Allan was born and raised in La Mirada, California, to Harley and Mary Herzberg. To ensure that the family would focus on music, Allan's mother insisted that the family's guitars would always remain visible in the home. At age thirteen, Allan began playing in honky tonks with his father. Two years later, he was offered his first recording contract, from A&M Records, but rejected the deal. His parents wanted him to finish his education and his father felt that Allan had yet to develop his own distinctive style. Despite his commitment to finishing school, Allan reflects that he was rarely alert in class. "I played the bars at night, I was half asleep when I got to school. I thought sleep was what you did when you got to school." After finishing school, he continued to play in the bars with his band, the Honky Tonk Wranglers. Many of the venues they played were packed, and promoters often tried to move them to larger clubs. The moves would have required him to stop playing some of the older country music, such as covers of George Jones songs, so Allan refused.
Allan was introduced to songwriter/producer Byron Hill on August 28, 1993 by a mutual friend and talent-scout Jim Seal at a bar called the Lion D'or in Downey, California, where Allan was already regularly performing. Seal and Hill had asked Allan if they could showcase an unsigned act that they were developing there. Hill had arranged to bring the head of A&R from a major label to the show to see this other act perform. Allan kindly let them use his stage for the event, giving the new act the opening performance slot that night. Hill promised Gary that they would make sure the A&R person remained there to see his portion of the show. Everyone was knocked out with Allan's performance, and very impressed with his voice. From that point on, Hill began sending Allan songs. Without any serious funding at the time, Hill arranged for Allan to go into Seal's small studio in California to try his vocals on some of existing demo tracks that Hill had sent to Allan from Nashville, Tennessee. Meanwhile, Hill became head of A&R at BNA Entertainment on October 29 of that same year and immediately wanted to sign Allan to BNA, but the then current roster conditions and other circumstances related to the planned restructuring of RCA/BNA Nashville stood in the way.
In the meantime, Allan took a job selling cars. He left a demo tape in the glove box of a car purchased by a wealthy couple. When the couple discovered that he was the singer, they wrote him a check for $12,000. This independent funding allowed Allan to go to Nashville to record some of the songs that were on that early demo tape with Hill as producer. On September 11, 1995, they worked at Javelina Studios for a couple of days on the four songs that Hill immediately showed to labels. Allan's recordings brought serious responses from several labels including Mercury, RCA, and Decca. A meeting was then held at a Nashville hotel among Hill, Allan, and friend of Allan's, who was a program director for a radio station in California, to arrange two showcases in Los Angeles, California, to put Allan on stage at two of the radio station's regular nights at a local club. Byron arranged for staffers at the Nashville office of Decca Records to attend the first showcase held on November 1, 1995. Decca immediately wanted to sign Allan, and knowing that Byron was lining up other labels to see Gary, Decca asked them to cancel the second showcase. A rep from RCA was already booked to see the second showcase the following week, but the "bird-in-hand" deal offer was too tempting for both Hill and Allan, so they committed to the Decca offer.
His first deal, with Decca Records Nashville, produced the 1996 album Used Heart for Sale. The album was named "Best of the Month" by Stereo Review. It advanced to the top 20 of the charts, and produced a Top 10 country hit with the track Her Man (previously recorded by Waylon Jennings). Other tracks from the album, however, proved less successful.
His second album, It Would Be You, was released in 1998. Although Allan had been writing songs since he was a teenager, he does not hesitate to bump his work from his albums in favor of those written by other songwriters he respects. For his second album, Allan replaced one of his songs with No Judgement Day, written by Allen Shamblin. Although the song was a hidden acoustic track, radio stations began giving it heavy airplay. The song tells the story of a shopkeeper in Texas, whose children killed him in search of money. The title track of the album became Allan's second top 10 hit of the year, remaining in the top 10 after 21 weeks of radio play, "way beyond the tenure of most disposable radio hits." At the beginning of 1999, Decca Records folded, and when Allan moved to the parent label, MCA Nashville, It Would Be You was left in limbo.
In 1999, Allan released Smoke Rings in the Dark, an album he recorded while in the midst of a divorce from his second wife, Versace model Danette Day, after only seven months of marriage. Unlike his first two albums, Smoke Rings in the Dark made fuller use of background singers and stringed instruments, "resulting in a lusher, fuller sound." The new album avoided the "devil-may-care brashness" of the first two, instead presenting a tone balanced between youthful optimism and "the knowledge that some of life's experiences exact a high toll." Smoke Rings in the Dark was certified platinum, and it included two successful singles.
In 2001 the album Alright Guy was released. It contained the singles The One, Man of Me, and Man to Man, the latter of which became his first Billboard No. 1 hit. The same year, Allan married for the third time, to Angela, a flight attendant he met on an airplane.
Despite his previous success and eight years in the music business, Allan was nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award, typically given to newcomers, in 2003. The same year he released his fifth album, See If I Care. Allan had to fight to keep the title, which he felt epitomized his attitude towards the music business, that he would continue to make the music that he wanted to make regardless of whether the record label chose to back him or people chose to buy the album. See If I Care included his second and third Number One singles, Tough Little Boys and Nothing On but the Radio. Songs About Rain was a top 15 hit.
