THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

865-Blake Shelton-Austin.

2001-It has never charted in the UK.

Best Bit-At 3.13. If you’re accusing me of being a big sentimental slush, for including this most cheesy of love songs, then I’m guilty as charged your honour.

Blake Tollison Shelton was born on June 18th, 1976, in Ada, Oklahoma, United States, with Album sold in excess of 13 million copies, and singles sold topping 52 million, he is one of the most successful ‘Country Music’ artists of the 21st Century. Away from recording music, Shelton has appeared in six films, and had voice roles in two others between 2005-2019, he has also many television credits, including being a coach on the American ‘NBC’s,’ ‘The Voice,’ since its inception in 2011.

The discography of Blake Shelton includes 12 studio Albums released between 2001-2021, and 52 singles issued within the same time period. He has also released four extended plays, three of which have charted on the Billboard Country Music Album chart, and two of which have reached the Billboard 200 Album charts top 5 in America, there are also five official compilation Albums available. In America on the ‘Billboard Hot Country’ singles chart, 46 of those tracks have charted within the top 40, with 14 making the Number 1 spot, while on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, 18 of his singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Boys ‘Round Here’ featuring Pistol Annies and Friends, peaking the highest at Number 12 in 2013. ‘Austin reached Number 1 on the Country chart, and Number 18 on the Hot 100, while in the UK, he has never charted within the top 40 singles chart.

‘Austin’ was the first of three singles released from Blake Shelton’s self titled debut studio Album from July 2001. The song was co-written by David Kent, and Kirsti Manna, with the production, and also the Album’s production, credited to Bobby Braddock. Kent and Manna had first offered ‘Austin’ to the Country Music artist Clay Walker, but he turned it down. On first hearing the song Shelton and Braddock were not two keen either, Braddock has said, ‘About a third of the way through the song, I was thinking, this is pretty corny,This is kinda like one of those Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan love stories. By the end of the song, I had a lump in my throat. Blake, not the real ‘sensitive guy,’ found it a little mushy for his taste, but I asked him to listen again, and he warmed up to it a bit.’

Bobby Braddock was born Robert Valentine Braddock, on August 5th, 1940, in Lakeland, Florida,United States, he is a member of the ‘Country Music Hall of Fame,’ and the ‘Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.’ Braddock has written, or co-written 13 American Country Number 1 singles, with his best known composition in the UK being his 1968 co-write with Curly Putman, (1930-2016) (see also best songs 964 and 646) ‘D-I-V-O-R-C-E,’ which reached Number 12 in 1975 for Tammy Wynette (1942-1998) (see also best songs 329.) Another Braddock, and Putman co-write ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today,’ which was recorded by George Jones (1931-2013) in 1980, has been voted ‘Country Song of the Century’ in a poll by ‘Radio & Records’ magazine, as well as ‘Best Country Song of All Time,’ in a poll conducted by the ‘BBC,’ and ‘Country America’ magazine. It was Braddock who discovered Blake Shelton, getting him signed to his first recording contract, and then producing several of Shelton’ Country Number 1 songs.

It’s ironic that Braddock, who is nicknamed ‘The King of Tears,’ was not over keen on recording ‘Austin’ when he first heard it, as the song is one of the best ‘tearjerkers’ of all time. ‘Austin tells the tale of a woman who leaves her boyfriend, and moves away to Austin, Texas, thinking that she will have a better life there, but within a year she realises that she was wrong, and that she still loves him. She calls him and is always greeted by the answerphone, which always ends with the boyfriend saying,’And P.S. if this is Austin, I still love you. Eventually she plucks up the courage to leave her phone number, and then he rings her.

‘If your callin’ ’bout my heart, it’s still yours, I should have listened to it a little more. Then it wouldn’t have taken me so long to know where I belong. And by the way, boy, this is no machine your talkin’ to, can’t you tell, this is Austin, and I still love you.’