"The Chill of an Early Fall" is the title of a song written by Green Daniel and Gretchen Peters

Gretchen Peters

Gretchen Peters is a singer-songwriter in the folk/country genre. She was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado, but moved to Nashville in the late 1980s...

 and recorded by American country music artist George Strait

George Strait

George Harvey Strait is an American country music singer, actor, and music producer. Strait is referred to as the "King of Country," and critics call Strait a living legend. He is known for his unique style of western swing music, bar-room ballads, honky-tonk style, and fresh yet traditional...

. It was released in September 1991 as the third single from his album Chill of an Early Fall

Chill Of An Early Fall

Chill of an Early Fall is a 1991 album by American country music singer George Strait. It was released by MCA Records. The album produced the singles "If I Know Me" and "You Know Me Better Than That", both of which reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1991...

. The song reached #3 on the 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

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 in December 1991.

Content

The narrator is a man who knows that his lover has been with a guy before or perhaps cheated in the past. He feels the chill of an early fall when he thinks about it and when her "old friend" comes around. The question of whether the other man is just a friend or more torments the narrator and drives him to drink.

Chart performance

"The Chill of an Early Fall" debuted at number 57 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of October 5, 1991.

Chart (1991)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	3
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	2