Patty Loveless (Photo Credits: Amazon.com)
Can you help me say goodbye to the one I dearly love the most? Can you?
A question that is difficult to understand, at the same time, difficult to do and follow. Consequently, this leads us to even a worse question, “Why do we need to say goodbye?”.
Losing someone, be it a family member, a friend, a pet or a loved one, may be one of the most difficult situations to be in. How can we not be emotional when it comes to matters like this? Much as we do, we cannot deny the fact that this topic strikes deep into our emotions. Hence, this Patty Loveless classic will definitely give us some reasons to be strong and move on with our lives.
“How Can I Help You Say Goodbye” is just the best song that can at least heal our broken hearts, shed our teary eyes, and nurse our impaired emotions.
The Song
Originally written by Karen Taylor-Good and Burton Banks Collins, How Can I Help You Say Goodbye was first recorded by Patty Loveless for her 1993 album Only What I Feel.
Some artists have covered this song. As a matter of fact, a version by Laura Branigan was released later the same year on her final studio album Over My Heart. It was released as a single. In addition, the song was later included on Branigan’s 1995 greatest hits album The Best of Branigan.
Moreover, this song conquered the charts, reaching no. 3 in June 1994. It stayed for 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Tracks. Likewise, it was nominated for the 1995 Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song. Equally impressive, the accompanying video was also nominated by both the CMA and the ACM as 1995 Video Of The Year.
Burton Collins, who was an actor at the time, had never written a song before like “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye”. Moreover, he told Country Weekly that the title was spoken to him by his grandmother shortly before her death in 1988. After being introduced to Karen Taylor-Good by a mutual friend, he wrote the song with her. Collins said that he and Taylor-Good wrote the song in three hours.
‘It’s OK to Hurt and It’s OK to Cry’
In the song, the narrator shares to us vividly in our minds three experiences of loss in her life. First, moving away from her best friend as a young girl. Second, separating from her husband as an adult, and third, her mother’s death. Furthermore, in the chorus, her mother always seeks to comfort her asking, “how can I help you to say goodbye?”.
It’s OK to hurt and it’s OK to cry
Come, let me hold you
And I will try
How can I help you to say goodbye
Simple words, yet comforting and very true to their form. These lines from the song simply express that we’re just but humans — vulnerable and weak. Most noteworthy, we need some comfort and love even just for a while.
Watch Patty Loveless sing How Can I Help You Say Goodbye
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