“I’m Over You” is one of Keith Whitley’s song that was released after his death. A year after he died, the song was posthumously released as the third single off his 1990 album I Wonder Do You Think of Me.
The song reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Keith Whitley’s Last Heartbreaking Ballad
Written by Tim Nichols and Zack Turner, “I’m Over You” is a heartbreaking ballad. It sings about the tale of a man trying to tell his former lover that he’s no longer into her even though he is showing quite the opposite.
“So if I seem a little bit cold, it only mean you lost the hope. You had on me, I’m over you. You heard I’m drinkin’ more than I should, and I ain’t been lookin’ all that good. Someone told you I was takin’ it rough. Why they makin’ those stories up When I’m over you?” the song goes.
Keith Whitley died a few weeks after recording the song. Interestingly, much like the man in the song, Whitley became dependent on alcohol. Whitley’s alcoholism was known through much of the country music community.
“That’s just the way I grew up,” Whitley once said in a very candid interview. His musical heroes were Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell, both of whom liquor killed in one way or another. “I learned to do things the way the old-timers did it. I thought everybody had to drink to be in this business. Lefty drank, Hank drank, George Jones was still drinking, and I had to. That’s just the way it was. You couldn’t put that soul in your singing if you weren’t about three sheets in the wind.”
The news of Whitley’s death in 1989 absolutely shook the world of country music, especially when the cause of death was revealed to be his alcohol dependency. Whitley had reportedly spent the weekend partying and was then found at home fully clothed and face down, dead from alcohol poisoning. Whitley was only thirty-three years old when he died.
Though the singer’s career was tragically cut short, it gave him enough time to make his mark on country music. From his first single released in 1984 to his early death in 1989, Whitley scored nineteen hit singles.
You can watch Keith Whitley’s performance of “I’m Over You” in the video below, and you can really tell why he is called a legend for many reasons. His talent was genuine yet taken away from us much too soon.