E major · Camelot 12B · 123 BPM
Amarillo by Morning
by George Strait
- 123
- BPM
- E major
- Key
- 12B
- Camelot
- 61
- Danceability
- 29
- Acousticness
Terry Stafford came up with the idea for "Amarillo by Morning" after playing a rodeo in San Antonio with his band and then driving home to Amarillo. He phoned the concept and title, which he had pulled from a FedEx commercial, to Paul Fraser, and by the next morning Fraser had written the song. Stafford recorded it for his 1973 album Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose, and Atlantic Records released it as a single on August 2, 1973, in a country pop style. It reached No. 31 on the Billboard Country chart.
The song tells the story of a rodeo cowboy driving overnight from San Antonio to a county fair in Amarillo that begins the following morning. He recounts the hardships his occupation has brought him, including divorce, broken bones, and poverty, but insists he does not regret his lifestyle, singing "I ain't rich / But Lord, I'm free."
George Strait recorded the song for his 1982 album Strait from the Heart, giving it a fiddle-based Western treatment. MCA released it as a single, with the full release arriving February 16, 1983, and it climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard Country chart. The recording became one of his signature songs and was later certified four-times Platinum by the RIAA. It also found its way into space, waking astronaut Rick Husband during the STS-96 mission and being played for the entire crew on STS-114 in honor of the Amarillo-born pilot.
Amarillo by Morning runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in E major, Camelot 12B, which shares its notes with C# minor and mixes cleanly with A major and B major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.