About The Song
Born in Florida and raised in South Carolina, Aaron Tippin took the long way to Music Row success. He worked as a pilot and a pipe fitter before making the move to Nashville, where he earned a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose, following his appearance on TNN’s You Can Be a Star. He earned a handful of cuts, including minor hit singles for other artists that he’d eventually release himself. A 1990 club performance caught the attention of RCA Nashville, and they signed him to a recording contract.
His debut album, You’ve Got to Stand For Something, included the top ten title track and was eventually certified gold. Two other singles underperformed, but he rebounded with the lead single from his second album, Read Between the Lines
“There Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With the Radio” is an energetic and uproarious ode to a broken down car that still gets great radio reception:
“The older she gets, the slower we go, but there ain’t nothin’ wrong with the radio.”
Tippin would spend most of his career documenting his working class bona fides, but this record did as much as any of his more explicit explorations of that identity to establish his everyman status.
In an era with so many great traditional male vocalists, Tippin might have been the most unabashedly old school, sounding like a modern day Hank Williams meets Webb Pierce.
He only has a handful of No. 1 singles to his credit, but his radio success always trailed behind his popularity with audiences. Here’s one time that country radio got it right.
Read Between the Lines produced two more top ten hits on its way to platinum: “I Wouldn’t Have it Any Other Way” and “My Blue Angel.” His next album, The Call of the Wild, also went platinum, despite including only one top ten hit: “Working Man’s Ph.D.” His fourth album, Lookin’ Back at Myself, didn’t produce any top ten hits, but still went gold. RCA responded by pushing Tippin in a different musical direction, and it brought him his second No. 1 hit, which we’ll cover when we get to 1995.
Video
Lyrics
Sometimes she runs, sometimes she don’t
More than once she’s left me on the side of the road
The older she gets the slower we go
But there ain’t nothin’ wrong with the radio
She needs a carburetor, a set of plug wires
She’s ridin’ me around on four bald tires
The wipers don’t work and the horn don’t blow
But there ain’t nothin’ wrong with the radio
I’ve got sixteen speakers crossin’ my back dash
A little bobbin’ dog watchin’ everybody pass
Dual antennas whippin’ in the wind
Lord, there ain’t a country station that I can’t tune in
She ain’t a Cadillac and she ain’t a rolls
But there ain’t nothin’ wrong with the radio
I got stopped by a cop late last night
Out-of-date tags and no tail lights
He said I oughta run you in but I’m lettin’ you go
Because there ain’t nothin’ wrong with your radio
I got the best lookin’ gal in my hometown
I asked her last time that I took her out
Honey, tell me what it is that makes you love me so
She said there ain’t nothin’ wrong with your radio
I’ve got sixteen speakers crossin’ my back dash
A little bobbin’ dog watchin’ everybody pass
Dual antennas whippin’ in the wind
Lord, there ain’t a country station that I can’t tune in
She ain’t a Cadillac and she ain’t a rolls
But there ain’t nothin’ wrong with the radio
No, she ain’t a Cadillac and she ain’t a rolls
But there ain’t nothin’ wrong with the radio