Scotty McCreery – Please Remember Me

Introduction

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“Please Remember Me” is a poignant song that has traversed the country music landscape through various renditions, each leaving an indelible mark on its legacy. Co-written by esteemed songwriters Rodney Crowell and Will Jennings, the song was first introduced to audiences by Crowell himself in 1995. Featured on his album “Jewel of the South,” Crowell’s version captured the heartfelt essence of bidding farewell and the longing to be remembered, though it achieved modest success, peaking at number 69 on the Billboard country chart.

The song’s profound narrative found a broader audience when country superstar Tim McGraw covered it in 1999 for his album “A Place in the Sun.” McGraw’s rendition soared to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, maintaining the number one position for five consecutive weeks. This version also crossed over to the pop charts, reaching number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking it as one of McGraw’s most successful singles. The accompanying music video, directed by Randee St. Nicholas, further amplified the song’s emotional depth by intertwining reflective imagery with McGraw’s evocative performance. \

In 2012, the song experienced a revival through the voice of Scotty McCreery, the winner of “American Idol” Season 10. McCreery was selected to record “Please Remember Me” as the farewell song for the show’s 11th season, played during the emotional exit montages of eliminated contestants. Expressing his enthusiasm about the opportunity, McCreery stated, “I was ecstatic and I’m glad to get to be on there. It’s cool to still be connected to the show every week.” He also reached out to Tim McGraw, who responded positively, saying, “Oh, man. That’s really cool. I’m sure you nailed it.”

McCreery’s rendition honored the song’s rich history while introducing it to a new generation of viewers and listeners. Reflecting on the song’s role in the competition, he noted, “Every week, when the song would play and we’d have to watch the goodbye video, it was always a tough time. I never had to experience it, but I always felt it.” His version was made available on iTunes, allowing fans to connect with his heartfelt interpretation beyond the television screen.

Through these successive renditions by Rodney Crowell, Tim McGraw, and Scotty McCreery, “Please Remember Me” has solidified its place as a timeless ballad in country music, resonating with themes of farewell, remembrance, and enduring affection.

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Lyrics

When all our tears have reached the sea
Part of you will live in me
Way down deep inside my heart
The days keep coming without fail
A new wind is gonna find your sail
That’s where your journey starts
You’ll find better love
Strong as it ever was
Deep as the river runs
Warm as the morning sun
Please remember me
Just like the waves down by the shore
We’re gonna keep on coming back for more
‘Cause we don’t ever wanna stop
Out in this brave new world you seek
Oh the valleys and the peaks
And I can see you on the top
You’ll find better love
Strong as it ever was
Deep as the river runs
Warm as the morning sun
Please remember me
Remember me when you’re out walkin’
When the snow falls high outside your door
Late at night when you’re not sleepin’
And moonlight falls across your floor
When I can’t hurt you anymore
You’ll find better love
Strong as it ever was
Deep as the river runs
Warm as the morning sun
Please remember me
Please remember me

You Missed

LORETTA LYNN BOUGHT HURRICANE MILLS WITH DOOLITTLE IN 1966. THIRTY YEARS AFTER HE DIED, SHE WAS STILL LIVING AMONG THE LAND THEY HAD BUILT TOGETHER. In 1966, Loretta Lynn and Doolittle were looking for a place big enough to hold a family that had already outgrown the life they started in Washington State. They found Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. It was more than a house. There were acres of land, an old plantation home, barns, woods, roads, and enough open space for six children to run without hearing Nashville in the distance. Loretta saw a home. Doolittle saw room to build something around her name. Over the years, Hurricane Mills became all of it. A ranch. A museum. A campground. A stage. A place where fans came to see the house, walk the grounds, buy a ticket, hear music, and stand near the world Loretta had turned into country history. The girl from Butcher Hollow who once needed Doolittle to drive her record from station to station now had people driving across Tennessee to find her. Then Doolittle died in 1996. They had been married nearly fifty years. Loretta had written about him in songs nobody else could have sung. The cheating. The fighting. The loyalty. The fear. The kind of marriage that could not be reduced to one clean sentence. Doolittle had been the man who bought her first guitar, pushed her toward radio, managed her career, broke her heart, and stayed tied to every chapter of her life anyway. After he was gone, Loretta did not leave Hurricane Mills. She stayed on the land they had built together. The ranch kept growing. Motocross races came. Fans still visited. Children and grandchildren moved through the same grounds. Loretta kept making records, appearing at the ranch, and greeting people who had come to see the place where “Coal Miner’s Daughter” had become more than a song. When Loretta Lynn died in October 2022, she died at home in Hurricane Mills. Three days later, they buried her on the ranch beside Doolittle. The woman who had spent a lifetime turning private life into country songs was finally laid down on the same land where so much of that life had stayed waiting for her.

COUNTRY RADIO BANNED LORETTA LYNN’S SONG ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL. THE WOMEN WHO NEEDED IT MOST KEPT ASKING FOR IT. By 1975, Loretta Lynn had already spent more than a decade putting women’s real lives on country radio. She had sung about husbands coming home drunk. About cheating. About divorce. About women who were tired of being treated like furniture inside their own marriages. Nashville could tolerate some of it because Loretta still sounded like one of them — an Appalachian mother with a plain voice, a big laugh, and a kitchen-table way of telling the truth. Then she released “The Pill.” Loretta had recorded it three years earlier, but MCA had held it back. The song was too blunt for country radio. It was about a married woman who had spent years having children because her husband expected it, then finally found a way to decide what happened to her own body. Loretta knew that world. She had married at fifteen. She had four children before she was twenty. She loved Doolittle Lynn, fought with him, built a family with him, and wrote songs from the part of marriage most country records liked to leave behind the curtain. When “The Pill” came out, radio stations started refusing to play it. Some programmers said the title alone was too much. Preachers denounced it. Country music had plenty of songs about men drinking, cheating, disappearing for days, and coming home late. But a woman singing that she did not want to keep getting pregnant was suddenly treated like a threat. Loretta did not back away. The record kept selling. Women called stations and asked for it. People who had never heard birth control discussed in a country song heard a woman say plainly that she was tired of being “your little brood sow.” “The Pill” climbed to No. 5 on the country chart and became Loretta’s biggest solo crossover record on the pop chart. It did not make her less country. It proved country music had been leaving a whole group of women outside the door. Loretta Lynn opened it with one song.