Trivia / Steve Wariner

• Career Resurrection: From about 1997-2000, thanks to the perfect storm of hit songs he had written for others ("Longneck Bottle" by Garth Brooks, "Nothin' but the Taillights" by Clint Black, and "One Small Miracle" by Bryan White), his Sleeper Hit success on Anita Cochran's "What If I Said", and his subsequent release of "Holes in the Floor of Heaven". According to Wariner, some stations played "Longneck Bottle", "Nothin' but the Taillights", "One Small Miracle", and "What If I Said" consecutively.
• Chart Displacement: He has several #1 hits, none of which are "Kansas City Lights" or "Holes in the Floor of Heaven".
• Executive Meddling: Largely averted, as most critics and contemporaries noted that Steve got an unusually high amount of creative control in The '80s. However, he did point out one example: he had wanted to cut an instrumental album while on MCA, but executives would only let put him individual instrumental tracks on his albums, and he had to put a lot of pressure on Arista execs before they allowed No More Mr. Nice Guy.
• One-Hit Wonder: Obviously not Wariner himself, but some of his associated acts have been:
  • He sang duet vocals on Nicolette Larson's 1986 hit "That's How You Know When Love's Right", her only top 40 entry on the country charts.
  • Wariner was one of three featured vocalists on Mark O'Connor's 1991 hit "Restless". While the other two vocalists (Ricky Skaggs and Vince Gill) are very well known on the charts, O'Connor never saw Top 40 otherwise. Justified in that O'Connor is not a vocalist, although the song does feature him prominently on fiddle and originates from an album where he is the lead artist.
  • The radio single that caused his career resurrection was "What If I Said", a duet with Anita Cochran that proved to be her only top 40 hit as well.
• One-Take Wonder: Several songs in his catalog, most notably the entirety of Burnin' the Roadhouse Down.
• Production Posse: Many of his albums have included songs by Mac McAnally, John Barlow Jarvis, and Bill LaBounty. His brother Terry has also done backing vocals and played in his road band, and his sons Ryan and Ross have also performed on his albums many times.