Chely Wright - It Was

MAY 18 1999 · 12:00

Chely Wright - It Was (1999) Director: Deaton-Flanigen Productions (Robert Deaton III & George Flanigen IV) Era: Late-90s Nashville Country Pop (1999) - Peak era of MCA Nashville's polished country-pop crossover sound, bridging traditional country roots with contemporary production values; the year 'Single White Female' topped charts and 'It Was' followed as a top-15 hit. High curatorial value as a documented example of Deaton-Flanigen Productions' work at the height of their Nashville country video output, coinciding with one of Chely Wright's most commercially successful periods. The video is a well-preserved artifact of the late-90s CMT visual grammar, fast-cut, warmly lit, emotionally immediate, and supports research into both the production infrastructure and aesthetic conventions of mainstream country video during a formative era for the genre's television presence. Context: Released in 1999 at the apex of Chely Wright's commercial career, 'It Was' arrived as the follow-up single to her chart-topping 'Single White Female' on MCA Nashville, a label and era defined by polished production values and aggressive CMT video promotion. The late-90s country video landscape was dominated by narrative-inflected performance clips designed for the 4:3 television format, with Deaton-Flanigen Productions as one of its premier directorial houses. The song's bittersweet meditation on past love, described by Billboard as having 'a hauntingly beautiful melody and affecting lyric about the mercurial nature of love', suited the warm, intimate visual register of the era. The video's August 1999 premiere predated the single's October release, functioning as a promotional instrument within the CMT/TNN ecosystem that defined country music's mainstream visibility in the pre-streaming age. Director notes: The music video for 'It Was' was directed by Deaton-Flanigen Productions and premiered in August 1999, ahead of the single's official October 4, 1999 release on MCA Nashville. The video supported Chely Wright's breakthrough album cycle on the heels of her number-one hit 'Single White Female.' The production is consistent with Deaton-Flanigen's signature late-90s Nashville style: warm-lit, emotionally grounded visuals with professional but accessible production values suited for CMT rotation. The fast editing pace (105 scene changes, 2.17s avg shot length) over a 3:47 runtime is characteristic of Deaton-Flanigen's kinetic intercutting approach used across their extensive country video catalog of this period.