On September 15, 1992, MCA Records Nashville released what would end up being George Strait‘s best-selling album ever. It was the soundtrack for the movie, “Pure Country,” where George Strait made his acting debut. The movie would make its way into theaters in early October of 1992.
The Soundtrack
To date, the soundtrack to the movie “Pure Country” is George Strait’s biggest album. It sold over 6 million copies. And only 3 songs from the movie were released to Country Radio. Now it doesn’t hurt at all when one of those songs was the big love song in the movie. You might know it. It’s called, “I Cross My Heart”. The song went to #1 in the United States and Canada. It was the song they used in the closing scene of the movie. Once “I Cross My Heart” became available for digital download, the song sold 992,000 digital copies as of January 2015 and a total of 2 million copies including single CDs.
There is no way to ever know, but how many times do you think “I Cross My Heart” has been used in marriage proposals, weddings, first dances, and jukebox plays? I’d bet it’s a lot.
Following “I Cross My Heart”, “Heartland” would become the next song from the movie to go #1 and sell over 500,000 singles. In the opening scene of “Pure Country,” you hear the main title sequence version that features a young George Strait Jr., AKA, Bubba Strait.
The 3rd and final song from the soundtrack was “When Did You Stop Loving Me.” This song was not as big as the first two but did peak at number 6 on the charts.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the movie’s soundtrack being released on CD and special red vinyl in honor of the release of the movie.
The Movie
The movie “Pure Country” was released in October 1992. Now while the movie wasn’t a huge success in the movie theaters, it was George’s first shot at acting. Now you will not find a bigger George Strait Fan than me. Let that be known now. But, I will say that his acting left a lot to be desired. But that didn’t stop me from seeing the movie 5 times on the opening weekend in 1992.
“Pure Country” had a production budget of $10 million dollars. And it only made $15.2 million in return. Not one movie reviewer at the time had anything good to say about this movie. There were 2 movies that followed “Pure Country.” Neither of them had anything to do with the plot of “Pure Country.” They were “Pure Country 2, The Gift” and “Pure Country, Pure Heart.” In “Pure Country 2, The Gift”, George did make an appearance in the movie, not as an actor, but as himself.
While the movie may have not won any big awards or go down in history as one of the best ever, I can tell you, when I see it on TV I watch it. I have it on DVD still. It’s also on my DVR and I can find and stream it anytime I want to. And trust me, I do. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve introduced to this movie and watched it with them for the first time.
Just like the soundtrack, 2022 is the 30th anniversary of this great movie!
