When Bonnie Raitt won a 2023 Grammy for songwriting, a number of commentators blithely mentioned one of her biggest hits and gave her the credit for writing it. She didn’t. Since I heard it first on a Mike Reid CD, I was thrilled to find this article explaining the history of “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” His version and Bonnie’s are my favorites be far.
ww.smoothradio.com/features/i-cant-make-you-love-me-bonnie-raitt-meaning-facts/
The Story of… ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ by Bonnie Raitt
20 June 2018, 11:50 | Updated: 20 June 2018, 11:59
Bonnie Raitt’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ is one of the finest ballads of the past few decades.
Even if it’s a song you might not know by name, it’s hard not to be affected by its moving lyrics and emotional delivery as soon as you hear it.
But who wrote it and who else has performed it? Here’s all the big facts you should know…
https://www.riddle.com/a/156636
The Story of… ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ by Bonnie Raitt
Source: nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com
Who wrote ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’?
The song was written by country songwriters Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin. Reid was previously an American football player before turning to music. It was recorded by Bonnie Raitt on her 11th album Luck of the Draw in 1991.
The song had many rewrites
They originally wrote the song as a fast, bluegrass ditty. After slowing down the tempo considerably, they realised the song had a considerable power to it.
We wrote, most every week, in Mike’s basement. And we’d worked on this song for more than six months. One day, he said, ‘Come up to the living room,’ where his piano was. He sat down and started playing this melody, and it was one of the most moving pieces of music I’d heard. I mean, it hit me in a hard way… Instantly, I knew it was the best thing I’d ever been a part of.”
Allen Shamblin
It was almost given to someone else
Bette Midler and Linda Ronstadt were potential artists to be handed the song, but it was eventually handed to Bonnie Raitt.
Bruce Hornsby featured on the track
Produced by Don Was, the track featured ‘The Way it Is’ singer Bruce Hornsby on the piano. Although he wasn’t credited as a featured artist, the song’s piano accompaniment has long been associated with him, and he has performed the song many times on stage.
What is the song about?
- The idea for the song came to Reid, after reading an article about a man arrested for getting drunk and shooting at his girlfriend’s car.
- The judge asked him if he had learned anything, to which he replied, “I learned, Your Honour, that you can’t make a woman love you if she don’t.”
- Raitt recorded the vocal in just one take in the studio, later saying that it was so sad a song that she could not recapture the emotion: “We’d try to do it again and I just said, ‘You know, this ain’t going to happen.'”.
- In the song, Raitt depicts a now one-sided romantic relationship that is about to end in soft but brutally honest terms.
[Here’s the URL for the video for Bonnie’s version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW9Cu6GYqxo%5D
It wasn’t a massive hit
- The song reached number 18 in the US, and wasn’t even released in the UK at the time.
- However, it has since been considered a classic.
- In 2000, Mojo magazine placed it at number 8 on its ‘100 Greatest Songs of All Time’ list.
- It ranked #339 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’.
[Here’s the URL for the video for George Michael’s version: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QbWJO8RMg1A%5D
It was also performed by Adele
- In 2011, Adele covered the song for her first live album, Live at the Royal Albert Hall. Her version reached the UK top 40, although it was never released as a single.
- Before performing the track, Adele said that it was one of her favourite songs and described it as “perfect in every way”. She added that Bonnie Raitt has a “stunning voice” and praised the lyrics, calling them “mind-blowing”.
[Here’s the URL for the video for Adele’s version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfj-peP6a7o%5D
“It makes me really, really happy and really, really devastated and depressed at the same time. It makes me think of my fondest and best times in my life, and it makes me think of the worst as well, and combined, probably is a recipe for disaster, but I do love this song. It’s just stunning.”
Adele
It has been covered by many other artists
Including:
- Bon Iver
- Eleanor Tomlinson
- Priyanka Chopra
- Patti LaBelle
- Boyz II Men
- Shane Filan
- Tony Hadley
- Peter Andre
What are the lyrics?
Turn down the lights
Turn down the bed
Turn down these voices inside my head
Lay down with me
Tell me no lies
Just hold me close, don’t patronize
Don’t patronize me
‘Cause I can’t make you love me if you don’t
You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t
Here in the dark, in these final hours
I will lay down my heart and I’ll feel the power
But you won’t, no you won’t
‘Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t
I’ll close my eyes, then I won’t see
The love you don’t feel when you’re holding me
Morning will come and I’ll do what’s right
Just give me till then to give up this fight
And I will give up this fight
‘Cause I can’t make you love me if you don’t
You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t
Here in the dark, in these final hours
I will lay down my heart and I’ll feel the power
But you won’t, no you won’t
‘Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t
[And one final video by Eleanor Tomlinson:
It has been covered by many other artists
Including:
- Bon Iver
- Eleanor Tomlinson
- Priyanka Chopra
- Patti LaBelle
- Boyz II Men
- Shane Filan
- Tony Hadley
- Peter Andre
What are the lyrics?
Turn down the lights
Turn down the bed
Turn down these voices inside my head
Lay down with me
Tell me no lies
Just hold me close, don’t patronize
Don’t patronize me
‘Cause I can’t make you love me if you don’t
You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t
Here in the dark, in these final hours
I will lay down my heart and I’ll feel the power
But you won’t, no you won’t
‘Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t
I’ll close my eyes, then I won’t see
The love you don’t feel when you’re holding me
Morning will come and I’ll do what’s right
Just give me till then to give up this fight
And I will give up this fight
‘Cause I can’t make you love me if you don’t
You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t
Here in the dark, in these final hours
I will lay down my heart and I’ll feel the power
But you won’t, no you won’t
‘Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t
[One final video, by Eleanor Tomlinson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CDdStbYrGs%5D
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