Mere words cannot express how much I hate this song. "Butterfly Kisses" is the very soul of sap. It opens with playground sounds and chords that sound like a child's music box, and it goes downhill from there.
It's a country/pop ballad that starts with the line "There's two things I know for sure, she was sent here from heaven and she's daddy's little girl." At that point, I have to run to the bathroom to throw up, and I'm lucky enough to miss the middle of the song. By the end, the besotted daddy is dissolving into a big pile of weepy goo as his little girl gets married. Awwwwwwww.
If you don't find this song sappy, you probably don't find anything sappy.
-- SAPster Randi
Where does one begin to analyze a song that was instantly and universally recognized as the first sap classic in years? Opening with a sample from a playground, fading into a fake toy piano riff, the arrangement sweeps into a synthetic string and electric piano wash that underlays the bourbon-and-cigarette voice that is the calling card of Nashville session musicians. Then the lyrics kick in: a father sings of his daughter in an intimate manner that just gives one the creeps. It's every self-pitying father's dream come true ("with all that I've done wrong, I must have done something right"). The idealization of childhood is cloying:
"I know the cake looks funny, daddy, but I sure tried"
There are so many more sap elements to discuss: the breathy backing vocals, the conservative-pleasing references to prayer and Jesus, the desperate earnestness of the singer, the complete absence of mention of the daughter's mother. And let's not forget the too-oft repeated phrase "butterfly kisses," which closes the song (along with that playground sample, repeated twice).
-- SAPster Half