| "Highway Don't Care" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byTim McGraw andTaylor Swift featuringKeith Urban | ||||
| from the albumTwo Lanes of Freedom | ||||
| Released | March 25, 2013 (2013-03-25)[1] | |||
| Genre | Country[2] | |||
| Length | 4:36 | |||
| Label | Big Machine | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) |
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| Tim McGraw singles chronology | ||||
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| Taylor Swift singles chronology | ||||
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| Keith Urban singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Highway Don't Care" onYouTube | ||||
"Highway Don't Care" is a song recorded by Americancountry music singersTim McGraw andTaylor Swift on vocals, featuringKeith Urban on guitar.[3] It was released to UScountry radio on March 25, 2013, as the third single from McGraw's first album forBig Machine Records,Two Lanes of Freedom (2013).[4] The song was written byMark Irwin,Josh Kear andBrad and Brett Warren.[5] McGraw and Swift recorded their parts separately.[6] This is Swift's seventh number one hit onBillboard'sCountry Airplay chart.[7]
The song is a mid-tempo ballad where the male narrator is separated from his lover who is driving. Throughout the verses, he tells her what he "bets" she is feeling, when a song comes on her radio (its part sung by Swift) containing the lines "I can't live without you, baby." He also says that the highway she's driving on doesn't care if she's alone or if she's going home, but he does. The song is inD major with a main chord pattern of D-Bm7-Gsus2-A.[8]Keith Urban plays lead guitar on it.
In his review of the album, Thom Jurek ofAllMusic wrote that "the hook is irresistible and McGraw's vocal, paired with the young singer's, is a perfect match."[9] Chuck Dauphin ofRoughstock also reviewed the song favorably, saying that "this song flows well, with winning performances from two of the format's top vocalists."[10] Billy Dukes ofTaste of Country gave the song five stars saying that the track is arguably "one of the best collaborations of the decade – maybe even ever. Each artist brings his or her best effort to the song from McGraw'sTwo Lanes of Freedom album. 'Highway Don't Care' feels like a special moment from the very first listen, and only becomes more cathartic with time."[11] Jeff Benjamin ofFuse said the track has "major crossover potential".[12] The song was ranked 30th best country song of the 2010s byTaste Of Country.[13]
| Year | Organization | Award/work | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | American Country Awards | Collaborative Single of the Year | Won | [14] |
| Collaborative Video of the Year | Won | |||
| Song of the Year (Songwriters Award) | Won | |||
| Country Music Association Awards | Musical Event of the Year | Won | [15] [16] | |
| Music Video of the Year | Won | |||
| Single of the Year | Nominated | |||
| 2014 | Academy of Country Music Awards | Video of the Year | Won | [17] |
| Single Record of the Year | Nominated | |||
| Vocal Event of the Year | Nominated | |||
| BMI Awards | Publisher of the Year | Won | [18] | |
| Country Awards Top 50 Songs | Won | |||
| CMT Music Awards | Collaborative Video of the Year | Nominated | [19] | |
| Video of the Year | Nominated | |||
| iHeartRadio Music Awards | Country Song of the Year | Nominated | [20] | |
| Grammy Awards | Best Country Duo/Group Performance | Nominated | [21] | |
| CMC Music Awards | International Video of the Year | Won | [22] |
"Highway Don't Care" debuted at number 13 on the USBillboardHot Country Songs chart and number 43 on the USBillboardCountry Airplay chart for the week of February 23, 2013, due to unsolicited airplay seven weeks before being released to radio.[23] It also debuted at number 59 on the USBillboard Hot 100 and number 23 on theCanadian Hot 100 for the week of February 23, 2013. The single also debuted at number one on the USBillboard Country Digital Songs chart with 86,000 downloads for the week of February 13, 2013.[24] On October 17, 2017, the single was certifiedtriple platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and streaming data of over three million units.[25] As of November 2017, the song has sold 2.3 million copies in the United States.[26]
The music video was directed byShane Drake and premiered on May 6, 2013.[27] The music video for the song features Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban, as well as actors portraying the song's narrator and his lover. It was made in partnership withVanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee and highlights the dangers of driving while distracted, particularly texting and driving. In the video, the narrator's lover mentioned in the song is driving, crying, and texting the narrator. After dropping her phone and trying to retrieve it, she drifts into the wrong lane while reaching across her car and collides with oncoming traffic. She is then airlifted by a Vanderbilt LifeFlight helicopter to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she is treated in the Adult Emergency Department. The video implies that she survives as the doctor comes out to see the girl's parents and the narrator, after which they are seen smiling happily and embracing that their daughter's going to be okay.
The structure of the video at first seems to imply that Tim McGraw (as the singer/narrator and a character in the video) is the boyfriend who keeps being texted by the female driver. Upon the LifeFlight helicopter arriving at the hospital, the viewer realizes that Tim McGraw's character is actually the physician who saves the driver's life, and the texts he had been receiving earlier in the video were from the hospital paging/notifying him about this emergency. Taylor Swift was standing in the bedroom-curtain. Keith Urban was standing on the beach.[28]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[39] | Platinum | 70,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[40] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
