“But For the Grace of God”

Keith Urban

Written by Charlotte Caffrey, Keith Urban, and Jane Wiedlin

Radio & Records

#1 (1 week)

February 16, 2001

Billboard

#1 (1 week)

February 24, 2001

What a record to be Keith Urban’s first No. 1 single.

In some ways, it’s so the Keith Urban we’d come to know. The writing is sophisticated and heartfelt, and his expressions of love are grounded in gratitude and humility. He’s already a fully formed singer too, giving a fully realized performance that gives away just how long he’d been working on his craft.

I love the way he shows empathy for those struggling too, finding the humanity in the rich and lonely man surrounded by only his things, as well as in the arguing couples in the apartment next store that have him reaching for his headphones to drown them out.

We don’t get to hear him tear up the guitar or bring any banjo into the mix, but what we do get is a perfect execution of nineties country that demonstrates how well he would’ve thrived if he’d broken through a decade earlier.

That the man wrote a heartfelt country ballad with one half of the Go-Go’s and made it his first No. 1 single was an early indication that he was a different kind of superstar. And it made him the second Aussie star to top each country chart, following Olivia Newton-John in Radio & Records and fellow rising star Jamie O’Neal, who is up next with a No. 1 hit that beat Urban to the top of the Billboard chart by one week.

“But For the Grace of God” gets an A.

Every No. 1 Single of the 2000s

Previous: Toby Keith, “You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This”” |

Next: Jamie O’Neal, “There is No Arizona”

Open in Spotify