Reba McEntire had her first No. 1 since 2004 when her song “Consider Me Gone” snagged the top spot of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs.
Released as the second single from McEntire’s thirty-third studio album Keep On Loving You in 2009, “Consider Me Gone” became her longest-lasting No. 1 at four weeks. The song also landed in the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
It’s A Song About A Man’s Inattentiveness
Written by Steve Diamond and Marv Green, “Consider Me Gone” tells the tale of a woman who thinks her lover is no longer happy with her and that their relationship is about to come to an end. All she’s asking is honesty from her man, now that they’re at a crossroads.
“If I’m not the one thing you can’t stand to lose. If I’m not that arrow to the heart of you. If you don’t get drunk on my kiss. If you think you can do better than this, then I guess we’re done. Let’s not drag this on. Consider me gone,” the song goes.
McEntire described “Consider Me Gone” as a “strong woman song.” After all, the singer knows that plenty of women often get the cold shoulder when their husbands come in from work.
“He’s had a rough day, and she’s had three kids at home, especially if it’s summer. He doesn’t want to talk, something’s going on, and it’s confrontation time,” McEntire said. “If you are giving me the cold shoulder if you’re not wanting to talk to me, and if things aren’t getting any better and if I don’t turn you on, consider me gone.”
McEntire has also emphasized the one mistake that is very common in relationships and “that there’s not enough communication. Here’s the way the cow eats the cabbage. It’s like, let’s poop or get off the pot. Tell it like it is.”
Songwriter Steve Diamond, on the other hand, shared to The Boot how the song came to fruition. It all started when he and Green wanted to write about the “inattentiveness of men sometimes.” He said, “I know in my own case, I don’t always pay attention to my wife and what she needs. And this was a song about a woman just wanting to have some power in a relationship … and to be able to dictate some terms.”
Despite not having a title at the beginning, the songwriters had all the chords. They fished around for a while to see if they could find a title, and everything else fell into place. They finished the song the next day. “We were excited when we left the first day, but when we came back the second day, we felt we really had something,” Diamond said.
When McEntire heard the song for the first time, she immediately fell in love, and the songwriters can’t help but get very thrilled. “It’s mind-blowing to us because Reba is such an icon, and her hits are going to be as big as hits could ever be,” Diamond added.
You can listen to Reba McEntire’s breathtaking performance of “Consider Me Gone” in the video below.
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