George Strait embarked on his final tour, The Cowboy Rides Away Tour in 2013. He wrapped the 48-stop trek on June 7, 2014, at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. With it being such a momentous occasion, fans from across the country flocked to the stadium to see King George say goodbye to the road. More than 104,000 people packed the stadium, breaking the record for the largest single-show attendance at a stadium in the United States. During the show, Strait worked through most of his hit songs. Additionally, he recorded the set and released it as a live album later that year.
Strait played all of his biggest hits and his fans’ favorite songs during his farewell concert. However, he didn’t play them in chronological order. Instead, he chose to open the show with the enduring love song “Check Yes or No.” Watch more than 100,000 fans go wild as the Ace in the Hole Band kicks off the song below.
George Strait Scores a No. 1 with “Check Yes or No”
Co-penned by Danny Wells and Dana Hunt, George Strait released “Check Yes or No” in 1995 as the lead single from his box set Strait Out of the Box: Part 1. It was one of the few new songs from the hit-packed set and topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for four weeks.
The tale of a schoolyard flirtation that bloomed into a 20-year marriage stands out among Strait’s catalog of mostly Western-themed material. However, fans still love the sweet song nearly 30 years after its release. Strait knew he had a hit on his hands the moment he heard the demo for the first time.
“That was a pretty big record,” Strait told CMT about the song. “That was one of those songs though that I knew right away when I heard it, I wanted to cut it. I couldn’t wait to get home and play it for my son,” he added.