"The Chain of Love" | ||||
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Single by Clay Walker | ||||
from the album Live, Laugh, Love | ||||
Released | January 10, 2000 | |||
Format | CD single | |||
Recorded | 1999 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length |
5:04 (album version) 3:55 (radio edit) |
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Label | Giant | |||
Songwriter(s) |
Rory Lee Feek Jonnie Barnett |
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Producer(s) |
Doug Johnson Clay Walker |
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Clay Walker singles chronology | ||||
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"The Chain of Love" is a song written by Rory Lee Feek and Jonnie Barnett, and recorded by American country music singer Clay Walker. It was released in January 2000 as the third single from his album Live, Laugh, Love. "The Chain of Love" reached a peak of number 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, providing Walker with his thirteenth Top Ten hit on that chart. It was also his second Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
A mid-tempo song in the key of D Major, "The Chain of Love" centralizes on a series of characters who, by helping each other in some way, form a "chain of love" amongst them.
In the first verse, a male character named Joe (who is played by Clay Walker in the music video) is driving, when he notices a lady whose Mercedes-Benz is stopped with a flat tire. He then stops and changes the tire for her, and after she asks how much she should pay him, he replies that she can repay him by continuing "the chain of love".
In the second verse, the lady has headed down the road to a small café. While eating there, she notices that the waitress is heavily pregnant and exhausted. After paying the waitress with a $100 bill, the lady leaves behind a note for the waitress on a napkin without accepting her change. Written on the napkin is the same request stated by Joe in the first chorus — an invitation to continue the chain of love.
The waitress, by the third verse, has returned to her home. Joining her husband in bed, she begins to think of the money and the note left by the lady. It is then revealed that her husband is Joe, the same person who changed the tire for the lady ("Everything's gonna be alright / I love you, Joe.").
Walker told The Dallas Morning News, "I was in Denver the other day, got off an airplane, got on the bus and went to a restaurant. This guy, about 6-foot-6, walked up to us and told us at the table, "This song is the only song that ever made me cry.' He said, "I wouldn't just say that to anybody.' Then he turned around and walked off, never said another word, didn't ask for an autograph, nothing else. He just wanted to share his story." Walker also revealed the song was not intended to be a single and said, "Sometimes the cream rises to the top. This song was a sleeper. It's just one of those shockers where people come out of the woods to talk about it. It's pretty special when you touch people like that." In another interview Walker said, "It's just great story song, where the ending takes you by surprise. It still gives me chills."