Happy 10th: Zac Brown Band, YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE

10 years ago today, the Zac Brown Band released their third full-length studio album, an LP which was recorded here, there, and everywhere, but being put together in piecemeal fashion didn’t stop it from debuting at the very top of the Billboard 200.

Co-produced by Brown and Keith Stegall, YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE was written predominantly by Brown and Wyatt Durrette, with a few exceptions: in addition to the duo joining forces with other co-writers here and there, there’s one tune written solely by Brown (“Martin”), one that Brown co-wrote with Nic Cowan (“Cold Hearted”), and one that he co-wrote with Joel Williams (“Who Knows”).

As far as where the album was recorded, well, that’s a six-part answer, so we’ll just go ahead and list all six of those studios below:

•    800 East Studios, Atlanta, GA
•    After 7 Studios, Mechanicsburg, PA
•    FLCC Studios, Canandaigua, NY
•    Loud Recording Studios, Nashville, TN
•    Shrimpboat Sound, Key West, FL
•    The Sound Station; Wedgewood Sound

Five singles were released from YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE, and they were all massive hits on the Billboard Country Singles chart: four of them hit #1 – “As She’s Walking Away,” featuring Alan Jackson; “Colder Weather”; “Knee Deep,” featuring Jimmy Buffett; and “Keep Me in Mind” –  and the fifth, “No Hurry,” hit #2. They also proved to be crossover hits, with the four #1 country hits all turning into top-40 pop hits as well (#32, #29, #18, and #35, respectively), with “No Hurry” still ending up as a minor hit, climbing to #50.

If you’re sitting there in shock, wondering how an album managed to be this successful and have this many hits and yet you don’t know the first thing about it... Well, you might want to fix that!