"Watching Airplanes" is a song written by

Jim Beavers Jim Beavers is an American country music songwriter. Early life and education Jim Beavers grew up in Garland and Jacksonville, Texas. His educational background includes a BBA from Baylor University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. Care ...

and

Jonathan Singleton Jonathan Singleton is a 2 time Grammy nominated American country music singer and songwriter who resides in Nashville, TN. He also won the ACM song of the year in 2022 with “Things a Man Oughtta Know” by Lainey Wilson, and the CMA album of t ...

, 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, ...

singer

Gary Allan Gary Allan Herzberg (born December 5, 1967) is an American country music singer. Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his country music debut with the release of his single " Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album '' U ...

. It was released in July 2007 as the first single from Allan's 2007 album '' Living Hard'' and as the twelfth of his career. The song became Allan's tenth Top 10 on the US ''

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 charts after reaching number 2 in early 2008. "Watching Airplanes" was nominated for the 'Single Record of the Year' at the 43rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on May 18, 2008. This song was written for and in remembrance of Allan's wife, who committed suicide and was a former flight attendant.

Music video

The

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 song was shot during live concerts at

Red Rocks Amphitheatre Red Rocks Amphitheatre (also colloquially as simply Red Rocks) is an open-air amphitheatre built into a rock structure in the Western United States, western United States, near Morrison, Colorado, west of Denver. There is a large, tilted, flyi ...

Morrison, Colorado The Town of Morrison is a Colorado municipalities#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The population was 428 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Red R ...

, the Red Dirt Roundup '07 in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

, the Nutty Brown Cafe in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, and in

Saint George, Utah St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...

Chart performance

"Watching Airplanes" debuted at number 53 on the US ''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 August 4, 2007. After spending 31 weeks on the chart, it peaked at number 2 for the chart week of March 1, 2008.

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

2007 singles Gary Allan songs Songs written by Jim Beavers Songs written by Jonathan Singleton MCA Nashville Records singles Song recordings produced by Mark Wright (record producer) 2007 songs {{2000s-country-song-stub MCA Records singles