"Who Needs Pictures" is a debut song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Brad Paisley. It was released in February 1999 as his debut single, as well as the first single and title track from his album ''

Who Needs Pictures ''Who Needs Pictures'' is the debut studio album by American country music artist Brad Paisley. Released on June 1, 1999 on Arista Nashville, it features four singles, all of which were hits on the '' Billboard'' country music charts. In order of ...

''. It reached number 12 on 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 ...

chart. Paisley wrote this song with Frank Rogers and

Chris DuBois Charles Christopher DuBois is a songwriter and music publisher based out of Nashville, Tennessee. DuBois began his music career as ASCAP Nashville Director of Membership in 1993. He left ASCAP in 1999 to form Sea Gayle Music with business partne ...

Content

The song's protagonist tells of finding an undeveloped camera, which contains pictures of him and his previous lover - enjoying themselves in Cozumel, Mexico, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At first, he considers developing the film in the camera, but then, he changes his mind, asking himself, "Who needs pictures / With a memory like mine?"

Music video

This was Paisley's first music video, directed by Jim Shea, was filmed in Los Angeles.

Personnel

* Eddie Bayers –

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 ...

*Glen Duncan –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

*James Gregory – bass guitar *Bernie Herms – piano, Hammond B-3 organ, string, strings arrangements *Wes Hightower – background vocals *Mike Johnson –

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

*Tim Lauer –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

*Brad Paisley –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

, electric guitar,

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, ...

six string bass An extended-range bass is an electric bass guitar with a wider frequency range than a standard-tuned four-string bass guitar. Terminology One way that a bass can be considered 'extended-range' is to use a tuning machine mechanism that allows fo ...

* Frank Rogers –

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

Chart performance

"Who Needs Pictures" debuted at number 75 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 ...

dated for the week ending February 6, 1999. It spent 31 weeks on the charts and peaked at number 12.

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control Brad Paisley songs 1999 debut singles Songs written by Brad Paisley Songs written by Frank Rogers (record producer) Song recordings produced by Frank Rogers (record producer) Songs written by Chris DuBois Arista Nashville singles 1999 songs