Find Out Who Your Friends Are

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are" is a song written by Casey Beathard and Ed Hill, and recorded by American country music artist Tracy Lawrence. It was the lead-off single for his album For the Love, which was released in early 2007 on Rocky Comfort Records, a label which Lawrence owns. Originally released in August 2006, the single did not enter the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart until January 2007.

After the release of For the Love, radio stations began to play an alternate version of the song which featured guest vocals from Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, thus helping to boost the song to Number One on both the Billboard and Mediabase country singles charts.^[1] Upon reaching Number One in June 2007, "Find out Who Your Friends Are" set a new record for the slowest-climbing Number One single in the history of the Billboard country music chart, as well as the second-slowest climbing on any Billboard singles chart. In addition, it became Lawrence's first Billboard Number One since 1996's "Time Marches On", ten years earlier.

Content

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are" is a mid-tempo in which the narrator tells of various situations where a person might be in trouble, and thus might need a friend's help – such as having a car stuck in a ditch, or being short on money. The song's chorus states that in such moments, a person finds out who his or her friends are.

Upon hearing the song, Lawrence said that he immediately identified with its message, and thought that it would be a good choice for a lead-off single to his album. According to him, "The message is universal for everybody you know […] I enjoy singing stuff that has a good message."^[2]

Chart performance

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are" made its debut on the Hot Country Songs chart dated September 19, 2006. The song did not enter Top 40 until the chart dated for January 13, 2007, although it fell out of the Top 40 a week later. By the January 27 charts, the song had re-entered.

It reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated June 23, 2007, where it stayed for one week. The song became Lawrence's first Billboard Number One single since "Time Marches On" in 1996, and his first Number One on any major trade chart since 1997's "Is That a Tear", which reached Number One on the former Radio & Records country chart.^[1]

Having reached the top of the chart in its 41st chart week, the song also set a new record for the slowest climb to Number One on the country chart,^[3] as well as a record for the second-slowest climb for a Number One single on any Billboard chart.^[4] "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" also replaced Emerson Drive's "Moments" at Number One, marking the first time since 1950 that two artists on independently distributed labels reached Number One back-to-back on the singles chart.^[5] In addition, Lawrence became the first artist to reach Number One with the first release from a self-owned record label.^[6]^[7]

Cease and desist order

Lawrence's album For the Love features two versions of the song: one version sung by Lawrence himself, and a remixed version featuring guest vocals from country music artists Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, both of whom are friends of Lawrence's.^[8] Only the solo version was released to radio as a single; however, upon the release of Lawrence's album, several radio stations began playing the version with McGraw and Chesney's vocals instead. (Both versions were counted as one song when the singles charts were tabulated.)^[8]

The week before the single reached Number One, Sony BMG (the parent company of BNA Records, the label to which Chesney is signed) e-mailed a cease-and-desist order to several radio stations that were monitored by Billboard, demanding that these stations cease playing the version featuring McGraw and Chesney's vocals. According to the letter, which was written by Sony BMG's president, Sony BMG "did not grant 'singles' rights to Rocky Comfort with respect to the album versions of this song and has not authorized any radio station to play this recording".^[9] Despite the demands from Sony BMG, radio stations did not stop playing the version with McGraw and Chesney.^[10] One day after the release of that letter, Sony BMG issued a formal apology to the radio stations to which the cease-and-desist order had been sent.^[10]

Music video

A music video for the song debuted on the television network CMT on August 16, 2007, at which point the song had fallen from the charts and entered recurrent rotation. In the video, a man (Ronnie Gilley of Enterprise, AL) hits a circumstance similar to the lyrics of the song and finds himself stranded "in the middle of nowhere." Though his cellular reception is very poor, he is able to contact George Jones, who then calls Darryl Worley (who is relaxing in a pool with several women) and several others. Worley who then calls Roy Oswalt who is working out with several other athletes; everyone contacted arrives in a cavalcade of vehicles to help with the predicament. Larry the Cable Guy makes a cameo in the video. The video is directed by Flick Wiltshire.

