In 2000, John Montgomery had his last No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart with “The Little Girl.” It held the top position for three weeks and also managed to climb to the No. 35 spot of Billboard Hot 100.
The song was released as the lead single off Montgomery’s album Brand New Me. Not only did it earn enough radio airplay – leading Montgomery up the country charts again after five years – but the emotional-roller-coaster song has also touched so many hearts.
Montgomery Was Blown Away The First Time He Heard This Song
Written by Harley Allen, “The Little Girl” tells the tale of a little girl living in an abusive household where her father and mother argued and were even doing drugs. Halfway through the song, the little girl’s parents tragically died in a murder-suicide. Luckily, she found a new foster home with loving parents. She’s now able to attend Sunday School for the very first time and then comes the last verse, delivering one last emotional twist that will surely capture your heart.
“Her first day of Sunday school, the teacher walked in. And a small little girl stared at a picture of Him. She said, ‘I know that man up there on that cross. I don’t know His name, but I know He got off. Cause He was there in my old house. And held me close to His side. As I hid there behind our couch. The night that my parents died,'” the song goes.
The first time Montgomery heard “The Little Girl,” he was quickly “blown away by it.”
“It touches on religion. It touches on drug abuse, on people dying, a little girl being involved in the middle of all this, but they don’t preach it to you,” Montgomery said at the time of the song’s release.
“It’s not in somebody’s face. It’s not telling anybody out there bad, bad, bad,” the singer added. “It’s a story that this little girl told her Sunday School teacher. As long as you’re not preaching to people, or anything like that, people like stories like that.”
Montgomery has also revealed the song’s different effect to people every time he sings it, stating how the crowd gets unbelievably quiet. And once he finishes the song, “some sit like they’ve just been hit by a truck,” Montgomery said. “Some stand and give me an ovation. Some just clap. Because of this deep subject matter, people are touched in different ways by the song. It has an unbelievable effect on people, and it all ain’t the same effect.”
You can listen to the song in the video below and see for yourself its unbelievable effect.
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