Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, country music artist Jason Michael Carroll proposes with a half-carat diamond ring in his 2011 release, "Numbers."
In the song, Carroll takes a comical look at how a dizzying array of numbers seem to dominate the world around him. Most of them are insignificant, he reasons, but a precious few can be life changing.
Carroll sings, "Then three years later 'neath a million stars / In my F-150 on her granddad's farm / I slipped a half-carat diamond on the third finger, of her left hand / And asked to be her one and only man."
The 40-year-old North Carolinian explained how "Numbers" piqued his interest the first time he heard it.
"It was written by Patrick Davis and Rodney Clausen and it's about the way certain numbers, like dates and times, can represent some of life's most significant moments. Moments like your first date, meeting the love of your life and the day your child is born," he said in a statement. "Those dates and times have real meaning in our lives. I think everyone can identify with that concept."
He continued: "Most numbers mean absolutely nothing, but some of them, like the date you meet the person you are going to spend the rest of your life with, mean everything."
"Numbers" was officially released in March 2011 as the title track from his third album. The album, which reached #33 on the U.S. Billboard Country Albums chart, was sold exclusively through Cracker Barrel stores. Interestingly, Carroll got his start singing in public while working as a server at a Cracker Barrel in Henderson, N.C.
Born in Youngsville, N.C., in 1978, Carroll got his first big break as a 26 year old when he won the "Gimme the Mic" singing competition sponsored by local TV station WRAZ FOX 50. Two years later, in 2006, he scored a record deal with Arista Nashville.
Carroll is currently on tour, with stops in North Carolina, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.
Please check out the audio track of Carroll performing "Numbers." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...
"Numbers"
Written by Rodney Clawson and Patrick Davis. Performed by Jason Michael Carroll.
I'm doin' seventy-two in a sixty-five,
On I-24 in a four-wheel drive
Got a ten o'clock on Eighteenth Avenue
And there's a thirty percent chance of rain all week
And the high today is gonna be eighty-three
They're playing Highway 101 on 102.5
An eighteen wheeler by my side
Numbers all around, flying by, up and down,
Some as slow as Christmas coming,
Some like the speed of sound,
And we all wonder, what they mean,
The highs, the lows, the in betweens,
Most of them mean absolutely nothing
But some of them mean everything
I met her at 9:15 on my buddy's back porch
Shootin' bottle rockets on July fourth
We were both nineteen and she was a perfect 10
Then three years later 'neath a million stars,
In my F-150 on her granddad's farm,
I slipped a half-carat diamond on the third finger, of her left hand
And asked to be her one and only man
Numbers all around, flying by, up and down,
Some as slow as Christmas coming,
Some like the speed of sound,
And we all wonder, what they mean,
The highs, the lows, the in betweens,
Most of them mean absolutely nothing
But some of them mean everything
John 3:16, the Fab four,
The fifty yard line, the thirteenth floor,
9/11, the dirty dozen,
We're all waiting on the Second Coming
Numbers all around, flying by, up and down,
Some as slow as Christmas coming,
Some like the speed of sound,
And we all wonder, what they mean,
The highs, the lows, the in betweens,
Most of them mean absolutely nothing,
Oh most of them mean absolutely nothing,
But some of them mean everything
Oh numbers
I'm doin' seventy-two in a sixty-five,
On I-24 in a four-wheel drive
Got a ten o'clock on Eighteenth Avenue
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com/JMichaelCarrollVEVO.
