The year 2001 was not kind to the music world. We lost John Lee Hooker, John Phillips, Perry Como and finally George Harrison. Music fans looked to 2002 for something of a reprieve, and seemingly that's what we were getting back to. Creed's album is still stargazing at the rest of the pop world from atop the Billboard Top 200 album charts, blues fans have gorged themselves with a tasty new advertising campaign featuring B.B. King, and the American Music Awards stormed our televisions like a heaven-sent sock-hop from above.
Sadly, comfort, like pop fame, is often fleeting, and the grim reaper's hand has again turned to us the wide-eyed music fan. He has plucked another hero from our mantle.
Death is hardest to take when it's unexpected. Sinatra was sick — we had time to brace ourselves before the Chairman adjourned for the last time. The forgotten Beatle's demise had been forecasted by the fifth Beatle months before Harrison's all things had to pass. But hearing the words "Cyrus" and "dead" in the same sentence was something very unexpected and cruel.
The All Music Guide describes Cyrus' music as: "humorous, rambunctious, fun, freewheeling, playful, rollicking, confident, party/celebratory."
It's hard to think of a country music star (possibly mid/late '80s Hank Williams Jr.) that matched the definition so perfectly.
If party/celebratory describes any year, it defines 1992. And "Achy, Breaky Heart" was aflame in the United States. For nearly one-third of that year (17 weeks) "Some Gave All," was perched atop the Billboard album charts. Cyrus, once a catcher in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system, had hit the grand salami. And he indeed touched them all.
"Achy, Breaky Heart," wasn't just a country hit — it was a lifestyle. For those of us living in Sacramento during those hot summer months, the country music club Cahoots was our church, and we prayed at that altar every Tuesday and Thursday night … a line of us, side by side, arms intertwined, feet kicking freely into the air.
For some, the trip stopped there with the chart descent of Cyrus' great single. For others, it was only the beginning. We knew "Achy, Breaky" wouldn't be the last we heard from Cyrus, and it wasn't. It Won't Be the Last followed and then Storm in the Heartland. The album that after that seems all too apropos now: Trail of Tears indeed.
It is at this juncture where this somber obituary turns into something of an editorial, if you will. The year is 2002 and "Achy Breaky Heart" is a decade old. What better time than now to re-release one of the greatest singles in music history? The American flags are already on the walls … get the line back out on the floor! May we once again dance the dance of angles!
Let us once again crop our hair snugly on the sides and let it cascade down the backs of our necks! Yes, some did give all. We will miss you, Cyrus Vance.
— Greg P. Freeman
Cyrus Vance: In Memoriam