Jerrod Niemann - "Donkey"

[sabre14]

Artist: Jerrod Niemann
Single: "Donkey"
Writers: David Tolliver, Kyle Jacobs, Fred Wilhelm
Album: High Noon
Label: Sea Gayle/Arista Nashville
Add Date: May 19th, 2014
Source



Heard that this will be Jerrod's next single tonight on The Highway. It's also been reported by numerous outlets including Rolling Stone, Saving Country Music, and iheartradio that the label proposed this choice to Jerrod back in March. For what it's worth, The Highway has been spinning this since the album was released as well.

Chart Run: 67* - 54* - 46* - 45* - 44 - 47 (Mediabase)

Chart Run: 60* - 47* - 43* - 44* - 48 (Billboard)

[zjames]

No no no no no no no no

[tim]

^I literally was just going to type noooooooooooooooooooooo. No, no, no, just no.

[Hefty Hanna]

Everything inside of me thinks this is the worst song I have ever heard in my life but...I totally love this song anyway.

face palm

[Markus Meyer]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[joey2002]

Initial reaction to the news...

[Markus Meyer]

I am actually enraged by this.

[phil1996]

I love "Buzz Back Girl". Really hope that gets a release sometime in the next year. This is definitely going to get Jerrods name out there, though.

[churchchoir]

I think this will definitely be too polarizing for country radio. I predict a fast climb into the top 20 and then stalling in the teens for a peak in the range of #15-#11. "Drink to That All Night" was pretty catchy so I didn't mind the bad writing, but this just goes too far for me. I haven't heard this album but I sure hope Jerrod has some more deep material to offer like "What Do You Want."

[Markus Meyer]

Apr 19, 2014 0:47:04 GMT -5 churchchoir said:

I think this will definitely be too polarizing for country radio. I predict a fast climb into the top 20 and then stalling in the teens for a peak in the range of #15-#11. "Drink to That All Night" was pretty catchy so I didn't mind the bad writing, but this just goes too far for me. I haven't heard this album but I sure hope Jerrod has some more deep material to offer like "What Do You Want."

The rest of the album is 1000000 times better, especially "Space" which is the best thing he's ever recorded IMO.

[rjz]

Just Wow :o

I have heard the distress over this song but just listened. I could see it being a throw away on an album, but if this is a single it seals the fate of Country Music as not giving a damn about melody, vocals or meaningful lyrics. I didn't think anything could top 'That's My Kind of Night' but the bad choices keep on Rollin

I'm kind of speechless this would even be considered a single.
They must be looking for success a la Red Solo Cup.

And the Sexual Double Entendre (they all 'ride' his 'donkey' and 'walk funny' after they do it) is just so downright creepy

This should bomb unless it pulls a Red Solo Cup and sells like Gangbusters off the bat.

[onebuffalo]

I can not imagine Jerrod Niemann, in concert saying, 'I am performing my new single, Donkey'. There should be a lot of snickering in the audience.

[kw9461]

I think I must've said "Oh my God" about 5 or 6 times when listening to this piece of garbage. Jerrod Niemann used to be someone you could count on for quality, if a bit offbeat quality. Not he's delivered a blatant sell out and.....whatever the hell this is. If country radio plays the hell out of this, it may be the final straw for me.

[tvoss20]

Brrrruuuuuuuuuutal!

[wilbur]

yea its not the greatest song by any means but if "save a horse, ride a cowboy" can get airplay im sure this will too. The highway on Sirius xm has already made me sick of it though!

[Ten Pound Hammer]

I think this is Jerrod's face after he chose this as the next single:

[zaclord 🌈]

This is literally the worst thing I have ever heard.

[Deleted]

This song is nothing but a novelty song, and it's disappointing that these types of songs are considered "ok" to release to country radio, let alone to record and put on an album.

It's a song that was written for the simple sake of being stupid. And unfortunately the stupid songs sometimes sell well, and I can see that happening here (a la "Red Solo Cup", like rjz mentioned).

I have to admit that, ignoring the creepy sex-referencing double entendre, the idea of riding up to a honkytonk on a donkey did make me chuckle a bit...but this song as a radio single? Ugh.

Artists and people in general don't always have to take themselves seriously, but calling this a "song" is just...wow. It's a complete joke.

Furthermore, other than the jangly banjo, there is nothing country about this song either. The effects applied to his vocals on so many of his songs lately are beyond grating.

[zaclord 🌈]

"Red Solo Cup" is exactly what this reminds me of. Good call jhomes87. Atrocious, annoying song that you absolutely cannot get out of your head no matter how hard you try. I unfortunately can see it being a hit and a big seller like you mentioned, but for the sake of country music I hope we're wrong.

