It's hard to believe that Brooks & Dunn have been part of country music for 34 years, but it's true. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn released their debut single, "Brand New Man," on June 10, 1991. In honor of the anniversary of their first hit, we are taking a look at four of their biggest hits in country music.
Videos by Wide Open Country
1. "Neon Moon"
"Neon Moon" is Brooks & Dunn's fourth single, and an early indication of the star power the two possessed together. The feel-good, uptempo track, written solely by Dunn, was first recorded by Asleep at the Wheel, when Dunn was working solely as a songwriter.
But after forming Brooks & Dunn, the duo released it on their own. Decades later, Dunn acknowledges he had little hope of the song, now a multi-platinum hit, having any success.
"We were afraid of 'Boot Scoot,' and the label was, to release it. That's why they made it the fourth single on the first record," Dunn now admits (via The Boot). "They were afraid that it was too, I don't know - progressive is not the word - but just kind of pushing the limits too much."
2. "My Maria"
"My Maria" is also one of Brooks & Dunn's biggest hits, and also perhaps an unlikely choice. With both Brooks and Dunn talented songwriters, "My Maria" is a cover of a B. W. Stephenson song, who also released it as a single in 1973.
Perhaps surprisingly, it took some convincing from Brooks for Dunn to record the vocal.
"I thought, 'Oh man, it's just that falsetto thing,'" Dunn recalls (via Songfacts). "It's a rock song, in my opinion. And I was very much wrong."
3. "Only in America"
"Only in America" became one of Brooks & Dunn's biggest hits, but sadly for a tragic reason. The song was released in June of 2001, only a few months before the devastating 9/11 attacks. Little could Brooks have known at the time that the song that he helped write would become an anthem the nation desperately needed.
"It starts going up the charts," Brooks recalls (via American Songwriter). "It was about somewhere in the Top 10 ... when 9/11 happened. And our country woke up to a morning that we had never seen before, and our true patriotic heart started pounding. ... To see our country just rally in a way where people are just hugging policemen, and anyone in the service is all of a sudden is respected for what they were and their commitment to our country. And that song all of a sudden took on a life of its own."
4. "Brand New Man"
No list of Brooks & Dunn hits would be complete without "Brand New Man," the song that started their career. The song was a risk, but a risk both men were willing to take, because of how strongly they believed in the song.
"We started where most songs don't by doing the chorus first," Dunn tells Wide Open Country. "That doesn't happen much, so it kind of comes strong out of the box at you."
Dunn and Brooks wrote "Brand New Man" with Don Cook. It was Dunn who had the idea for the song, calling it "I'm A Changed Man" instead.
"Kix goes, 'How about 'Brand New Man'?'" Dunn remembers. "I said, 'Okay, let's go there and see what happens.' So we wrote it, recorded it the next day."
