Sara Evans has had a string of No. 1 singles throughout her career, but it wasn’t until her second album that the Missouri native scored her first chart-topper. In 1998, Evans saw her first breakthrough hit with “No Place That Far,” the title track off her sophomore album.
The song itself is a beautiful piano ballad that features Evans’ delicate vocals at the forefront as she sings of her greatest fear — waking up without her love near her.
“I can’t imagine any greater fear / Then waking up without you here / And though the sun will still shine on / My whole world would all be gone / But not for long,” she sings.
Evans co-wrote the song with Tony Martin and Tom Shapiro, and it features Vince Gill on backing vocals. The song was critically successful, earning the singer her first CMA Awards nomination for Vocal Event of the Year for her collaboration with Gill.
“No Place That Far” was Evans’ first Top 40 hit on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart, and it reached No. 1 on March 6, 1999. She followed that success with several additional No. 1 hits, including “Born to Fly,” “Suds in the Bucket,” “A Real Fine Place to Start” and most recently, 2010’s “A Little Bit Stronger.”
See the Most Played Country Song from the Year You Were Born
Who had the most played country song during the year you were born? This list is a fascinating time capsule of prevalent trends from every decade in American history. Scroll through to find your birth year and then click to listen. Some of these songs have been lost through the years, many of them for good reason!
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes