Some songs feel like they were carved slowly from stone. Others arrive like lightning. For Dean Dillon, the man behind so many of George Strait’s greatest hits, “The Chair” was one of those rare lightning bolts. Written in a single night in 1985, it became one of Strait’s signature songs — and a shining example of how a quiet pen in the right hands can change the course of country music.
The setting: a quiet Texas night
Dean Dillon often said inspiration never gave him advance notice. That night, sitting in a dimly lit room with co-writer Hank Cochran, they tossed around ideas over drinks and cigarettes. Dillon later recalled how the line appeared almost out of nowhere: “Excuse me, but I think you’ve got my chair.” It was such an ordinary phrase, something you might hear in a bar, but to Dillon, it was the perfect way to start a conversation — and a love story.
Writing in silence
Once that first line landed, the rest of the song seemed to write itself. In less than a few hours, the men had a complete story: two strangers meeting in a bar, the awkward humor of mistaken identity, the slow shift into intimacy. Dillon said the pen moved faster than his thoughts. “It was as if the song already existed, and we were just uncovering it,” he explained years later.
George Strait’s voice, the missing piece
Even with the song written, Dillon knew it needed the right voice. And George Strait was the only one he had in mind. When Strait recorded “The Chair”, he sang it with such understated charm that it felt like a real conversation overheard across a smoky barroom. The track climbed the charts in 1985 and quickly became one of Strait’s defining hits — proof that sometimes, the simplest lines carry the greatest power.
The legacy of “The Chair”
Nearly forty years later, “The Chair” still holds its magic. Fans remember where they were when they first heard it, and young songwriters study its deceptive simplicity. Dillon himself admits he’s never stopped being amazed by how a single line on a quiet night could ripple across decades of country music.