"1982" is a single by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Randy Travis

Randy Travis

Randy Travis is an American country music singer and actor. Since 1985, he has recorded 20 studio albums and charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, 22 of which were number one hits...

. Released as the second single from his 1986 album Storms of Life

Storms of Life

Storms of Life is the debut album by country music star Randy Travis, and was released on June 6, 1986 by Warner Bros. Records Nashville. Certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA for American shipments of three million copies, it features the singles "On the Other Hand" Storms of Life is the...

. It peaked at #6 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

) chart, and #5 in Canada. According to the ASCAP, Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks

Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...

 has covered this song.

Content

The song's narrator recalls a time when his former lover was all his back in the year 1982. According to American Country Countdown (1986 airing, Clear Channel network), the original title of this song was "1962." However, Randy said that he just didn't feel comfortable with singing about a love that he lost when he was only a little over two years old. He and producer Kyle Lehning

Kyle Lehning

Kyle Lehning is an American record producer whose work is mainly in the field of country music. He has produced virtually every album released by Randy Travis, who describes their partnership "an interesting relationship." The only exceptions are Travis' 1993 album Wind in the Wire, which was...

 revised the lyric to refer to the year 1982, as they felt it was more believable because it would have only been four years earlier at the time of the recording.

Chart performance

Chart (1985-1986)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot Country Singles & Tracks	6
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	5