Lee Brice is one of country music’s best. He’s an incredible entertainer who continues to put out hit after hit. Just this past week, Lee’s 2014 single ‘I Don’t Dance’ was certified double-Platinum by the RIAA. That means over 2,000,000 copies have been sold! The single had previously gone Number One in August of 2014 and it wasn’t his first Number One as he had three previous singles reach the top of the charts (‘A Woman Like You,’ ‘Hard to Love’ and ‘I Drive Your Truck’). While he’s had some incredible success as both a singer and songwriter, we’re thinking ‘I Don’t Dance’ is and will always be the biggest song of his career.
First off, we’re not overlooking the success he had with other singles. We’ve already mentioned his three previous Number Ones. And we’re not forgetting that ‘I Drive Your Truck’ won both a CMA Award and ACM Award for Song of the Year. If it wasn’t for ‘I Don’t Dance,’ we’d put ‘I Drive Your Truck’ at the top of the list. It’s a great song. It’s patriotic and it hits homes with us here in New England with the song’s subject, Jared Monti, being a New England native. But here’s the deal, Lee didn’t write ‘I Drive Your Truck,’ but that’s still not the reason why we’re saying ‘I Don’t Dance’ will go down as the most important song in Lee Brice’s career.
Lee, along with Ron Hatch and Dallas Davidson, wrote this song for Lee’s wife for their wedding day. It was never intended to have the commercial success it did. Heck, it wasn’t even intended to be released to the public. But the trio knew they had a hit after they completed it. And while country music songwriting is heavily rooted in real life experience, it’s not always based on that particular songwriters’ real life experience- a lot of the time it’s someone else’s experience or sometimes what could be someone’s experience. ‘I Don’t Dance’ was. Songwriting in the country music world is all about telling a story and the song did just that. The inspiration behind this song was Lee’s wife. It was their love that brought this song to life. And while Lee wrote this song for his wife specifically, since it was released, it has become the song for so many couples in love. We guarantee that a lot of people have taken this song and had their first dances at their weddings to it or dedicated it to their loved one on the radio. And that’s why we think ‘I Don’t Dance’ will forever be the highlight of Lee’s career- because of the impact that it’s had on the actual lives of everyday people.
With 2,000,000+ units sold, Lee Brice has truly made an impact with a single song and not because of the commercial success. ‘I Don’t Dance’ is a song about true love, based on real experience. That’s truly something special as many of the most successful songs today are full of drinking and trucks or even heartbreak for that matter. We’re sure Lee will continue to crank out hit songs and have more great success but it’s going to be tough to compete with ‘I Don’t Dance.’