| ""The Little Girl"" | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by John Michael Montgomery from the album Brand New Me |
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| B-side | Brand New Me | ||||
| Released | August 19, 2000 | ||||
| Format | CD single, 7" single | ||||
| Recorded | 2000 | ||||
| Genre | Country music | ||||
| Length | 3:53 | ||||
| Label | Atlantic | ||||
| Writer | Harley Allen | ||||
| John Michael Montgomery singles chronology | |||||
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The Little Girl is a song performed by American country music artist John Michael Montgomery, from his 2000 album Brand New Me. The song features harmony vocals by bluegrass musicians Alison Krauss and Dan Tyminski, both members of Alison Krauss & Union Station. Released in August 2000, the song became Montgomery's seventh Number One hit on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, and his first chart-topper since 1995's "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)." The song also made Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Song story
The song is based on an urban legend. Songwriter Harley Allen received a copy of the story from his brother, and notwithstanding that the legend has never been confirmed or disproven, Allen was moved to tears and wrote the song in under fifteen minutes. "The Little Girl" tells of an unnamed young girl born to a set of dysfunctional parents – Dad was an alcoholic while Mom was a drug addict. The couple regularly fought in front of her (usually with her hiding in fear behind the living room couch), showed her no attention or affection, and were not interested in religion. (The first lines of the song are the key to the legend to follow – "Her parents never took the young girl to church/Never spoke of His name/Never read her His word.") One evening, the fight escalated to a horrific outcome – the girl would witness the murder-suicide of her parents (Dad killed Mom, then himself). This resulted in "some people from the city" taking the girl to another home. Her new home, though, would be the exact opposite of her old one – the new family didn't fight, showed her the attention and affection she lacked from her former family, and (again important to the legend) were regular churchgoers. On the girl's first visit to church, while in Sunday School, she would notice on the wall a picture of Jesus hanging on the cross. She commented that she did not know who the man was, but knew that he had to have come down from the cross – as she recognized the man as the one who comforted her while she witnessed her parent's violent deaths.
Chart positions
| Chart (2000) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 37 |
External links
| Preceded by "Kiss This" by Aaron Tippin |
Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks number one single by John Michael Montgomery October 28 - November 11, 2000 |
Succeeded by "Best of Intentions" by Travis Tritt |