In 2003, Allan and his wife, Angela Herzberg, moved to Tennessee from California. On October 25, 2004, Angela Herzberg committed suicide after suffering from depression and migraines. Allan initially put his career on hold, but soon turned to music to deal with the loss of his wife. This resulted in 2005's "heart-wrenchingly personal album," Tough All Over. He included several songs which he wrote or cowrote, including Puttin' Memories Away and I Just Got Back from Hell, which dealt directly with his grief. Several years later, Gary discussed his wife's suicide on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Tough All Over sold over 99,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the magazine's Top Country Albums chart. It was subsequently certified gold by the RIAA as of December 20, 2006, and contained the top 10 singles Best I Ever Had (written by Vertical Horizon's Matt Scannell) and Life Ain't Always Beautiful, co-written by country singer Cyndi Thomson (under the name Cyndi Goodman).
Allan's first Greatest Hits collection was released on March 6, 2007. A Number One album on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts, the album reprised the greatest hits from his first six albums, as well as two new songs. One of these, titled A Feelin' Like That, was co-written by David Lee Murphy and Ira Dean (the latter a former member of Trick Pony); the single peaked at #12 on the country singles charts.
Allan's album titled Living Hard, was released on October 23, 2007. Serving as its lead-off single was the song Watching Airplanes, which spent more than thirty weeks on the country charts, where it reached a peak of #2 and went #1 on the Mediabase Chart. The song's music video was filmed during live concerts, including one at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. Second single Learning How to Bend – co-written by Allan – quickly became another hit song, peaking at #13. The video was filmed during a live performance at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Following this song is third single She's So California, which Allan co-wrote with Jaime Hanna (of Hanna-McEuen) and Jon Randall, and it peaked at #24, becoming his first single to miss the top 20 since Lovin' You Against My Will in 2000.
Today was released on June 12, 2009, serving as the lead-off single to Allan's studio album, Get Off on the Pain, which was released on March 9, 2010. Title track, Get Off on the Pain, was the album's second single. It debuted at #42 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the highest-debuting single of his career. Kiss Me When I'm Down the album's third single released to radio in 2010. It debuted at #52 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
http://www.garyallan.com/pain/
From Where I
Gary Allan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Now she pulls him closer as the music slows
The lights are growin` dim it's just her and him and the band
Funny, I used to love this song
I though it was our song but I guess I was wrong
From where I'm sittin` I can see where I stand
[Chorus]
She's got her head on his shoulder and her heart in his hands
Thing's are pretty clear when a fool understands
Lord, from where I'm sittin` I can see where I stand
I've never seen her dance like that before
Don't think I can take much of this anymore
He's no longer the stranger and it looks like I am
I always dreamed I'd see that look in her eyes
But I never dreamed it would be for some other guy
And from where I'm sittin` I can see where I stand
Gary Allan’s song “From Where I'm Sitting” tells a classic story of heartache and jealousy. The lyrics describe a scene in which the singer is watching his ex-lover dance with another man. He reminisces about a time when the song she is currently dancing to was their own, only to come to the realization that he was wrong all along. He regrets his actions and decisions that led to the end of their relationship, and he feels the pain of seeing her move on with someone else. He is able to see where he stands in her life, now just a distant memory from his seat in the shadows.
The song clearly shows the emotions of a person who is still in love with someone who has moved on. The singer's sadness is emphasized by the poignant lyrics and the melody, which tells the story in a sad tone. The lyrics reflect the realization of the singer about his place in the former lover's life, as he watches her dance to the sound of the music with another person. He feels that he has nothing left in her life, and he is forced to come to terms with it. The lyrics of this song perfectly capture the feeling of painful clarity that comes after a breakup.
Line by Line Meaning
He asked her to dance three songs ago
A man asked a woman to dance a few songs ago.
Now she pulls him closer as the music slows
The woman pulls the man she's dancing with closer as the music slows down.
The lights are growin` dim it's just her and him and the band
The lights are dimming and it's just the couple dancing and the band playing music.
Funny, I used to love this song
The man used to love the song that the couple is dancing to.
I though it was our song but I guess I was wrong
The man thought the song was special to him and the woman, but he realizes it's not true.
From where I'm sittin` I can see where I stand
The man is sitting and watching the couple dance and he understands his position in their relationship.
She's got her head on his shoulder and her heart in his hands
The woman has her head on the man's shoulder and she's in love with him.
Thing's are pretty clear when a fool understands
It's easy for a foolish person to understand what's going on when it's obvious.
Lord, from where I'm sittin` I can see where I stand
The man repeats that he understands his position in the relationship.
I've never seen her dance like that before
The man has never seen the woman dance like that with him before.
Don't think I can take much of this anymore
The man can't handle watching the woman dance with another man anymore.
He's no longer the stranger and it looks like I am
The man dancing with the woman is no longer a stranger to her, but the man watching is.
I always dreamed I'd see that look in her eyes
The man always dreamed of seeing the look of love in the woman's eyes.
But I never dreamed it would be for some other guy
The man never thought the woman would look at another man with that same look of love.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: GARTH BROOKS, KENT MAXSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@melissawarren530
Anybody listening to this awesome song 2024
@doylecrosby4649
Hy
@jeremystuber6937
Hell yeah. Quesnel British Columbia, Canada 🇨🇦
@AM-hv6vk
Yes!
@Handlewhiskey
Hey lidsey clark hahhaha
@Handlewhiskey
Im 007 james bond Martha Stewart shaken not stirred hahahaha
@rebeccaprovost4634
My husband and I went to see Gary Allen on our 1st year anniversary in 2001 in Kinston NC . The marriage didn't last but my love for Gary Allen did.
@gingersnap3024
My husband just sent this to me while he's at work. He's been working such long days to help us save for a house while I stay home with our one year old. 😭
@alishahsavar8925
I'm sure he appreciated knowing you were at home with his baby. We may not say it all the time but i love working long days knowing my wife and children are taken care of.
@yvonnep.5194
💓