"Like a Wrecking Ball" 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
Eric Church. It was released on March 9, 2015 as the fifth and final single from his 2014 album ''
The Outsiders''. Church wrote this song with
Casey Beathard
Casey Michael Beathard ( ; born December 2, 1965) is an American country music songwriter. The son of former NFL general manager Bobby Beathard, and father to current Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback C. J. Beathard, and country music artist Tuc ...
.
Background
Church once told a crowd during a show that "
he song isabout
..sex".
Critical reception
In regards to the "physicality"
of the lyrics, 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 ...
'' said, "To be certain, this is a non-traditional babymaker from country music's least likely Romeo. And that's why it works. "Like a Wrecking Ball" silences Church's crowd when he includes it between two more guitar-driven numbers at concerts. It's a unified moment of "Whoa!"
[ Kevin John Coyne of ''Country Universe'' gave the song an "A" grade, praising the production and comparing the song to Dwight Yoakam's "]Nothing
Nothing, the complete absence of anything, has been a matter of philosophical debate since at least the 5th century BC. Early Greek philosophers argued that it was impossible for ''nothing'' to exist. The atomists allowed ''nothing'' but only i ...
", writing that "'Like a Wrecking Ball' sounds like nothing on the radio today" and pointing out "Irregular rhythms, a vocal sung out of the corner of his mouth, and a lyric that makes every other love song out there sound like child's play" and describing the song as " instant contender for the best single of 2015."
Commercial response
"Like a Wrecking Ball" debuted 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 ...
and 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 ...
charts at numbers 55 and 44, respectively, for charts dated March 7, 2015. It entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at No. 100 for the week of April 11, 2015. The song peaked at No. 52 on the Hot 100 for the chart dated July 25, 2015. It peaked at number 6 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart. As of November 2015, the song has sold 1,026,000 copies in the United States.
Music video
The accompanying 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 this was directed by Joe DeMaio and premiered in June 2015. It is composed of live footage that was shot during the 2015 CMT Music Awards
The CMT Music Awards is a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances. The awards ceremony is held every year in Nashville, Tennessee, and broadcast live on the CMT (Country Music Television) channel. Voting takes p ...
.
Chart performance
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{authority control
2015 singles
Eric Church songs
Songs written by Eric Church
Songs written by Casey Beathard
Song recordings produced by Jay Joyce
EMI Records singles
2014 songs