Please Remember the Original of “Please Remember Me”

Rodney Crowell Essential

Danielle Bradbery, the season four winner of NBC’s The Voice, recently did a nice cover of the song “Please Remember Me.” The young singer, who is not yet seventeen and who represents the team of Blake Shelton, has an excellent voice and a lot of potential.

So, it was great to see this fantastic country song get some recent attention.  And the teenager Bradbery shows a powerhouse voice that will probably be around awhile.

Bradbery’s performance was not the only recent singing competition performance of the song. You may have heard the song on American Idol after season ten winner Scotty McCreery recorded it for use as an exit song for the eleventh season of American Idol.

Yes, the title fits those leaving American Idol, but such use of the song sort of misses the heartfelt meaning of the rest of the song. As explained below, there is more to the song than a farewell. You might hear that depth in this performance by the young and talented McCreery when he made a return visit to American Idol, but only if you ignore the hijinks on the video screen behind him.

What is “Please Remember Me” About?

“Please Remember Me” is a classic heartache song.  The singer is leaving someone behind but wishing them well by reassuring them that they will find someone better. But the song is also a plea, asking the former love to remember the singer. “Please Remember Me,” like Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” (made even more famous by Whitney Houston), imagines the person left behind going on with life.

But unlike “I Will Always Love You,” in most of “Please Remember Me” the singer is not imagining how the singer will remember the lost love.  Yet, there is a little of that when the singer notes, “Part of you will live in me.” Instead, most of “Please Remember Me” is asking the lost love to remember the singer.

And there is something sadder when the singer predicts that the (younger?) lover will “find better love.” The singer asks to be remembered “[w]hen I can’t hurt you anymore.”

Tim McGraw’s “Please Remember Me”

Most people probably know the song from Tim McGraw‘s version. McGraw does a decent job. And I have previously noted that McGraw does have some talent for choosing good songs.

Rodney Crowell’s “Please Remember Me”

For me, though, the best version of “Please Remember Me” is by one of the songwriters, Rodney Crowell, who wrote the song with Will Jennings. Crowell has written some of the best country songs since the 1970s.  And he is held in high esteem by country traditionalists, even as he has never had the mainstream popularity of singers like Tim McGraw.

According to Wikipedia, “Please Remember Me” only went to #69 on Billboard’s country charts for Crowell in 1995. Meanwhile, it went to #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks for McGraw when he released his version in 1999.

I have previously discussed how another Crowell heartache song “Til I Gain Control Again” is one of the all-time greats.  And “Please Remember Me” is another song that captures a true human emotion that too rarely appears in popular songs.

At the time he co-wrote the song, Crowell was already 45 years old (and co-writer Will Jennings was in his 50’s).  The lyrics, sung by an older singer, show an understanding of why the love will not work while also showing a world-weariness: “Just like the waves down by the shore / We’re gonna keep on coming back for more.”

When “Please Remember Me” is sung by a young singer, there is a touch of hopefulness and optimism about two lovers remembering each other. One might find that even Tim McGraw, who was in his early 30’s when he recorded the song, gives the song a different meaning than Crowell’s version. Still, McGraw seems to recognize Crowell’s context for the song by the rare action of removing his hat to make himself look older in the video.

But it is easier to imagine the weary older Crowell making the bittersweet plea with all of its subtext. So, if you enjoyed Danielle Bradbery’s cover or Tim McGraw’s cover, make sure you check out the Rodney Crowell original, which also features Patty Loveless providing harmony vocals for Crowell.

What is your favorite version of “Please Remember Me”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Julie Roberts: From Country Star to “Voice” Contestant

    Julie Roberts The Voice In 2004, I discovered the debut self-titled album from country singer Julie Roberts. It’s traditional sound stood apart from much of the mediocre music that comes out of Nashville. I particularly liked her version of “Break Down Here,” and it is one of my favorite country songs of the last decade.

    I liked the album so much that when her next album, Men and Mascara (2006) came out two years later, I picked it up when I saw it at a Tower Records going out of business. While it never grabbed me as much as her debut album, it was a solid sophomore effort, and I particularly liked the title track.

    While Roberts generally recorded songs from other artists on her first two albums, she showed a good taste for music and a talent for interpretation, choosing songs by people such as the talented Julie Miller. The first album, Julie Roberts, had good sales and reviews, leading to national TV show appearances and nominations from the Academy of Country Music and a CMT Awards breakthrough artist nomination.

