The 2000s File Feature
Whatever It Is
Zac Brown Band and the Chart Success of "Whatever It Is" Zac Brown Band arrived at mainstream country radio in 2008 with "Chicken Fried," a breakthrough sing…
01 The Story
Zac Brown Band and the Chart Success of "Whatever It Is"
Zac Brown Band arrived at mainstream country radio in 2008 with "Chicken Fried," a breakthrough single that introduced their distinctive sound to a national audience. The band, based in Atlanta, Georgia, had been building a following in the Southeast through years of live performance before their debut major-label album gave them access to national radio promotion. "Chicken Fried" became one of country radio's most-played songs in 2008 and established the band as a genuine commercial force, not merely a regional act that had gotten lucky with a novelty song but a complete band with a consistent artistic identity rooted in Southern rock, country, and a range of American musical traditions.
"Whatever It Is" was released in 2009 and appeared on the band's debut major-label album The Foundation, which had originally been released independently in 2008 and then re-released through Atlantic Records / Bigger Picture Music Group following the success of "Chicken Fried." The album's label re-release allowed the band to continue releasing singles from its existing track list with the full promotional support of a major label infrastructure, and "Whatever It Is" benefited from that infrastructure arriving at radio already prepared to receive new material from the band.
The track was written by Zac Brown and Wyatt Durrette, a songwriting partnership that contributed several tracks to the band's early catalog. Brown's songwriting approach had been shaped by his years as a working musician in the Atlanta music scene, and his writing for The Foundation reflected that experience with an emotional directness and craft that distinguished the band from many of their contemporaries in mainstream country.
On the Billboard Hot 100, "Whatever It Is" debuted on March 28, 2009, at position 94. The song's chart ascent was steady and measured, moving from 83 to 79 to 68 through April before leveling off in the high 60s range. It eventually reached its peak position of number 26 during the week of July 4, 2009, making it one of the more significant country crossovers of that chart period. The song spent 20 total weeks on the Hot 100, a run that reflected sustained radio activity and strong commercial performance across formats.
The Hot Country Songs performance was even more impressive within the context of the format. The single reached the top five on that chart and spent an extended period in strong positions, confirming that Zac Brown Band's appeal was both within country radio and extending meaningfully into the broader mainstream. Their ability to cross over while maintaining credibility with core country audiences was one of the defining qualities of their early commercial trajectory.
The production on "Whatever It Is" reflected the band's characteristic blend of polished Nashville production values with organic instrumentation and an arrangement that showcased the full musical depth of what was genuinely an exceptional live performing ensemble. David Nalley produced the album with the band, and his approach gave the recordings the warmth and energy that translated effectively from the band's live performances to studio recordings, a challenge that many otherwise excellent live acts struggle to navigate.
The success of both "Chicken Fried" and "Whatever It Is" in rapid succession established a commercial foundation that supported the band's subsequent career trajectory. The back-to-back country and crossover hits demonstrated that their debut album contained multiple singles capable of performing at a high level, giving the band and label confidence to invest in a significant second album campaign. This commercial momentum from the debut period was a significant asset for the band as they moved into the next phase of their development.
The music video for "Whatever It Is" reflected the band's preference for performance-based visual content that emphasized the organic quality of their music-making. The video featured the full band in settings that communicated their identity as working musicians rather than manufactured pop acts, a distinction that was important to maintaining their credibility with the country and Americana audience that had originally embraced them and continued to represent the core of their commercial base even as they achieved broader crossover success.
02 Song Meaning
Themes and Meaning in "Whatever It Is"
"Whatever It Is" is a devotional love song that expresses admiration for a romantic partner through a specific and revealing rhetorical strategy: the narrator catalogs the qualities he observes and the ways she affects him, but rather than claiming to fully understand or explain the source of his feelings, he acknowledges that the essential quality of the attraction resists complete articulation. The phrase "whatever it is" functions as a placeholder for something the narrator knows is real but cannot fully name, which gives the song an emotional honesty about the mystery of romantic attraction.
This lyrical approach was characteristic of Zac Brown's songwriting sensibility, which combined plainspoken country directness with a willingness to leave questions open rather than forcing resolution. The song did not attempt to explain love analytically but instead presented it as an experience that exceeds explanation, and the narrator's comfort with that limitation was part of the song's emotional appeal. The acknowledgment of mystery within deep feeling gave the song a maturity that distinguished it from more confident declarations of romantic certainty.
The song painted its portrait of romantic admiration through specific details and observations rather than abstract declarations. This approach, using concrete particularity to evoke broader feeling, was a hallmark of strong country songwriting and placed the song within a tradition of careful lyrical craft that valued showing over telling. The listener could recognize the kind of attention the narrator paid to his partner from the details he chose to notice, and that attentiveness was itself a form of devotion.
There is a quality of grateful wonder in the song's emotional register. The narrator is not simply stating that he loves someone but expressing a kind of ongoing astonishment that such a person exists and that he has found himself in her presence. This register of wonder was well-suited to the country balladry tradition, which has always been at home with the expression of strong feeling about the ordinary people and experiences of daily life, treating them as worthy subjects of emotional depth and care.
The song's reception in 2009 among country and crossover audiences reflected the broad accessibility of its emotional content. The experience of being drawn to someone in ways that resist full explanation was immediately recognizable to listeners across demographic categories, and the song's ability to express that experience in a musically compelling and emotionally resonant way was a significant factor in its crossover performance on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached number 26.
The arrangement and vocal performance reinforced the lyrical content effectively. Zac Brown's voice carried a warmth and sincerity that suited the song's emotional register, and the full band arrangement gave the track a richness that matched the depth of feeling being described. The production avoided the kind of slick overproduction that can undermine the credibility of emotional expressions in pop contexts, maintaining the organic quality that had distinguished the band's sound from their earliest recordings.
In the context of Zac Brown Band's early career, "Whatever It Is" demonstrated the range of their songwriting and established that their appeal was not limited to the celebratory party-anthem mode of "Chicken Fried" but extended into the more intimate territory of country balladry and devotional love songs. This range was an important aspect of their commercial durability and their ability to sustain a long career across multiple album cycles.
→ More from the 2000s File
View all 2000s hits →
Keep digging