"Past the Point of Rescue" is a song written by

Mick Hanly Mick Hanly (born 3 July 1949) is an Irish singer and composer from Limerick. In the 1970s, he formed several folk music duos, first with Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, then with Andy Irvine and, more recently, with Dónal Lunny. From 1982 until 1985, ...

, and covered 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

Hal Ketchum Hal Michael Ketchum (April 9, 1953November 23, 2020) was an American country music singer and songwriter. He released eleven studio albums from 1986 to 2014, including nine for divisions of Curb Records. Ketchum's 1991 album ''Past the Point of ...

. It was released in February 1992 as the third single and title track from Ketchum's album ''

Past the Point of Rescue ''Past the Point of Rescue'' is the second studio album by American country music artist Hal Ketchum. His first major-label album, it was released in 1991 on Curb Records and has been certified gold by the RIAA. The album produced four singles f ...

''. It was written by Mick Hanly (of

Moving Hearts Moving Hearts is an Irish Celtic rock band formed in 1981. They followed in the footsteps of Horslips in combining Irish traditional music with rock and roll, and also added elements of jazz to their sound.Harris, Craig''Moving Hearts'' AllMusic ...

) and had originally been recorded by

Mary Black Mary Black (born 23 May 1955) is an Irish folk singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both traditional folk and modern material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland. Background Mary Black was born into a m ...

who had a hit with it in Ireland in 1988 and included it on her album ''

No Frontiers ''No Frontiers'' is an album by Irish singer Mary Black. The album was one of Ireland's best selling albums of 1989 and introduced her to audiences elsewhere in Europe and in the United States and Japan. The album spent 56 weeks in the Irish Top ...

''. Ketchum's version of the song reached number 2 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 & Tracks 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 in May 1992 and number 1 on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks chart in Canada.RPM Country Tracks
/ref>

Music video

The music video was directed by Steve Boyle and premiered in early 1992.

Cover versions

*"Past the Point of Rescue" has been recorded by several other artists, most notably the

Dixie Chicks The Chicks (previously known as Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. Since 1995, the band has consisted of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and E ...

on their 1992 album ''

Little Ol' Cowgirl ''Little Ol' Cowgirl'' is the second studio album by American country band Dixie Chicks, released in 1992. As with their previous album, it produced no chart singles. It was also the last album to feature Robin Lynn Macy, who left in late 1992 o ...

''. *Norwegian country rock group

Hellbillies Hellbillies is a Norwegian rock band. Biography As of 2012, they have released thirteen albums—including a compilation and two live albums—as well as two live concert DVDs. They are among Norway's most popular recording artists. Their lyrics ...

has made a locally successful cover version featuring Norwegian lyrics about a reindeer hunter who gets lost in the mountain. * Celtic Thunder covered the

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

for their 2012

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

, ''Voyage''. *

Karen Damen Karen Franciska Maria Louisa Damen ; (born 28 October 1974 in Wilrijk) is a Belgian singer, actress, host and one of the first members of girl group K3. She acted in a few movies and hosted a few programs. Discography :Studio albums (as a m ...

covered the song in 2020 with one of the contenders in the voice senior Belgium (Marie-Jeanne) shortly after the show's final. *

an Irish Folk Singer covered this song in 1989 on the album

Chart performance

Year-end charts

References

1992 singles Hal Ketchum songs The Chicks songs Song recordings produced by Allen Reynolds Curb Records singles 1988 songs {{1992-country-song-stub