Our prompts for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday are Banana, Cherry, Strawberry and Olive. I wanted to share Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter. It’s a sweet song and I have always enjoyed it.
I wasn’t able to embed the official video into this post so if you’d like to see Deana Carter in action please click here. Otherwise the video below is just as good.
This is a song about a girl’s first love. The title is a reference to Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill, a very inexpensive and fruity wine that is very popular with teenage girls getting their first sips of alcohol. The wine, like the first love, is sweet and intoxicating, providing a valid metaphor for the song.
This was the first single from the album, and it went to #1 on the US country chart. In 1997, the Country Music Association named it Single of the Year.
The song was written by Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison and tells of Berg’s own coming of age as a teenager outside of Luck, Wisconsin. She and her friends would sneak off and drink strawberry wine, often getting sick in the process but making indelible memories.
Berg recalled to AOL’s The Boot: “My dad is a farm boy from Wisconsin, and I used to go up there and stay with [my grandparents] Inga and Elmer Berg, and I met a boy up there.My Grandma Berg just kept having babies, so my aunts were my age. So we used to run around and get in a lot of trouble together, chase boys and whatnot. I told Gary this story, and he latched right onto it. We wrote it quickly, in about three or four hours. We really liked it but we thought nobody else probably would. Pat [Higdon, my publisher] was having this tent showcase with label people and artists coming to listen to the new stuff that we’d all written. And that was the only new song I had. I looked at the floor the whole time, because I was so nervous. When I looked up after playing the song for him, he was grinning from ear to ear. Deana Carter was there, and she was the only artist that showed up. She wanted the song for her first record. The song had made the rounds for a little while before she recorded it, and everybody passed on it [including Trisha Yearwood].”
Courtesy of Songfacts
Lyrics He was working through college on my grandpa's farm I was thirsting for knowledge and he had a car I was caught somewhere between a woman and a child When one restless summer we found love growing wild On the banks of the river on a well beaten path It's funny how those memories they last Like strawberry wine and seventeen The hot July moon saw everything My first taste of love oh bittersweet Green on the vine Like strawberry wine I still remember when thirty was old And my biggest fear was September when he had to go A few cards and letters and one long distance call We drifted away like the leaves in the fall But year after year I come back to this place Just to remember the taste Of strawberry wine and seventeen The hot July moon saw everything My first taste of love oh bittersweet Green on the vine Like strawberry wine The fields have grown over now Years since they've seen the plow There's nothing time hasn't touched Is it really him or the loss of my innocence I've been missing so much Like strawberry wine and seventeen The hot July moon saw everything My first taste of love oh bittersweet Green on the vine Like strawberry wine Strawberry wine Strawberry wineWriter/s: GARY HARRISON, MATRACA BERG Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Love this song! Also remember drinking Boone’s Farm a few times! 🙂
Yes, I love the song too. I have never had Strawberry wine though. Sounds good! ☺️💕
I went strawberry 🍓 too 🙂 Good stories 🙂
What fun! ☺️💕
Oh Christine! Thank you so much for sharing this!! Awesome song! Especially, loved the line – I still remember when thirty was old!” !!! Those were the days!! Mmm! Thanks for this little walk down memory lane!!
xoxox 😘💕💖🌹✨✨
Thanks Chuck. I always thought it was a sweet song ☺️💕
The chasing boys should be fine, but that whatnot is always going to lead to trouble. This is really a beautiful song Christine and I love that slide guitar or pedal steel sound.
Thanks Jim. I’m not into country that much but every now and again I like something 🙂
Great song interesting background, loved it and it new to me. Thank you for sharing Christine 💜
My pleasure Willow. I’m happy you liked it.
I did 😀😀