"You Ain't Much Fun" is a song co-written and recorded by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 country music singer Toby Keith

Toby Keith

Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...

 that peaked at #2 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 (now Hot Country Songs

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. It was released in March 1995 as the third single released from his second studio album, Boomtown. It also peaked at #3 on the Canadian RPM country tracks.

Background and writing

Keith told The Boot that his co-writer, Carl Goff Junior "came on the bus, and I was writing one night, and he was telling me some story about his wife. He said, 'Me and my wife have been in a fight, and she said she was going to leave me if I didn't slow down, so I quit drinking. I'm not drinking right now. So now I've been having to mow and have been out working in the yard, and I've had to get that car running.' He was telling me all his agony. She came home one night, and he had hit himself with a wrench or something and hurt his hand, and she said, 'What's the matter?' He told her, 'You ain't much fun since I quit drinkin'.' I was writing songs, and I said, 'Let's write this right now.' And we just sat down and wrote it."

Content

The song is an up-tempo melody in which the singer has just sobered up, and his wife makes him do chores for her. He tells her that she "ain't much fun" since he quit drinkin'.

Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price, of 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...

magazine reviewed the song favorably, saying that there is "just a touch of Roger Miller

Roger Miller

Roger Dean Miller was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky tonk-influenced novelty songs...

 in this shuffle-beat lament of a man lonesome for the shelter of the bottle."

Chart positions

"You Ain't Much Fun" debuted at #63 on the 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 for the week of March 15, 1995.

Chart (1995)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	2
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	3