    Her follow-up CD, Men and Mascara, did moderately well but was not as successful. It was a rough time for the music industry overall, and a few years later her record company Mercury Records dropped her. While I had wondered what had happened to Roberts, I did not know until being surprised while watching an episode of The Voice this week.

    The years since her breakthrough debut album have not been kind to Julie Roberts. She has failed to surpass or even reclaim the success of her first album, even though she self-released another try in 2010. A 2010 flood in Nashville ruined her home and belongings. And then she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while she was making her second album.

    Which brings us to this week on The Voice, where Roberts hoped for a second chance in her career, much like the winner of season three, Cassadee Pope, did when she auditioned. While it was great to see Roberts again, she appeared not as a guest performer but as a contestant, singing for the four judges who face away from contestants and only opt to turn around if they choose to keep the singer on the show as part of their team.

    Roberts selected a song by one of the judges she knew during better times, Blake Shelton’s “God Gave Me You.” As she sang, she hoped Shelton or at least one of the judges would hit the button on their chair to give her and her career a new chance. [2016 Update: Unfortunately, The Voice video segment with Julie Roberts is no longer available.]

    Ultimately, none of the judges turned their chair around for Roberts, and Blake Shelton felt especially bad after he recognized the singer he had just rejected. Roberts probably made a mistake singing a song recorded by one of the judges because the judges can be more picky when they think a contestant is trying to win them over with the song selection, especially when it is a song with personal meaning to the judge.

    Roberts does much better on other songs. And she probably would have been selected had she sang a song like “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” which is available along with other stripped down “Naked” recordings on her website.

    This week, Julie Roberts released a statement on her website about her experience on The Voice. In it, she notes that the rejection “was heartbreaking for me on many levels but I believe with all my heart that God has other plans for my life that He is working on behind the scenes for me right now.” The good news is that she plans to record new music and head back out on the road. We wish her well with her life, her health, and her career.

    [July 2013 Update: After her TV appearance, Julie Roberts signed a record contract with Sun Records and will release an album in October 2013.]

    What is your favorite Julie Roberts song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “The Voice” Brings Out Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” For Sandy Hook Tribute

    the voice sandy hook

    Last night on NBC’s The Voice, the show opened with the contestants backing up the coaches — Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, CeeLo Green and Christina Aguilera — singing Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah” in a tribute to those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

    The coaches, contestants, host Carson Daily, and Social Media Correspondent Christina Milian held up signs with the names of the 26 children and adults killed at the school as well as a card for Nancy Lanza, the mother of the mentally ill shooter (although it appears they opted not to hold up a card for the young Adam Lanza who also killed himself).

    I am usually not a fan of the way people pull out “Hallelujah” as a tribute to those who have died. For example, I have seen awards shows use the famous Jeff Buckley recording to accompany a video of artists who passed away. The beautiful song is often overused, and despite the title and biblical references in the lyrics, the meaning of the song is not really as religious as many think, touching on love, obsession, and sex. Leonard Cohen has stated that the song “explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value.”

    That said, The Voice rendition and their selection of which verses to sing was appropriate and one of the few times the song has been used so effectively in tribute. So as much as I don’t want to admit it, it is a beautiful tribute on what has become one of my favorite music competition shows. Check it out.

    As Saturday Night Live did this weekend after its children’s choir “Silent Night” tribute opening, after the opening, The Voice went back to the usual show.

    What do you think of the tribute on The Voice? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Did Reality Singing Shows Just Jump the Shark?

    This week on NBC’s The Voice, Erin Martin and the Shields Brothers performed in one of the show’s “battle rounds.” In this part of the competition, two competitors sing a song together and their judge, who selected the song and helped both prepare, decides which performer moves on in the competition. For this battle, their judge Cee Lo Green selected Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” This odd performance was the result. [March 2014 Update: The official video of the performance is no longer available, but the Shields Brothers later put together their commentary on the performance in the video below, which adds some additional information about the story behind the performance.]

    After the performance, fellow judge Adam Levine said it was “weird” and made him feel “uncomfortable.” Cee Lo Green selected Martin as the winner, eliminating the Shields Brothers from the competition.

    What do you think of the performance? How does it compare to American Idol? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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