Overview
"1994" is a song written by Thomas Rhett, Luke Laird, and Barry Dean and recorded by American country music artist Jason Aldean. It was released in March 2013 as the third single from Aldean's 2012 album Night Train. A tribute to Joe Diffie referencing many of his songs, the song has received mixed reviews from music critics. The song peaked at numbers 10 and 14 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts respectively. It also reached number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting sales of over 500,000 units in that country. It garnered similar chart success in Canada, reaching number 18 on the Country chart and number 65 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart.
The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Wes Edwards.
Content
The song, a tribute to Joe Diffie, refers to many of his songs: "Third Rock from the Sun", "John Deere Green", "Ships That Don't Come In", "Honky Tonk Attitude", "Pickup Man", "So Help Me Girl", "A Night to Remember", and "C-O-U-N-T-R-Y".
Upon being sent a copy of the song by Billboard, Diffie said, "What else can you say but what an honor it is to have the larger part of a song reference songs of mine. To think all of Jason's fans will be chanting my name… pretty dang cool." He also praised Aldean's overall musical styles, saying that Aldean is "pushing the envelope."
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).