How ‘Whiskey Glasses’ became an unexpected hit
“Poor me,” Morgan Wallen wails on the opening line of “Whiskey Glasses,” stretching out the two-word phrase before he repeats it again with a completely different meaning — “Pour me another drink.”
It’s the kind of first lyric that grabs you right away and contains a clever twist, the ideal scenario for any country song. And for “Whiskey Glasses,” one of this year’s most unexpected hits, it has worked out quite well.
Not only has the upbeat breakup anthem sold more than 350,000 copies and earned 125 million streams on Spotify, it landed 26year-old Wallen his second No. 1 hit: “Whiskey Glasses” topped the country radio charts for three weeks this summer, a rarity in a genre that quickly cycles through the songs at the top of the chart.
“There were a lot of cool things about the song that drew me to it pretty much immediately,” said Wallen, who is nominated for best new artist at Wednesday’s Country Music Association Awards. “The way it has blown up has been really crazy to see.”
“Whiskey Glasses” was written by Kevin Kadish — best known for co-writing some of Meghan Trainor’s biggest hits (“All About That Bass,” “Lips Are Movin”) and Jason Mraz’s “Wordplay” — and Ben
Burgess, who has written for country stars from Dierks Bentley to Jake Owen. While a seemingly unlikely pair, Burgess theorized that’s why “Whiskey Glasses” worked. He dubbed himself, Kadish and Wallen “a crazy trifecta of wild dudes that are all uniquely different in our own way.”
In 2015, Burgess walked into a songwriting session with an idea for a song title typed into his phone: “Whiskey Glasses.” He didn’t know what it meant exactly, but Kadish was immediately intrigued. After all, there were lots of songs about beer goggles. Why not write one about whiskey glasses?
“I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been written already,” Kadish said. Although he doesn’t drink, he loved the idea. “People all self-medicate in their own ways.”
They determined the song would be about a guy upset about a bad breakup who decided to turn to booze. Suddenly, Burgess had a memory from childhood: If his dad had too much to drink, the next morning he would lie on the couch and half-sing, half-moan, “Poor Pappy … oh, pour your Pappy a drink.”
“It was a big joke in our house … kind of like a demented lullaby,” Burgess said.
Wallen loved the song as soon as it was pitched to him, and he turned to producer Joey Moi, famous for his work with Nickelback and his help launching Florida Georgia Line into the stratosphere with “Cruise.”
The success of “Whiskey Glasses” marked a transformative year for Wallen, who embarked on his second headlining tour, opened for Florida Georgia Line on its arena tour and has suddenly found himself on prediction lists for best new artist nominees at the Grammy Awards. “Whiskey Glasses” was his second No. 1 song, but the achievement was especially significant because his first chart-topper, the party-centric “Up Down,” featured Florida Georgia Line.
“I’m sure there were some people who thought, ‘Oh, he got a No. 1 just because FGL is on there,’ ” Wallen said. “So it’s cool that … my very next song goes No. 1. Hopefully it proved I’d like to be around and keep doing this.
“Especially over this past year, I’ve connected a lot with fans and seen how much the music we’ve been making means to people.”