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"That Was Yesterday" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Donna Fargo. It was released in April 1977 as the first single from the album Fargo Country. The song became her sixth and final No. 1 song on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart.

Background

When she first tried cutting "That Was Yesterday," Fargo was dissatisfied with the finished product - she had claimed the song sounded too much like Patsy Cline, and instead she (Fargo) was more of a writer/interpreter, she told Patsi Cox of Country Soung Roundup magazine. But since Warner Bros. Records had already committed to the track, she decided to take a copy of the session tape home and attempt to come up with a better product.

At first, she had written some prose, envisioning alternating between the existing vocal track and a speaking part. But nobody liked that either. Then, she decided to recite the lyrics from start to finish, with a chorus backing her. That version worked, and it was released as a single.

The finished product, styled in the country pop vein, reflects on a relationship that had just ended. The narrator speaks about the many good times and positive attributes of her now-ex. She then tries to point at what caused the relationship to fail and that all those good times shared together are now a thing of the past, but then admits she still has a positive outlook for both of their futures.

Chart performance

"That Was Yesterday" reached No. 1 on July 2, 1977, knocking Waylon Jennings' "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" out of the Hot Country Singles chart's top spot after six weeks. In doing so, the song earned two distinctions:

• It became just the second wall-to-wall recitation to reach No. 1 during the 1970s. To date, "That Was Yesterday" is the last all-spoken-word song to top the Billboard country chart.
• It became the first single on the Warner Bros. Records label to reach the No. 1 spot on the Billboard country chart.

References

1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 119.
2. ^ "The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits" (Billboard Books, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1991, ISBN 0-82-307553-2), p. 196.
3. "Donna Fargo Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
4. "Hot Country Songs – Year-End 1977". Billboard. Retrieved August 2, 2021.

• 1977 singles
• Donna Fargo songs
• Songs written by Donna Fargo
• Warner Records singles
• 1977 songs
• Recitation songs