In 1988, Dan Seals’ Version of Cheryl Wheeler’s ‘Addicted’ Topped Hot Country Songs: Chart Rewind

Jim Asker
·2 min read
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On Sept. 24, 1988, Dan Seals’ “Addicted” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. It became the eighth of his 11 career leaders on the list.

Cheryl Wheeler wrote the song following a conversation with her sister, who was deciding whether or not to stay in a relationship. “‘Addicted’ came really fast to me,” Wheeler has said. “I’d just hung up the phone with the person the song is about, after she’d said, ‘I feel like I’m addicted to a real bad thing.’ Chordally (is that a word?), it has a lot more going on than most of my stuff.”

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Wheeler first released “Addicted” on her 1987 LP Half a Book. In addition to Seals, Blake Shelton also recorded the ballad, for the iTunes deluxe edition of his 2011 album Red River Blue. Wheeler added a second Hot Country Songs top 10 as a writer via Suzy Bogguss’ version of “Aces” (No. 9, 1992), while Garth Brooks reworked her song “If It Were Up to Me” in 1999.

Seals’ “Addicted” was released as the first of three singles from his LP Rage On, his third of three top 10s on the Top Country Albums chart. Second single “Big Wheels in the Moonlight” topped Hot Country Songs for a week and “They Rage On” hit No. 5.

“Addicted” became Seals’ eighth of nine straight No. 1 singles in 1985-89, a streak that started with his first leader, “Meet Me in Montana,” with Marie Osmond.

Born in McCamey, Texas, on Feb. 8, 1948, Seals was first known as half the duo England Dan & John Ford Coley. The pair notched four top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100, with 1976’s “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” its strongest showing (No. 2). Meanwhile, Seals & Crofts, comprising Seals’ older brother Jim Seals and Dash Crofts, tallied three Hot 100 top 10s, starting with “Summer Breeze” in 1972.

Dan Seals was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2008. Following treatments, including a stem cell transplant, he passed in 2009 at age 61.

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