"Kiss You Tonight" is a song 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

David Nail David Brent Nail (born May 18, 1979) is an American country music artist, and frontman of the band ''David Nail & The Well Ravens''. In 2002, he debuted the single "Memphis" from an unreleased album for Mercury Records Nashville. Five years lat ...

. It was released as the second single from Nail's third studio album ''

I'm a Fire "I'm a Fire" is the first single from Donna Summer's seventeenth studio album, ''Crayons''. The song was released on March 11, 2008 by Burgundy Records. It was written by Summer, Sebastian Morton and Al Kasha and produced by Morton. The club si ...

''. The song was written by David Cook, Jay Knowles, and Trent Summar, and was released on March 3, 2014 in advance of the album release.

Background

The song was written by David Cook together with Jay Knowles and Trent Summar. It was the third song Cook wrote after he moved to Nashville in 2012. Although Cook went into the writing session intending to write for himself, he felt the song didn't fit him. Trent Summar sang in the demo, and Ron Stuve pitched the song to Joe Fisher at

UMG Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

who put it on hold for David Nail. According to Nail, "Kiss You Tonight" had the impact on him similar to what " Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum had. He said that it "was a song that the first time I heard it I knew I was going to record it. There was just something about it that made me remember so many songs from the past that, you know there’s not a specific thing that jumps out at you the first time you hear it you just know, 'Hey, I wanna hear that again.'" The song is a track from the album ''

'' produced by Frank Liddell, Chuck Ainlay and Glenn Worf. On February 18, 2014, Nail announced that the song would be his second single from the album. It was released to radio with an add date of March 3, 2014.

Critical reception

The song was largely well received by the critics. Matt Bjorke of ''Roughstock'' rated the song four stars out of five and described it as "a song that’s both contemporary and traditional sounding in melody", and has a "relatable "I messed up" message" about someone "wanting redemption with the lost girl of his dreams." He also called David Nail's vocal delivery on the song "stellar", while Markos Papadatos of ''Digital Journal'' described his vocal as "infectious" and "captivating". Billy Dukes of ''

Taste of Country Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

'' considered the song to be "a rare song that’s easily accessible, yet still has great emotional depth". He also said that the song "should become Nail’s biggest hit to date." ''Think Country'' however demurred, and thought the song may struggle on the chart as "it is less distinctive than "

Whatever She's Got "Whatever She's Got" is a song recorded by American country music artist David Nail. It was released in May 2013 as the first single from Nail's third studio album, ''I'm a Fire''. The album was released on March 4, 2014. The song was written by ...

"", the reviewer also added that the song is "not mind-blowing, but it's heartfelt".

Music video

The music video was directed by

Chris Hicky Chris Hicky is a writer/director from Forrest City, Arkansas, United States, best known for directing many of Keith Urban's videos. Hicky has also directed videos for many other artists in the country music genre, including Dierks Bentley, Madd ...

and released via ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' on May 15, 2014. The video was shot in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Chart performance

"Kiss You Tonight" debuted at No. 54 on the U.S. ''

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 ...

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

for the chart dated March 29, 2014. It peaked at No. 17 on the Country Airplay chart dated January 3, 2015, its 41st week on that chart. It entered at No. 45 on the U.S. ''Billboard''

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 for the week of April 26, 2014, and peaked at No. 25 for the chart dated October 25, 2014. As of December 2014, the song has sold 178,900 copies in the United States.

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control Songs about kissing 2014 singles Country ballads 2010s ballads David Nail songs MCA Nashville Records singles Song recordings produced by Frank Liddell 2014 songs Songs written by David Cook (singer) Music videos directed by Chris Hicky Songs written by Jay Knowles Song recordings produced by Chuck Ainlay