Time Marches On (song)

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"Time Marches On"
Single by Tracy Lawrence
from the album Time Marches On
Released March 18, 1996
Format CD single
Genre Country
Length 3:03
Label Atlantic
Writer(s) Bobby Braddock
Producer Don Cook
Tracy Lawrence singles chronology
"If You Loved Me"
(1996)
"Time Marches On"
(1996)
"Stars over Texas"
(1996)

"Time Marches On" is the title of a country music song recorded by Tracy Lawrence. It was written by Bobby Braddock, who also wrote Lawrence's 1995 Number One hit "Texas Tornado". The title track and second single from his fourth studio album, it was the fifteenth chart single of his career. It spent three weeks at Number One on the Billboard country charts in mid-1996, becoming the longest-lasting Number One hit of his career.[1] It also received a Single of the Year nomination from the Country Music Association in 1996,[2] as well as a Song of the Year nomination for both 1996 and 1997.

Contents

[edit] Content

The song is a mid-tempo which details various events in the lives of a married couple and their two children, starting with the children's childhoods, then moving through their teenage and adult years. In the bridge, the narrator observes that "the only thing that stays the same is/that everything changes". By the final verse, the children have grown up and moved away, the daughter is now a grandparent, the son is on a cholesterol-control diet, the mother is senile and the father is dead. Each verse also references various items of pop culture from the years depicted.

[edit] Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard magazine in her review of the album called the song a "quirky kind of 'Pilgrim's Progress' set in the saga of a white-trash family."[3] Price also reviewed the song as an official single. She called it an "intriguing song that chronicles the life of a family in different stages; it uses vivid images that connect the listener to the lyric through the characters and cultural references." She goes on to say that "Lawrence's delivery and Cook's production are right on target..."[4]

[edit] Music video

The music video was directed by Marc Ball and premiered in March 1996. It shows Lawrence performing in front of an audience. It was filmed at Coyote Joe's in Charlotte, North Carolina.

[edit] Chart positions

"Time Marches On" debuted at number 64 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 23, 1996.

Chart (1996) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks 1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 1

[edit] References

  1. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2008). Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008. Record Research, Inc. ISBN 0-89820-177-2. 
  2. ^ "CMA Awards database". Country Music Association. http://cmaawards.com/2008/database/ArtistDetail.aspx?artistId=577. Retrieved 2008-09-27. 
  3. ^ Billboard, March 9, 1996
  4. ^ Billboard, April 6, 1996
Preceded by
"Blue Clear Sky"
by George Strait
Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks
number-one single

June 22-July 6, 1996
Succeeded by
"No One Needs to Know"
by Shania Twain
RPM Country Tracks
number-one single

June 24, 1996
Succeeded by
"High Lonesome Sound"
by Vince Gill
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