single, "She Never Cried in Front of Me" ...

''. On the chart week of March 7, 2009, the song became Keith's 18th number one hit on the US ''

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. Keith wrote this song with

Vicky McGehee Vicky Lynn McGehee is an American country music songwriter. Among the songs that McGehee has written are "Heart Hold On" by The Buffalo Club, "All Jacked Up" by Gretchen Wilson, "Holy Water" by Big & Rich, "Why" by Jason Aldean, "Like We Neve ...

Content

"God Love Her" is a moderate up-tempo accompanied by

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

. It describes the narrator's love for a preacher's daughter, who despite her own rebellious nature ("she was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

in dirty water") saves his "soul from the devil".

Critical reception

Jim Malec Jim Malec is an American journalist and pop music critic known for writing about country music. Malec attended State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, where he worked as an editor for the college's student newspaper and was involved in a cen ...

, a reviewer of The 9513, gave the song a "thumbs up" rating. He described the song as "pretty damn solid", and said that despite its clichéd theme, it was well executed and Keith's vocals showed a "sense of urgency." Dan Milliken, reviewing the song for Country Universe, gave it a C rating. He said that the song "sounds like something any ol’ southern rock wannabe might ship to country radio; instead, it’s coming from one of the genre’s modern greats." He then goes on to say that "it’s a cheesy and overblown little piece."

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for the song was released on October 20, 2008 and was directed by Michael Salomon. The video, which stars actress Jillian Nelson, follows the lyrics of the song. The girl is shown in sitting alone in a church, then going outside to run through the woods with a boy. She later gets on the back of his motorcycle and they are shown driving through the countryside. Included with these are scenes of Keith performing the song outside the church and inside a house. It was the only video released from this album. On January 30, 2009, the music video for "God Love Her" took the top spot of CMT's ''Top Twenty Countdown'', where it remained for two weeks.

Chart performance

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2008 singles 2008 songs Toby Keith songs Show Dog-Universal Music singles Music videos directed by Michael Salomon Songs written by Toby Keith Songs written by Vicky McGehee