"If the World Had a Front Porch" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Tracy Lawrence

Tracy Lawrence

Tracy Lawrence is an American country music artist. He started at a country music restaurant called "Live At Libby's" where owner Libby Knight would help local talent find their way into country music...

. It was released in July 1995 as the fourth and final single from his album, I See It Now

I See It Now

I See It Now is the third studio album by American country music artist Tracy Lawrence. Released in 1994 on Atlantic Records, the album produced four singles: the title track, "If The World Had a Front Porch", "Texas Tornado" and "As Any Fool Can See". Of these, "Texas Tornado" was a Number One on...

. The song reached the number 2 on the 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 chart and peaked at number 7 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart. The CD and Cassette promo singles contain 30-second excerpts from "Texas Tornado", "I'd Give Anything to Be Your Everything Again", and "The Cards", all from the album, I See It Now.

Content

The narrator talks about traditional family values and the old-fashioned sweetness of spending slow summer hours on the front steps.

Music video

The music video was directed by Marc Ball and serves as a solution to the previous four music videos, all of which featured a Quantum Leap theme. After leaving the "Texas Tornado" video, Lawrence flies through a vortex showing scenes from the previous videos. It then features him and a friend using Virtual Reality

Virtual reality

Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...

 helmets. By wearing the helmets, the rest of the video shows Lawrence singing "If the World Had a Front Porch," literally on a front porch, as it flies over various American landscapes. The second verse shows views of drugs being dealt, prostitutes walking the streets, footage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots

1992 Los Angeles riots

The 1992 Los Angeles Riots or South Central Riots, also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest were sparked on April 29, 1992, when a jury acquitted three white and one hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King following a...

, the O.J. Simpson police chase and violent footage from the Gulf War

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

 before the virtual reality goggles are "overloaded" and the word "ABORT" flashes across the computer and video screen and the scenes are replaced with more pleasant clips of school graduations, young children playing with small animals, weddings, couples having their first child and family dinners. At the end of the video, Lawrence flies back through the vortex on the porch in a bubble.

Chart performance

The song debuted at #43 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart dated August 5, 1995. It charted for 20 weeks, and peaked at #2 on the country chart dated October 7, 1995.

Charts

Chart (1995)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs	2
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	7