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Very few artists experience success straight out of the gate, but Clint Black<\/a> managed it with his debut album, Killin’ Time.<\/em><\/p>\n Released via RCA Records on May 2, 1989, Killin’ Time<\/em> was chock-full of hit singles, beginning with its lead single, “A Better Man,” which hit No. 1<\/a> on June 10 of that year.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/em> Clint Black Is Not in the County Music Hall of Fame?!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Black followed up that success with three more No. 1 hits from that career-launching album, including the title song, “Nobody’s Home” and “Walkin’ Away,” and he scored another Top 5 with “Nothing’s News.”<\/p>\n Killin’ Time<\/em> was certified Gold for sales of 500,000 units on Sept. 24, 1989, and went on to be certified Platinum for sales of a million units on Jan. 23, 1990, less than a year after it was released.<\/p>\n Killin’ Time<\/em> also earned Album of the Year honors at the ACM Awards, while “A Better Man” won Single Record of the Year. The runaway success of the album earned Black a prime spot among what would come to be called country music’s Class of 1989, which also included Garth Brooks<\/a>, Alan Jackson<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n Even more unusual than the rapid success of Killin’ Time<\/em> was the fact that Black wrote or co-wrote every song on the album.<\/p>\n He also used his band to track the recordings, instead of relying on Nashville session musicians.<\/p>\n Over the course of subsequent albums, he would stick to his guns in making his records his way, despite resistance from Nashville labels who tried to steer him toward a more traditional approach of recording songs the label felt would be hits with a slate of studio musicians.<\/p>\n “I told those guys then, ‘I wanna look around in 30 years and see the same faces.’ And that doesn’t always work out, but I did everything I could to keep doing what I was doing with the people I was doing it with,” Black told Taste of Country<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n “Some of them didn’t last, and some of them did. But my attitude was, I want to be an artist. I don’t want to be a product.”<\/p>\n If you call yourself a real fan of ’90s country music, you probably need to know the words to all of these hit songs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat Were the Hits From Clint Black’s Debut Album?<\/h3>\n
How Did Clint Black’s Killin’ Time<\/em> Do Commercially?<\/h3>\n
Who Writes Clint Black’s Songs?<\/h3>\n
See 50 Essential ’90s Country Songs<\/h2>\n