[43dudleyvillas]

I definitely prefer the holiday mix:

[countrysuperfan]

what did I just listen to? and what on earth has become of my favorite genre? :(

Apr 19, 2014 0:57:25 GMT -5 Markus Meyer said:

Apr 19, 2014 0:47:04 GMT -5 churchchoir said:

I think this will definitely be too polarizing for country radio. I predict a fast climb into the top 20 and then stalling in the teens for a peak in the range of #15-#11. "Drink to That All Night" was pretty catchy so I didn't mind the bad writing, but this just goes too far for me. I haven't heard this album but I sure hope Jerrod has some more deep material to offer like "What Do You Want."

The rest of the album is 1000000 times better, especially "Space" which is the best thing he's ever recorded IMO.

I haven't heard the album but I am boycotting him 100% until this song has been removed from my memory. If you want to be a credible artist you simply do not send this type of garbage to radio, regardless of your label wanting a cheap hit. Sony really are scraping the barrel here and you can tell they have 0 faith in their male artist roster right now. As they should.

[Zazie]

Now you guys see what I was doing, supporting the last single, even if it was pretty bad, on a theory that Jerrod was a terrific singer and songwriter who is the kind of artist country radio needs to be supporting. Jerrod was a safe bet to be releasing high-quality traditional material for a full decade, if only I could just swallow Drink To That. Yes, I had it figured out. Now we have this terrific single, with excellent-sounding vocals (especially in the verses, not to mention the cool chorus).

Let me point out that this must be traditional country -- you can tell from the George Jones reference.

This remind anybody of Achy Breaky Heart? Not because of music or lyrics, but because of the shock of hearing it and thinking "My God, country radio's going to play this every 20 minutes for the rest of my life? Really??" Although this one might not be a big single, since Red Solo didn't make the top 10 in airplay.

I think I'll just go back to bed. And no, that wasn't a sexual double-entendre. Back to bed literally and semi-permanently. Thanks, Jerrod. Nice work.

[Ten Pound Hammer]

^ Zazie: Red Solo Cup did make #8 on the country charts.

I had a dream that I tweeted Jerrod asking if this was really his next single and he said no. Even the best fact checkers have been wrong before…

This wasn't really that bad the first time I listened to it, but I bet the novelty would wear off fast.

If this really is the next single, then I hope Jerrod doesn't…

(•_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

…make an ass of himself.

YEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

[someguy]

I don't even know what to say. What has happened to the format? This is the kind of nonsense that would have been a parody of a country song only a few years ago, and now it's something that will probably do well at country radio.

[Zazie]

Thanks for correcting my faulty post about the chart peak for Toby's song. I shouldn't fail to check the Whitburn book before posting.

I think novelty songs have been a part, and often a very annoying part, of country music ever since there have been country stations and country charts. So I disagree with the angle of attack that starts out with "this is the worst ever." It seems ahistorical to me. There have been worse. Some of the novelty songs have been amazingly bad.

I don't even think this song is bad enough to deserve exclusion from Jerrod's album. I just wish the current climate were different, so that the idea of releasing this as a single, if it is one, would never have crossed anybody's mind. So my criticism would start with how similar this song is to the other, non-novelty, songs that are currently dominating the chart.

[jughead]

:rip:

[Kentucky25]

Possibly the best way I can describe the inclusion of a donkey in this and the ICDTTAN music video is my 3 year old little sister's response when she saw the music video on TV with me yesterday morning. "Bub, why is there a donkey on TV? I only see donkeys at Mamaw's. So why is there one with all these people?"...Yeah, I had no good response for her lol.

[rsmatto]

To me this feels like a modern country take on Beck's slacker anthem "Loser" mixed with "Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy." It's out there, probably too out there to be a #1 hit, but will likely sell crazily well and could become a cross-genre promo song like "Red Solo Cup."

[sabre14]

I do think this song is just trying to be crazy and weird for the sake of being crazy and weird. The vocals by Jerrod along with the production makes me dizzy. The lyrics (especially the chorus) are jaw dropping awful. I did respect Jerrod in the past for songs like "What Do You Want", and "Only God Could Love You More" but his last single and now this thing are just too much for me personally.

That being said, I actually can see this working at radio the more time goes on. I agree with Zazie that this actually isn't the absolutely worst piece of music I've ever heard. My problem is that the climate of country radio makes songs like "Donkey" doable as singles. I still forget just how successful "Red Solo Cup" was, and some of the current hits like "This Is How We Roll" with the rap verse and "1994" with the horrendous talking style verses were at radio. It's just unbelievably sad that labels are actually suggesting songs like "Donkey" to be singles.

[McCreerian]

O
M
G

I can now say I have heard the WORST song ever recorded. I mean this is worse than "You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals so lets do it like they do on the discovery channel" by the Bloodhound Gang! In any genre of music I have never heard a song this bad! If radio actually even takes it to the top 40 I will help bury Country music once and for all cause there is no coming back from this mockery. If Johnny Cash could claw his way out of the grave and kick Jerrod's ass for recording this song, he would!