Songfacts®:

• Alan Jackson's first Top 10 hit on the Country chart finds the singer lamenting the harsh realities of the real world compared to movies where the good guy always wins and love lasts forever. The brokenhearted singer is living proof that "the boy don't always get the girl" in the real world.
  
  Jackson wrote the weeper with Mark Irwin, who went on to pen Tyler Farr's "Redneck Crazy" and Tim McGraw's "Highway Don't Care."
  
  Jackson recalled the songwriting session in 1990 (quoted in the 1996 biography Alan Jackson: Gone Country by Mark Bego): "I had these opening lines, 'cowboys don't cry and heroes don't die.' I didn't really know where it was heading - it was kind of a connection between the movies and real life kind of thing. I had a little melody started, and we started hammering away at it. Once we got going, it just kind of fell into place. It was about an hour, hour and a half later, I guess, when we came out of the office with that song!"
• This is the second single from Jackson's debut studio album, also titled Here In The Real World, following "Blue Blooded Woman." It peaked at #3 on the Hot Country Songs chart in the US and #1 on Canada Country Tracks.
• Irwin was working as a bartender at the Bluebird Cafe, a popular spot for up-and-coming country singers, when he first met Jackson. It's also where he heard about Ten Ten Music, a new publishing company run by Barry and Jewel Coburn, Jackson's management team. Irwin started writing for the company on a song-by-song basis, which is how the collaboration with Jackson came about.
  
  "One night, we all went out to dinner and they put us together and said, 'you guys should write.' And the next day, we did," Irwin told Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.
  
  Despite their considerable hangovers, the pair was able to knock out a hit song based on Jackson's opening lines.
  
  "Something just clicked with my love of movies, he said. "It sounded like old Western movie stuff and the song 'Here In The Real World' just dropped out literally from that point."
• Not long after writing the song, Jackson landed a recording deal with Arista Records and got to work on his debut album. "Here In The Real World" wasn't initially on the track list. They'd given the song to another artist, Tony Perez. But when Arista Nashville co-founder Tim DuBois heard Jackson's album, he felt there was something missing and asked to hear any songs that didn't make the cut. When Jackson shared the demo of "Here In The Real World," DuBois insisted it be included on the release. Fortunately for Jackson, but unfortunately for Perez, Perez's album was never released, so it was an easy addition.
• The music video, directed by Jim May, incorporates footage from Gene Autry's cowboy movies, including a snippet of him singing his signature song "Back In The Saddle Again." Jackson was invited to perform at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, where he got to meet the legend for the first time.
• This was nominated for Song Of The Year and Single Record Of The Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 1991. It lost to Garth Brooks' "Friends In Low Places" and "The Dance," respectively. Here In The Real World was also nominated for Album Of The Year, but again lost to Brooks for No Fences. Jackson did take the prize, however, for Top New Male Vocalist against Travis Tritt and Doug Stone.
• This also garnered nominations at the Country Music Association Awards in 1990, including Single Of The Year (with Vince Gill's "When I Call Your Name" winning) and Song Of The Year (with Kathy Mattea's "Where've You Been" winning).
  
  The album was also nominated for Album Of The Year, but the award went to the Kentucky HeadHunters for Pickin' On Nashville. The following year, the song was again nominated for Song Of The Year, along with Jackson's "Don't Rock The Jukebox," but lost to "When I Call Your Name."
• Jackson performed this tune during his debut at the Grand Ole Opry in 1990. A year later, the singer - who once had a job delivering mail to the legendary music venue - was officially inducted into the Opry.
• Jackson's wife, Denise, was pregnant with the couple's first child when the album was released in February 1990. In June, she gave birth to daughter Mattie Denise.
• This has been covered by Charley Pride (on 1991's Classics With Pride), Glen Campbell (on 1994's Glen Campbell Live! His Greatest Hits), and George Jones (on 2005's Hits I Missed... And One I Didn't).