"Middle of a Memory" 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

Cole Swindell Colden Rainey Swindell (born June 30, 1983) is an American rock music singer and songwriter. He has written singles for Craig Campbell, Thomas Rhett, Scotty McCreery, and Luke Bryan, and has released four albums for Warner Bros. Records Nashvil ...

. The song was released to radio on May 2, 2016 as the second single to his second studio album '' You Should Be Here'' (2016). The song was written by Swindell,

Zach Crowell Zach Crowell is a songwriter and record producer, who was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Crowell is involved in a joint publishing agreement with Round Hill Music and Taperoom Music. In 2012, he co-wrote and produced the song "Confe$$io ...

and

Ashley Gorley Ashley Glenn Gorley (born April 29, 1977) is an American songwriter, publisher, and producer from Danville, Kentucky, who is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Gorley has written 60 number 1 songs and has over 300 songs recorded by artists including ...

. It received positive reviews from critics praising Swindell's improvements as a storyteller. "Middle of a Memory" peaked at number one on the ''Billboard''

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 ...

chart, giving Swindell his fifth number-one country hit overall. It also reached numbers three and 46 on both the

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 ...

and

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

charts respectively. It was certified

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America 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 ...

(RIAA), and has sold 365,000 copies as of January 2017. The song also charted in Canada, reaching number 33 on the

Canada Country The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in '' Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

chart and number 98 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...

chart. The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Michael Monaco.

Critical reception

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 ...

'' thought that the song showed Swindell's improved storytelling, and that he chose songs that represent the album as a whole. Similarly, Annie Reuter of Sounds Like Nashville also found that the song has a "vivid storyline" where the maturity of Swindell's songwriting "shines through." Matt Bjorke of Roughstock thought the song fit Swindell as a vocalist, and that its story of a girl who left before a man could express an interest in her is "a song most people have lived" and therefore would like to keep hearing on the radio. In 2017, ''

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 ...

'' contributor

Chuck Dauphin Charles Frederick Dauphin III (February 17, 1974 – September 18, 2019) was an American sports and country music journalist. He was a radio broadcaster for WDKN in Dickson, Tennessee Dickson is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Located in ...

put "Middle of a Memory" at number four on his top 10 list of Swindell's best songs.

Commercial performance

"Middle of a Memory" debuted at number 34 on the ''Billboard'' Country Airplay chart dated May 21, 2016, and entered at number 31 on the Hot Country Songs chart a week later on the album's release date, selling 12,000 copies in its first week. It also debuted at number 99 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart for the week of August 13. Twelve weeks later, it peaked at number 46 the week of November 5, and remained on the chart for twenty weeks. As of January 2017, it has sold 365,000 copies in the US. On July 24, 2017, the song was certified platinum by the

(RIAA) for combined sales and streaming data of over a million units in the United States. In Canada, the track debuted at number 50 on the

chart dated August 27, 2016 and at number 98 on the

chart for the week of November 12. It peaked at number three on the former chart dated December 2 and stayed there for twenty weeks. On the Canadian Hot 100, it peaked at number 81 for two consecutive weeks and stayed on the chart for six weeks.

Music video

The music video was directed by Michael Monaco and premiered in August 2016. Danielle Maltby, a contestant from

season 21 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

of '' The Bachelor'' and

season 4 Season 4 may refer to: * "Season 4" (''30 Rock'' episode), an episode of ''30 Rock'' See also * * Season One (disambiguation) Season One may refer to: Albums * ''Season One'' (Suburban Legends album), 2004 * ''Season One'' (All Sons & Daughte ...

of '' Bachelor in Paradise'' appears in the video.

Personnel

* Michael Carter –

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 ...

, programming *Dave Cohen –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

*James Mitchell – electric guitar *Greg Morrow –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

*Billy Panda –

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

– lead vocals *Russell Terrell – background vocals *Mike Wolofsky –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2016 singles 2016 songs Cole Swindell songs Warner Records singles Warner Records Nashville singles Songs written by Zach Crowell Songs written by Ashley Gorley Songs written by Cole Swindell