Collin Raye’s ‘Love, Me’ tells a story of love that endures even after death, and it’s one of the songs that really hit you hard and touches your soul. That was why it was no wonder that the song became a hit charting Number One on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks in 1992, earning Raye his first-ever Number One single on the chart. This is just one in the long list of Collin Raye’s songs that became a hit in his three-decade career.
Aside from that, it also received two nominations in the same year, namely the Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year and the Country Music Association Award for Single of the Year. And in 1993, it was also nominated in the Academy of Country Music Award for Single of the Year.
The song, which was originally released as the second single in his album All I Can Be in October 1991, was penned by Skip Ewing and Max T. Barnes. It was a ballad filled with the beautiful and soulful combination of a steel-string acoustic and Fender Rhodes electric piano. And it was cited as a popular choice for funeral songs.
‘Love, Me’ was inspired by two stories in Skip’s life, and the first was the story of his grandparents, Dale and Martha Hector. According to Skip, his grandparents were thoroughbred ranchers in Southern California, and Dale was sort of the coolest thing in his life, like his real-life John Wayne. He later discovered that he was not biologically -related to Dale because he was his grandmother’s second husband. Nevertheless, it didn’t matter to him.
Dale was someone who had not only touched his life but his grandmother’s as well. So when Dale passed away, he knew how his grandmother felt. It was just so much of a loving relationship, a love that endures even after death. He knew why his grandmother could never remarry.
The second was about a card that his girlfriend gave him in 1988. The card was not signed with a name because she knew that he knew. And what struck him was that intimacy between those two people that everyone would understand. It was a deep-founded connection filled with energy of acceptance and love that can only be found in a space that was actually written.
He pitched these ideas of powerful loves to Barnes, who was playing an electric guitar at that time while they were touring. And so they reflected upon that and spent a whole night talking about these relationships and the connectivity across generations. Then they weaved those stories into a song.
Collin Raye’s ‘Love Me’ was definitely a song that touched so many souls. And it really did express the power of love and relationship. The music video premiered in late 1991 and was directed by Peter Lippman. Listen to the soul-crushing song in the video below.
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Collin Raye