"Cold Day in July" is a song written by Richard Leigh and most famously recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

group

the Dixie Chicks The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. The band consists of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and Emily Stra ...

. Before the Chicks recorded the song,

Suzy Bogguss Susan Kay Bogguss (born December 30, 1956) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She began her career in the 1980s as a solo singer. In the 1990s, six of her songs were Top 10 hits, three albums were certified gold, and one album ...

and

Joy Lynn White Joy Lynn White (born October 2, 1961) (also known as Joy White) is an American country music singer-songwriter. White was born in Bentonville, Arkansas but raised in Mishawaka, Indiana. Signed to Columbia Records in 1992, she released her debut al ...

both recorded the song for their albums '' Voices in the Wind'' and '' Between Midnight & Hindsight''; Lynn White's version was released as a single in 1993, reaching number 71 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 along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart. The Dixie Chicks's version was released on May 8, 2000, to

country radio Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations usually play only music which has been officially released to country radio by record labels. T ...

as the fourth single from their fifth studio album and second major label album ''Fly'' (1999) by

Monument Records Monument Records is an American record label co-founded in 1958 by Fred Foster. Originally founded in Washington, D.C., the label moved to Nashville in 1960, and experienced success over the next two decades with a number of artists including ...

. Compared to the previous singles, the song notably has a much darker meaning about a woman's husband leaving her on a "cold day in July". The song returned the Chicks back to the top ten on the country charts following "

Goodbye Earl "Goodbye Earl" is a country murder ballad written by Dennis Linde. Initially recorded by the band Sons of the Desert for an unreleased album in the late 1990s, the song gained fame when it was recorded by Dixie Chicks on their fifth studio album, ' ...

", which was their first single to miss the top ten. The song peaked at number ten in US country in July 2000 and also went to the number seven peak on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

'' Canadian Country Tracks chart.

Chart performance

Joy Lynn White

Dixie Chicks

Year-end charts

Release history

References

1993 singles 2000 singles Suzy Bogguss songs Joy Lynn White songs The Chicks songs Songs written by Richard Leigh (songwriter) Song recordings produced by Paul Worley Monument Records singles Epic Records singles Song recordings produced by Blake Chancey 1992 songs {{2000s-country-song-stub