Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

Not only is "Suspicions" the late Eddie Rabbitt's finest single, it's now one of McGraw's best as well. Tim's cover of this sultry '79 country-soul nugget is super-fine - Rabbitt's range is very well-suited for Tim (especially on the higher end), and the sweet southern gumbo of "Suspicions" fits Tim's band, the Dancehall Doctors, to the proverbial "T." This is a distinctive song given a distinctive re-rub, a sensational vocal from McGraw, and an about-damned-time revival for one of the tightest, most unfairly unsung songs of the cusp-of-the-'80s. Now that it's a single, call it the early frontrunner for single of the year (be nice if the CMA remembers it come fall) and wonder to yourself how sweet it'd be if Tim did an entire album of Rabbitt songs.

*The album's 2007, but the single is 2008.