"It's Four in the Morning" (also known as "Four in the Morning") is a song made famous by
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, ...
singer
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
Faron Young
Faron Young (February 25, 1932 – December 10, 1996) was an American country music producer, musician, and songwriter from the early 1950s into the mid-1980s. Hits including "If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')" and " Live Fast, Love Hard, D ...
. Released in 1971, the song was his first
No. 1 hit single
A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...
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 Singles
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 since 1961's "
Hello Walls
"Hello Walls" is an American country music song written by Willie Nelson and first recorded by Faron Young. It became a massive hit in 1961, reaching #1 country and spent 23 weeks on the chart. On other charts, it peaked at #12 pop, and was Youn ...
".
The song was
written
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
by
Jerry Chesnut
Jerry Donald Chesnut (May 7, 1931 – December 15, 2018) was an American country music songwriter. His hits include "Good Year for the Roses" (recorded by Alan Jackson, George Jones and Elvis Costello) and " T-R-O-U-B-L-E" (recorded by Elvis Pre ...
.
The song was the title track to his 1971 album and became one of his best-known hits. It was also a major smash in the
UK, somewhat rare for a country song, peaking at No. 3 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in September 1972,
as well as charting in the Top Ten (#9) in Australia, during late August 1972.
Its
pop-
crossover
Crossover may refer to:
Entertainment
Albums and songs
* ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album)
* ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987
* ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album)
* ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album)
* ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
impact at home was far more minor, barely scraping the bottom of the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 at No. 92 (it was Young's last appearance on the ''Hot 100''). It sold over 500,000 copies in the UK, and 750,000 in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
by early 1973, earning Young a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
awarded by the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
.
A live performance video clip of Young singing the song was the first music video to air on
CMT when the cable television channel first launched on March 5, 1983, as CMTV.
Chart performance
Cover versions
The song was covered by
Tom Jones on his 1985 album ''Tender Loving Care''. His version peaked at number 36 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles chart in 1986.
Notes
References
* Roland, Tom, "The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits" (Billboard Books, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1991, p. 63f ().
* Prefab Sprout,"Faron Young".
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1972 singles
1985 singles
Faron Young songs
Tom Jones (singer) songs
Songs written by Jerry Chesnut
Song recordings produced by Jerry Kennedy
1971 songs
Mercury Records singles