The Story Behind The Song: “The Last One To Know”

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After returning to Music City, Berg wrote for Merit Publishing on a song-by-song basis and a week after her mother passed away, she recorded a demo of “The Last One To Know.” Three years later, after nothing had come of her song, Matraca hired a new “song plugger” by the name of Mike Wood to pitch the tune around Nashville and try to get someone interested in recording it

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Wood did his job well, because it wasn’t long that Berg heard a rumor out on the street that she had a Reba McEntire cut on “The Last One To Know” and it was going to be released as a single, a nice surprise for Matraca.
McEntire made “The Last One To Know” the title track of what turned out to be her second platinum album (selling over one million units).

When Reba first cut the song at Emerald Sound Studio, she purposely added an extraneous word to the chorus, only to realize later that it made no sense. So she went back in and re-recorded her vocal. The corrected take cemented Berg’s second chart-topping hit on December 12, 1987.

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Matraca went on to pen several more number one songs, including Tricia Yearwood’s “XXX’s And OOO’s (An American Girl) in 1994, Patty Loveless’s “You Can Feel Bad,” Martina McBride’s “Wild Angels” and Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine” (all in 1996) and another Carter chart-topper, “We Danced Anyway” in ’97.

Berg’s shining moment came as the Country Music Association named “Strawberry Wine” its “Single of the Year” and “Song of the Year” for 1997. She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.

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