**That Summer by Garth Brooks** (1993)

ABOUT THE SONG: "That Summer" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Garth Brooks. It was released in April 1993 as the fourth and final single from his album The Chase and also appears on The Hits, The Ultimate Hits, The Limited Series and Double Live. It reached number-one on the Billboard Country Charts in 1993. The song was written by Brooks, Pat Alger, and Brooks' then-wife Sandy Mahl. On the 1996 television special, The Garth Brooks Story, Garth talks about writing the song: "That Summer started out as a single guy and a married woman meeting at a party. The married woman being ignored by whom she was with, and they snuck off together. Allen Reynolds told me, "Man, I just don't find myself pulling for these characters. It doesn't seem innocently cool." I was thinking that he was right. Going home that night in the truck I started singing she has a need to feel the thunder. Sandy started helping me write the chorus and we got the chorus done. Probably one of the neat things that I love about That Summer is that I think the song is very sexy." The song is about a teenage boy "far from home" who goes to work for a "lonely widowed woman hellbent to make it on her own". The woman apparently lives on a wheat farm ("wheat fields as far as I could see"). The apparently much older woman slowly takes a liking to the young boy, to the point where one night she dons a dress "she hadn't worn in quite a while"; it is then implied by the rest of the second verse that the teenage boy loses his virginity by having sex with the more than willing older woman. The third verse takes the now-adult man back to the scene of his coming of age, having not seen the woman (who has presumably died by then) since long ago. Although the man has been with several other women by this point, he still experiences flashbacks to his experience with the older woman. "That Summer" debuted at number 54 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of May 8, 1993. LYRICS: I went to work for her that summer A teenage kid so far from home She was a lonely widow woman Hell-bent to make it on her own We were a thousand miles from nowhere Wheat fields as far as I could see Both needing something from each other Not knowing yet what that might be 'Til she came to me one evening Hot cup of coffee and a smile In a dress that I was certain She hadn't worn in quite a while There was a difference in her laughter There was a softness in her eyes And on the air there was a hunger Even a boy could recognize She had a need to feel the thunder To chase the lightning from the sky To watch a storm with all its wonder Raging in her lover's eyes She had to ride the heat of passion Like a comet burning bright Rushing headlong in the wind Out where only dreams have been Burning both ends of the night That summer wind was all around me Nothing between us but the night When I told her that I'd never She softly whispered that's alright And then I watched her hands of leather Turn to velvet in a touch There's never been another summer When I have ever learned so much We had a need to feel the thunder To chase the lightning from the sky To watch a storm with all its wonder Raging in each others eyes We had to ride the heat of passion Like a comet burning bright Rushing headlong in the wind Out where only dreams have been Burning both ends of the night I often think about that summer The sweat, the moonlight and the lace And I have rarely held another When I haven't seen her face And every time I pass a wheat field And watch it dancing with the wind Although I know it isn't real I just can't help but feel Her hungry arms again She had a need to feel the thunder To chase the lightning from the sky To watch a storm with all its wonder Raging in her lover's eyes She had to ride the heat of passion Like a comet burning bright Rushing headlong in the wind Out where only dreams have been Burning both ends of the night Rushing in long in the wind Out where only dreams have been Burnin' both ends of the night