Chart performance

Chart (2006-2007)	Peak position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)^[11]	1
US Billboard Hot 100^[12]	61
US Billboard Pop 100	96
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)^[13]	69

Year-end charts

Chart (2007)	Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)^[14]	16

Preceded by "Moments" by Emerson Drive	Billboard Hot Country Songs number-one single June 23, 2007	Succeeded by "Ticks" by Brad Paisley

References

1 2 "Tracy Lawrence Make History With Hit Single "Find Out Who Your Friends Are"". Top40-Charts.com. 2007-06-12. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
↑ Tracy Lawrence Identified Immediately With "Friends"
↑ Rihanna's Hot 100 hat trick with 'Umbrella'
↑ Chart Beat Chat
↑ T-Pain toasts first No. 1 album
↑ Tracy Lawrence finds out he's number one
↑ Tracy Lawrence Makes History on Country Singles Chart
1 2 Sony BMG Nashville 'Demands' Radio Stop Playing Album Cut
↑ Sony BMG Nashville Demands Radio Cease Playing Song
1 2 Sony BMG Nashville Apologizes To Radio
↑ "Tracy Lawrence – Chart history" Billboard Hot Country Songs for Tracy Lawrence.
↑ "Tracy Lawrence – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Tracy Lawrence.
↑ "Tracy Lawrence – Chart history" Canadian Hot 100 for Tracy Lawrence.
↑ "Best of 2007: Country Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2007.

External links

"Find Out Who Your Friends Are" video at CMT.com
Song lyrics at CMT.com
Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

Tracy Lawrence

Studio albums	Sticks and Stones Alibis I See It Now Time Marches On The Coast Is Clear Lessons Learned Tracy Lawrence Strong For the Love All Wrapped Up in Christmas The Rock

Compilation albums	Tracy Lawrence Live and Unplugged The Best of Tracy Lawrence Then & Now: The Hits Collection The Very Best of Tracy Lawrence

Notable singles	"Sticks and Stones" "Today's Lonely Fool" "Runnin' Behind" "Somebody Paints the Wall" "Alibis" "Can't Break It to My Heart" "My Second Home" "If the Good Die Young" "Renegades, Rebels and Rogues" "I See It Now" "As Any Fool Can See" "Texas Tornado" "If the World Had a Front Porch" "If You Loved Me" "Time Marches On" "Stars over Texas" "Is That a Tear" "Better Man, Better Off" "How a Cowgirl Says Goodbye" "The Coast Is Clear" "Lessons Learned" "Lonely" "Unforgiven" "Life Don't Have to Be So Hard" "Paint Me a Birmingham" "It's All How You Look at It" "Used to the Pain" "Find Out Who Your Friends Are"

Related articles	Discography Atlantic Records Warner Bros. Records Rocky Comfort Records

Tim McGraw singles

Discography

Not a Moment Too Soon	"Indian Outlaw" "Don't Take the Girl" "Down on the Farm" "Not a Moment Too Soon" "Refried Dreams"

All I Want	"I Like It, I Love It" "Can't Be Really Gone" "All I Want Is a Life" "She Never Lets It Go to Her Heart" "Maybe We Should Just Sleep on It"

Everywhere	"It's Your Love" (with Faith Hill) "Everywhere" "Just to See You Smile" "One of These Days" "Where the Green Grass Grows" "For a Little While"

A Place in the Sun	"Please Remember Me" "Something Like That" "My Best Friend" "Some Things Never Change" "My Next Thirty Years"

Set This Circus Down	"Grown Men Don't Cry" "Angry All the Time" "The Cowboy in Me" "Unbroken"

Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors	"Red Rag Top" "Tiny Dancer" "She's My Kind of Rain" "Real Good Man" "Watch the Wind Blow By"

Live Like You Were Dying	"Live Like You Were Dying" "Back When" "Drugs or Jesus" "Do You Want Fries with That" "My Old Friend"

