Tag: Scotty McCreery

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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    Springsteen, American Idol Ain’t Good Enough For You?

    {This conversation was overheard Thursday morning at American Idol Headquarters}

    Anonymous Producer 1: “What a great finale. America loves us, and Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina did a great job. They are both great kids. It was fun seeing them sing with their idols, like McCreery singing with Tim McGraw on ‘Live Like You Were Dying,’ although I’m not sure I understand the meaning of the song.”

    David Cook Don't You (Forget About Me)

    Anonymous Producer 2: “Yes they are sweet kids. But they are kids.”

    AP1: “That’s great. It means we are hip and current. Look at the hip goodbye song we used this year of David Cook’s ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’. That reminds me that we have to pick a song for next year soon.”

    AP2: “Um, that song was a cover of of Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ from The Breakfast Club in 1985.”

    AP1: “Yeah, but kids love that movie. Do you have any suggestions for next year’s song?”

    AP2: “There’s one superstar we have not been able to get who would bring in some older viewers: Bruce Springsteen. Earlier in the season, Twitter was buzzing when Springsteen visited the contestants, and there was speculation he might appear on the show.”

    AP1: “What’s Twitter? Anyway, didn’t we have Springsteen’s band member Clarence Clemons at our final show playing saxophone while Madonna simulated sex on stage?”

    AP2: “You mean Lady Gaga singing ‘Edge of Glory,’ a great song. Yeah, but I think we could get Springsteen on the show if we select one of his songs as the goodbye song we play over videos of departing contestants.”

    AP1: “What song?”

    AP2: “He has a great song from 1978 . . .”

    AP1: “1978 is hip?”

    AP2: “Well, he only recently released it, and it’s called ‘Ain’t Good Enough for You.’ It is on Springsteen’s most recent release, The Promise, a collection of outtakes from 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town. ‘Ain’t Good Enough For You’ would be an empowering exit song for the contestant voted off the show, saying, ‘Yeah no matter what I do, well you know it’s true / Ain’t good enough for you, hey!'”

    AP1: “The song does not sound overwrought and sentimental enough for our kiss-off song.”

    AP2: “A little humor would be a good change of pace, and we did use Daniel’s Powter’s ‘Bad Day’ in 2006, which was funny.”

    AP1: “I don’t know. I think we should check with Jimmy.”

    AP2: “But that’s the best part! In ‘Ain’t Good Enough For You,’ Springsteen describes our American Idol makeover of contestants and then he mentions American Idol coach Jimmy Iovine, who in 1978 was Springsteen’s recording engineer”:

    I tried to change, I got a job in sales;
    I bought a shirt uptown in Bloomingdales;
    And babe I tried to make the latest scene,
    Hitting cool just like Jimmy Iovine.

    AP1: “Brilliant! This Springsteen guy is a genius if he wrote a song for American Idol in 1978. I can see him playing it on the 2012 finale show right now. Does Springsteen do simulated sex on stage?”

    Bonus “Ain’t Good Enough For You” Version: Springsteen performed “Ain’t Good Enough for You” at a special New Jersey session with fans to promote the release of The Promise. He relies upon the audience to sing “Jimmy Iovine,” so you may not make out his name as well as in the 1978 version. What is great about both versions of the song, though, is that Springsteen appears to be having a blast.

    What do you think? Would you like American Idol to feature Bruce Springsteen or one of his songs? Or should he avoid having any connection to the pop show? Leave a comment.

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    Kenny Rogers Just Dropped In

    Last week on American Idol, producer Jimmy Iovine selected one of the songs for each of the contestants, as did the judges. One of the oddest choices was the selection of the Kenny Rogers song “She Believes In Me” for Scotty McCreery. The song style was not odd, as it is a pop-country classic and that style fits McCreery like a glove. What did not work was the subject of the song and McCreery’s youth.

    Kenny Rogers & the First Edition In “She Believes In Me,” the singer laments how he has let down his wife or girlfriend and how he has failed to keep the promises he made when he was younger. The singer recalls, “I told her someday if she was my girl, I could change the world / With my little songs, I was wrong.” It seemed odd to hear the seventeen-year-old McCreery singing the lyrics. Did he promise his girl he would be a national success before he turned sixteen?

    Still, the American Idol country song choices were pretty safe for the top two Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina. The two largely have glided through by only singing country songs without being challenged to branch out for some variety. In past seasons, contestants were often forced to sing in other styes, which sometimes worked and sometimes did not. But this season, the judges and America seem content to allow the young contestants to remain in one genre.

    I would have liked to have seen Jimmy Iovene pick a more surprising Kenny Rogers song like “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).” Although I grew up hearing the pop-country Kenny Rogers songs like “The Gambler,” “Lucille,” “Don’t Fall in Love With a Dreamer” and “Islands in the Stream” overplayed on the radio, I often forget that early in his career he recorded “Just Dropped In” with The First Edition when he was more of a hippy than a silver-bearded pop singer.

    You may recall the Kenny Rogers song from a dream sequence in the movie The Big Lebowski in 1998, but it first was a hit in 1967. “Just Dropped In” was written by one of Kenny Rogers’s former high school friends — Mickey Newbury, who also composed “An American Trilogy,” discussed in a previous post. “Just Dropped In” sounds unlike “Coward of the County” and the other pop songs Rogers recorded later in his career. Even his voice sounds different. And the lyrics deviate from the literalness of most of his hits:

    I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in;
    I watched myself crawlin’ out as I was a-crawlin’ in;
    I got up so tight I couldn’t unwind;
    I saw so much I broke my mind;
    I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.

    According to Wikipedia, the song was a warning about using LSD. But a Dec. 23, 2000 Billboard article “The Story So Far” quotes Rogers explaining that Newbury did not intend the song to be taken completely seriously. “Mickey wrote a quasi-psychedelic song with elements of humor,” he explained. “It’s a tradition in country music to have your tongue in cheek, and that’s the case here.” (“The Story So Far,” at K-2)

    Maybe it would sound odd to have the 17-year-old Scotty McCreery singing the lyrics on American Idol, but it still would be a better song choice than “She Believes In Me.” And with Kenny Rogers on vocals and Glen Campbell playing the guitar on the original recording, you cannot say that country stars cannot handle “Just Dropped In.”

    Check out this psycedelic video from The Smother Brothers Hour. I would like to see this type of production on American Idol too. Groovy.

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