"The Keeper of the Stars" is a song written by

Dickey Lee Royden Dickey Lipscomb (born September 21, 1936), known professionally as Dickey Lee (sometimes misspelled Dickie or Dicky), is an American pop/country singer and songwriter, best known for the 1960s teenage tragedy songs " Patches" and "Laurie ( ...

Danny Mayo Daniel Mayo (October 2, 1950 – October 2, 1999) was an American songwriter, primarily known for writing country hits for artists such as Alabama, Tracy Byrd, Pirates of the Mississippi and Confederate Railroad. Byrd's "The Keeper of the Stars", ...

and

Karen Staley Karen Staley (born in Weirton, West Virginia) is an American country music singer-songwriter. Staley was raised in Georgetown, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and was inspired to write songs after reading through the hymnals at her local church. S ...

, 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

Tracy Byrd Tracy Lynn Byrd (born December 17, 1966) is an American country music artist. Signed to Universal Music Group Nashville, MCA Nashville Records in 1992, Byrd broke through on the country music scene that year with his 1993 single "Holdin' Heaven" ...

. It was released in February 1995 as the fourth and last single from his album ''

No Ordinary Man ''No Ordinary Man'' is the second studio album by American country music artist Tracy Byrd. It features the singles "The First Step", "Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous", "Watermelon Crawl", and "The Keeper of the Stars", all of which reac ...

'', it went on to reach a peak of #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 (now

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, behind "

I Can Love You Like That "I Can Love You Like That" is a song written by Steve Diamond, Jennifer Kimball and Maribeth Derry, and recorded by American country music singer John Michael Montgomery. It was released in February 1995 as the first single from his John Michael ...

" by

John Michael Montgomery John Michael Montgomery (born January 20, 1965) is an American country music singer. Montgomery began singing with his brother Eddie, who would later become known as one half of the duo Montgomery Gentry, before beginning his major-label solo ca ...

. A year after its release, it was named Song of the Year by the

Academy of Country Music The Academy of Country Music (ACM) was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris Christensen. They wanted to promote country music ...

Content

The song is a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

in which the singer addresses his lover, telling her that a third party must have been responsible for bringing them together. Specifically, that third party is defined as being "the keeper of the stars" (i.e.,

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

Re-recordings

A different recording of the song, one

semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...

lower than the album version, was released as the radio edit. This re-recording was made because Byrd felt that he sang it better in a lower key, and sang it as such while performing in concert. The radio edit was also used in the song's

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 ...

, which was directed by Michael Merriman, and premiered in early 1995. Byrd re-recorded the song again in 2001 for his album '' Ten Rounds'', and that particular re-recording was reprised on his 2005 ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

'' package.

Chart performance

Initially, Byrd's label (MCA Records) had not planned for "The Keeper of the Stars" to be a single, until his publicist realized that the song had been receiving positive feedback for it in concert. The fourth single from Byrd's ''No Ordinary Man'' album, "The Keeper of the Stars" spent twenty weeks on the ''

'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now

) charts, reaching a peak position of number two.

Year-end charts

References

External links

Song lyrics
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Keeper Of The Stars 1995 singles 1994 songs Tracy Byrd songs Songs written by Dickey Lee Songs written by Danny Mayo MCA Nashville Records singles Songs written by Karen Staley Song recordings produced by Jerry Crutchfield