Reflected: Greatest Hits Vol. 2	"When the Stars Go Blue" "My Little Girl"

Let It Go	"Last Dollar (Fly Away)" "I Need You" (with Faith Hill) "If You're Reading This" "Suspicions" "Kristofferson" "Let It Go" "Nothin' to Die For"

Southern Voice	"It's a Business Doing Pleasure with You" "Southern Voice" "Still"

Number One Hits	"Felt Good on My Lips"

Country Strong	"Me and Tennessee" (with Gwyneth Paltrow)

Emotional Traffic	"Better Than I Used to Be"

Two Lanes of Freedom	"Truck Yeah" "One of Those Nights" "Highway Don't Care" (with Taylor Swift and Keith Urban) "Southern Girl"

Sundown Heaven Town	"Lookin' for That Girl" "Meanwhile Back at Mama's" (with Faith Hill) "Shotgun Rider" "Diamond Rings and Old Barstools" (with Catherine Dunn)

Damn Country Music	"Top of the World" "Humble and Kind" "How I'll Always Be"

Guest singles	"Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me" (with Faith Hill) "Let's Make Love" (with Faith Hill) "Bring On the Rain" (with Jo Dee Messina) "Over and Over" (with Nelly) "Like We Never Loved at All" (with Faith Hill) "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" (with Tracy Lawrence and Kenny Chesney) "Nine Lives" (with Def Leppard) "Feel Like a Rock Star" (with Kenny Chesney) "Lovin' Lately" (with Big & Rich) "May We All" (with Florida Georgia Line)

Other songs	"City Lights" "The Ride"

Kenny Chesney singles

In My Wildest Dreams	"Whatever It Takes" "The Tin Man" "Somebody's Callin'"

All I Need to Know	"Fall in Love" "All I Need to Know" "Grandpa Told Me So"

Me and You	"Back in My Arms Again" "Me and You" "When I Close My Eyes"

I Will Stand	"She's Got It All" "A Chance" "That's Why I'm Here" "I Will Stand"

Everywhere We Go	"How Forever Feels" "You Had Me from Hello" "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" "What I Need to Do"

Greatest Hits	"I Lost It" "Don't Happen Twice" "The Tin Man" (re-release)

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems	"Young" "The Good Stuff" "A Lot of Things Different" "Big Star" "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems"

When the Sun Goes Down	"There Goes My Life" "When the Sun Goes Down" (w/ Uncle Kracker) "I Go Back" "The Woman with You" "Anything but Mine" "Keg in the Closet"

The Road and the Radio	"Who You'd Be Today" "Living in Fast Forward" "Summertime" "You Save Me" "Beer in Mexico"

Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates	"Never Wanted Nothing More" "Don't Blink" "Shiftwork" (w/ George Strait) "Better as a Memory"

Lucky Old Sun	"Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" (w/ The Wailers) "Down the Road" (w/ Mac McAnally)

Greatest Hits II	"Out Last Night" "I'm Alive" (w/ Dave Matthews) "Ain't Back Yet"

Hemingway's Whiskey	"The Boys of Fall" "Somewhere with You" "Live a Little" "You and Tequila" (w/ Grace Potter) "Reality"

Welcome to the Fishbowl	"Feel Like a Rock Star" (w/ Tim McGraw) "Come Over" "El Cerrito Place"

Life on a Rock	"Pirate Flag" "When I See This Bar"

The Big Revival	"American Kids" "Til It's Gone" "Wild Child" (w/ Grace Potter) "Save It for a Rainy Day"

Cosmic Hallelujah	"Noise" "Setting the World on Fire" (w/ Pink) "Bar at the End of the World"

Guest singles	"Hey, Good Lookin'" (w/ Jimmy Buffett, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith and George Strait) "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" (w/ Tracy Lawrence and Tim McGraw) "Every Other Weekend" (w/ Reba McEntire)

See also	Discography "Back Where I Come From" "Baptism" "Some People Change" "Take Me There" "Turning Home"

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