Trisha Yearwood Had a Picture-‘Perfect’ No. 1: Chart Rewind to 1998

On April 4, 1998, Trisha Yearwood’s “Perfect Love” began a two-week run at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, marking her fifth of five leaders.

The song was penned by Sunny Russ and Stephony Smith and produced by Tony Brown. It was released from Yearwood’s (Songbook) A Collection of Hits, which in September 1997 debuted as her first of four No. 1s on the Top Country Albums chart.

Yearwood was born Sept. 19, 1964, in Monticello, Ga. In 1984, she graduated from Young Harris College with an associate degree in business. Prior to signing with MCA Records in 1990, she worked various jobs in Nashville, including as a receptionist at MTM Records, and attended Belmont University.

Yearwood’s debut single, “She’s in Love With the Boy,” ruled Hot Country Songs for two weeks starting in August 1991. In 2021, a 30th anniversary surprise celebration was held at the Grand Ole Opry (where she was inducted as a member in 1999). She was presented with a special award by Carly Pearce revealing that the song ranked as the most-heard country song by a woman since Luminate began in 1990.

Now 58 and married to superstar Garth Brooks since December 2005, Yearwood is active in music, TV and writing, having authored a series of cookbooks.

Her most recent Hot Country Songs hit, a remake of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born ballad “Shallow,” with Brooks, hit No. 27 in June 2021.

“You lose your filter … that’s not so good,” Yearwood, in 2019, told Billboard, with a laugh, about her current mindset at this point in her life and career. “But, you also lose your inhibitions. There’s a freedom that comes with time that allows you to just have fun.”