Songfacts®:

• Reaching #2 on the US Country chart and #6 in Canada, this song is one of four country hits from Hal Ketchum's album Sure Love. "Hearts Are Gonna Roll" was written by Hal Ketchum and Ronnie Scaife.
• The song was written about having daughters, and those very challenging times for their fathers when boys start coming around. In our Songfacts interview with Hal Ketchum, while referencing this song's subject, Ketchum was asked if he was ever tempted to sit with a shotgun on his knee waiting for his daughter's suitors. Ketchum's response was that his favorite line was "I've been to prison and I'm not afraid to go back." It seems to work!
• From the royalty checks from this single, co-author Ronnie Scaife bought a new transmission for his race car Hellbilly, which he raced in Tennessee.
• Curb Records, the independent record label which released the Sure Love album, is quite a star player in the Nashville music scene. Amongst their accomplishments: the purchase and restoration of Elvis Presley's first home and the Johnny Cash Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, the Curb Event Center in Nashville, which hosted the Town Hall Presidential debate between McCain and Obama, and numerous charitable programs through the Mike Curb Family Foundation.