Remember When Vince Gill Scored His First No. 1 Hit?

Vince Gill had already had a long and varied career by the time he finally scored his career breakthrough.

What Was Vince Gill's First No. 1 Hit?

The country music icon landed his first-ever No. 1 hit on Sept. 5, 1992, with "I Still Believe in You."

Gill landed his first-ever success in 1980 as the singer for the country-pop band Pure Prairie League, which scored a Top 10 hit with "Let Me Love You Tonight."

But it was slow going for Gill when he departed that situation to launch a country solo career, and he had placed 19 Top 40 singles as a solo act by the time he released "I Still Believe in You" as the lead single from his album of the same title on June 29, 1992.

What Inspired Vince Gill's "I Still Believe in You"?

The career-changing song was inspired by a difficult stretch Gill and his then-wife, Janis Oliver, went through in their marriage, and he wrote it as a reaffirmation of their commitment.

The couple went on to divorce in 1997, and Gill later married Christian singer Amy Grant. Though Gill and his first wife are on friendly terms now, she told Nashville's Tennessean newspaper that "I Still Believe in You" is hard for her to hear.

'Some songs that come on the radio still break my heart,'' she said (quote via The Boot). ''I can pretend like they don't tug at my heart or make me wistful, but there are some songs I can't listen to anymore, like 'I Still Believe in You,' because of the circumstances around them and what he told me they meant to him. To hear that now is confusing."

How Did "I Still Believe in You" Impact Vince Gill's Career?

Gill would go on to score three more No. 1 hits from I Still Believe in You with "Don't Let Our Love Start Slippin' Away," "One More Last Chance" and "Tryin' to Get Over You," and the album would prove the most successful of his career, ultimately selling more than 5 million copies.