This Ain't No Love Song

Album: Cowboy's Back in Town (2010)
Charted: 88
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the lead-off single to Country artist Trace Adkins ninth studio album, Cowboy's Back in Town.
  • The song, penned by Marcel, David Lee, Tony Lane, tells the story of a guy who rather than expressing himself with the clichés of romantic love songs, instead just tells his lady how he feels.
  • The song was debuted on the May 16, 2010 NBC broadcast of the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas.
  • This was Atkins' first release with Toby Keith's record label Show Dog - Universal Music. "We are so pumped to have Trace join our roster, and equally as excited that he has given us such a fantastic album," stated Mark Wright, the President of Show Dog - Universal Music. "The first single is a great example of how Trace can take a lyric and put the listener right in the middle of the storyline. This is a perfect match of a brilliant communicator delivering an incredible piece of music."
  • Adkins told The Boot this cut is a twist on the standard love ballad. "The song is about a guy trying to convince a girl that the song is not about her when she and he both know it is," he said. "He's just not going to admit it."
  • David Lee told the story of the song to The Boot: "I wrote this song with Marcel [Chagnon] and Tony Lane, last year, around end of summer. We were at Universal Music Publishing and it was our first time getting together with Marcel. The publishing company wanted Tony and me to get with him and write. They though we'd be good together, and it ended up being a good hook-up. We sat down, and Marcel had kind of a melody and sort of a title. It was something about 'love song,' I can't remember but something like, 'this is a love song.' It might have even been the same title - but he had a melody that didn't go with his title. So we just sat and discussed the title for a while and found a way to merge a different melody with the idea.
    Tony pretty much wrote the first verse while we were sitting there: 'Well, my heart didn't skip a beat when I saw you standing there, lookin' like some kind of angel, like you were walking on air' - it just popped out of him. And then the chorus started coming... the first couple of lines of the chorus: 'This ain't no love song, I just felt like getting my guitar on' - and I started doing that groove. Then Marcel jumped in and started throwing stuff in. It was definitely a collaborative effort, with the three of us.
    Trace got the song through his producer, Michael Knox. Michael played it for Trace, and he loved it. He did a really good job on it!"
  • Adkins told GAC how this song caught on with one segment of his audience. "There's that thing about that song that kids love," he said. "And it's been my experience throughout my career when you release stuff to radio, when it's somethin' that kids are gonna pick up on and like, it's probably gonna do pretty good… It's got this little infectious bouncing thing through the chorus."

Comments: 1

  • Eva Sisneros from Waco TexasOne day I picked my grandchildren up at school and the song came on. We were all singing it, so we called in to the radio station. We let them know how much we liked it... Trace is awesome!!!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Gary Numan

Gary NumanSongwriter Interviews

An Electronic music pioneer with Asperger's Syndrome. This could be interesting.

Gilby Clarke

Gilby ClarkeSongwriter Interviews

The Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist in the early '90s, Gilby talks about the band's implosion and the side projects it spawned.

Jon Oliva of Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Jon Oliva of Trans-Siberian OrchestraSongwriter Interviews

Writing great prog metal isn't easy, especially when it's for 60 musicians.

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum

Dave Pirner of Soul AsylumSongwriter Interviews

Dave explains how the video appropriated the meaning of "Runaway Train," and what he thought of getting parodied by Weird Al.

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"They're Playing My Song

The Prince-penned "Manic Monday" was the first song The Bangles heard coming from a car radio, but "Eternal Flame" is closest to Susanna's heart, perhaps because she sang it in "various states of undress."

Def Leppard Quiz

Def Leppard QuizMusic Quiz

Can you name Def Leppard's only #1 hit in America? Get rocked with this adrenalized quiz.