About this song?? "You Needed Me"

[rjm]

I just discovered this song, and it's become my new favorite song. I could listen 100s of times.

Is it overly sentimental or is it a great song? Who wrote it? What is the story behind it and how did it do when released? An inquiring mind wants to know.

The primary question I have, though, is subjective: if you think it genuinely a great song, or overly sentimental tripe, I would like to know why you think so, and what criteria you use.

Thanks in advance.

..

rjm

[MountainMisst]

As a fellow woman, Robin, lol, you'll receive a feminine response from me, lol.

The song, "You Needed Me" is about unconditional love. The singer is thanking the love of her life for changing her life around and making her feel totally loved, happy, wanted, needed, and importantly, safe, more than is possible by anyone else, nor ever will be. The singer has been through heartache; however, she only has eyes for that person of whom she sings to; hence the lyrics, "....and I'll never leave, why should I leave, I'd be a fool". The singer has lived life and knows how she feels from experience.

The person she sings about and loves is the Love of Her Life or Twin Soul, and it surprised her, hence the lyric, ".....and I can't believe it's you, I can't believe it's true...". She is happy.

They started as friends, they are individual people, who complete each other, growing and being allowed to grow within their relationship - a relationship of a lifetime.

The singer feels so safe and happy, that she can see the world beneath her, and her partner needed her, too.

You ask the subjective question - "Is the song overly sentimental?"

To me, nothing said from the heart (if with the right person) can be overly sentimental when what you say is said sincerely, and comes from unconditional love.


.......................................................................................................................................................

"You Needed Me"

"You Needed Me" is a song written by Randy Goodrum, who describes it as being about "unconditional undeserved love. It was a number one single in the United States in 1978 for Canadian singer Anne Murray. The song, included on her 1978 album "Let's Keep It That Way", was also a top-five country single and won Song of the Year at the Academy of Country Music awards. Although the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (and is her only song to top that chart), it never topped the two Billboard charts where Murray has had the most success -- Country and Adult Contemporary. The song earned Murray the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 21st Grammy Awards, the first to be awarded to a Canadian artist.

Anne Murray re-recorded the song with Shania Twain for Murray's 2007 album Duets: Friends & Legends.

The song was featured in an ongoing storyline on the CBS soap Guiding Light in 1980-81, as a theme song for the characters Kelly Nelson and Morgan Richards.

[lovin' EP]

Robin, I always enjoyed Anne Murray's singing style. Very smooth and soft. Wasn't she one of Elvis' favorite singers? Seems like I read that somewhere. Good to hear from you!

Elvisly,

Linda

[rjm]

Thank you Misty and Linda!

Interesting that so far, this is an all-female thread. Very rare for this forum!

Thanks again for the information.

For me, it's about friendship. I lost my BFF of 19 years and his wife passed away in a hospice a couple weeks or so ago.

For me, the song is about my dear friend Donald. And also for his wife Lois.

Don helped me get an academic job the first year we met. He and Lois invited me to spend summers at their home in northwestern Connecticut. I have never known anyone more generous and almost every word strikes a chord with me.

I lost them both within months. I had always thought they "pitied" me and that's why they extended their hand to me. I spoke with his sister (and my dad, who Donald spoke with privately) and discovered that he looked up to me! And he told my dad "{My dad's name}, don't worry; we love her. She's family.")

And their house is now standing empty. The insurance dropped the house "because no one lives there" and her family can't even sell it. :'(

This song has given me solace. "You even called me 'friend.'"

Thanks.

rjm

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[George Smith]

It's a pretty song, and I can understand why it would connect for many listeners.

I have a short list of songs that "work" for me, even though they are not necessarily known: indeed, there have been songs where I was almost convinced they were written for me.

That's music for you: nothing quite like it for getting under your skin.

[rjm]

You Needed Me is a good song that's beautifully sung by Ann Murray. It's not a favourite of mine, but I do like this song and find it honest and sincere in Murray's hands. It's the kind of song that says, quite unashamedly, what it means. Which, in the most literal sense, is words about the value of friendship. However, connotations pertaining to God and spirituality could also be invoked here. So the song has depth and substance that can speak in different ways to different people.

What's important about any song is how it makes you feel and what it evokes in you. It's nice to know that this is your new favourite, rjm. More so given that you've shared what it means to you. That's priceless. So think of this song as a gift that you can cherish in your own special way.

Thank you, Greystoke! Made my day right there. Beautifully written, too, of course.

Cheers,
rjm
P.S. -- Thank you George.

[poormadpeter2]

I guess it kind of fits into that You've Got a Friend/Bridge Over Troubled Water vibe that occurred in easy listening or country songs of the early to mid 1970s - a set of songs which, rather cleverly, wear their hearts on their sleeves and yet are vague enough lyrically to be about what you want them to be about: friends, family, a lover etc. The rather lovely Song for the Life from the same period is also just as vague, as is The Wonder of You, of course (especially the way Elvis sings it with a verse missing). It was also a #1 in the UK back in the late 1990s in a cover by Irish boyband Boyzone. It's a lovely song, but one we don't hear much these days for some reason.

[keninlincs]

A genuinely nice song,sung very well and fully believable by Anne Murray,I like it