The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #304

#304: "I Wonder" (2006) - Kellie Pickler

Music cannot exist in a vacuum. Geoge Lucas might not have known this, but Stanley Kubrick did. The producers of American Idol did (and do), too. One of the reasons millions of Americans (proudly including me) watch the reality show is because of the human interest segments they produce on select contestants. One of the best of these segments was Kellie Pickler's, showing her back on her grandfathers' farm in Palestine, North Carolina. Pickler had lived with her grandparents ever since she was two, when her twenty-year old mother abandoned her, and she was left to live with her paternal grandparents (her father was/is an alcoholic, drug addict, and convicted violent criminal).

In her interviews and performances, Pickler came across as the sweetest naive little country girl you ever did see, and her obvious love and devotion to her grandfather (and little brother) was as heartwarming as the story of her mother's abandonment was heartbreaking. Pickler's aww-shucks charm won the judges over, even snooty Simon. Alas, Pickler didn't win that year (though she finished in the top twelve); however, she has since found major success in Nashville, where her debut album went gold and won her an ASCAP award for her songwriting (as she co-penned half the album). Her first single, "Red High Heels," reached the top twenty of the country charts, and the video of that song made it to #1 on the GAC Top 20 Countdown.

I didn't find "Red High Heels" too exciting; it had its charm (Pickler's vocal, mainly), but it didn't seem special, and it blended in with the rest of Music Row's cookie-cutter country. The album's second single--"I Wonder"--didn't stand out from the pack either, production-wise. It harbors the typical Nashville sound. The sheen could not, however, completely gloss over the story within. It's a story as good as the ones in Dolly Parton's classic"Coat of Many Colors" and Loretta Lynn's recent "Little Red Shoes" and Patty Loveless's "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" (though Pickler's music isn't anywhere near up to the likes of those legends). It's a bittersweet story, heartbreaking and triumphant, sad and victorious, and in Pickler's vocals we hear those emotions conflicting. She doesn't oversing the song (trying for that big Celine Dion moment); she doesn't treat it as treacle, blubbering and whispering throughout; and she doesn't treat it as a harsh homily or an admonition. She's proud of what she's become, yet we still hear how truly sad she is--how much she's missed having her mother around--even in the last line she sings. This tragic underpinning helps give the song--and Pickler herself--a sense of true glory.

NOTE: This record was originally much higher up the charts (somewhere in the top 100), with a much longer explication and explanation of its merits, stardom, and American Idol. However, just this week I realized that tomorrow is my mother's birthday. I browsed through the songs that were left on my chart, and nothing really fit. This one comes close, though.

My mother neved abandoned me; in fact, she's been my most ardent supporter in (just) about everything I've ever done. She was there for my prom, cheered me on at football games (okay, I was in the band...but still), and all the stuff that Pickler's mom was never there for. My mom is most decidedly not Pickler's mom, and that's why I'm dedicating this song to her...and also, I think my mom would probably like this song (at least more than 95% of what's on my chart).

So, I'm putting "I Wonder" right here, on the day before my mother turns fifty-nine. This one goes out to you, Mom. Happy Birthday. I love you.

Andy