YMMV / Kenny Chesney

• Covered Up:
  • "When I Close My Eyes" was originally recorded by Keith Palmer, and then by Restless Heart lead singer Larry Stewart on his first solo album.
  • Zig-zagged with two Mac McAnally songs:
    • "Back Where I Come From" was Mac's only Top 40 country hit as a singer (he's had several more as a songwriter), but the song is more associated with Chesney — he sang it for many years in concert, and included versions on two different albums (a studio version on Me and You, a live version on his first Greatest Hits Album).
    • "Down the Road" (incidentally, released by Mac as a followup to "Back Where I Come From") was recorded by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Shenandoah lead singer Marty Raybon, and Restless Heart (on an album that Mac produced, no less) before Chesney had a #1 hit with a version featuring Mac on duet vocals and acoustic guitar.
  • "Some People Change," a cut from When the Sun Goes Down, was later a single for Montgomery Gentry off their album of the same name.
  • Although Chesney co-wrote "I'm Alive," it was originally recorded by Willie Nelson on an album that Chesney produced.
  • "El Cerrito Place" was originally recorded by its writer, Keith Gattis, and then by Charlie Robison.
  • "You and Tequila" was previously recorded by both of its writers: Deana Carter (of "Strawberry Wine" fame) and Matraca Berg.
• Growing the Beard: Chesney referenced this in an interview with Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40. He said in the late 1990s, he saw several guys on CMT doing the same thing he was, and began questioning whether he was really the "hat act" persona he'd been playing to that point. Over the next several years, he began to move to party anthems, and then again to acoustic ballads.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In 1999, he had a #1 hit with "You Had Me from Hello", inspired by a line spoken by Renée Zellweger in Jerry Maguire. Six years later, Chesney was briefly married to Zellweger.
• Second Verse Curse: The radio edit of "When I See This Bar" cut an entire verse and some lines from the coda.

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