"If the World Had a Front Porch" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Tracy Lawrence. It was released in August 1995 as the fourth and final single from his album, I See It Now. The song reached the number 2 on the United States BillboardHot Country Singles & Tracks chart and peaked at number 7 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart. The CD and Cassette promo singles contain 30-second excerpts from "Texas Tornado", "I'd Give Anything to Be Your Everything Again", and "The Cards", all from the album, I See It Now. The song was written by Lawrence, Paul Nelson and Kenny Beard.
Content
The narrator talks about traditional family values and the old-fashioned sweetness of spending slow summer hours on the front steps.
Music video
The music video was directed by Marc Ball and serves as a solution to the previous five music videos, all of which featured a Quantum Leap theme. The music video debuted on CMT on August 12, 1995, during The CMT Delivery Room. In the video, Lawrence flies through a vortex showing scenes from the previous videos, and shows him and a friend using virtual reality helmets. The first verse shows Lawrence on a front porch flying over various American landscapes. The second verse shows views of drugs being dealt, prostitutes walking the streets, footage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the O. J. Simpson police chase, and violent footage from the Gulf War before the virtual reality goggles are overloaded, and the word "ABORT" flashes across the computer and video screen. The scenes are replaced with more pleasant clips of school graduations, young children playing with small animals, weddings, couples having their first child and family dinners. At the end of the video, Lawrence flies back through the vortex on the porch in a bubble.
Chart performance
The song debuted at number 43 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart dated August 5, 1995. It charted for 20 weeks, and peaked at number 2 on the country chart dated October 7, 1995.[1]
