Bonnie Raitt has a lengthy history of success in rock music. The singer-songwriter has had numerous hits on the rock and pop charts. It’s all thanks to her meticulous choice of songs for her records, combined with her soulful delivery. But while Raitt has never released a song for country radio, several of her hits would work for that genre as well.
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We picked three of our favorite Bonnie Raitt hits that also belong on country radio.
“I Can’t Make You Love Me”
Bonnie Raitt released “I Can’t Make You Love Me” in 1991, from her Luck of the Draw album. The song is written by Allen Shamblin and Mike Reid. Still, Raitt pours so much of herself in the heartbreaking song, it seems as if she wrote it herself.
“I Can’t Make You Love Me” says in part, “I can’t make you love me, if you don’t / You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t / Here in the dark, in these final hours / I will lay down my heart and I’ll feel the power / But you won’t, no you won’t ‘Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t.”
Even Raitt admits the song is a challenge to sing live.
“‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ is no picnic,” Raitt says. “I love that song, so does the audience. So it’s almost a sacred moment when you share that, that depth of pain with your audience. Because they get really quiet, and I have to summon some other place in order to honor that space.”
“Love Sneakin’ Up On You”
Any country artist could have just as easily cut “Love Sneakin’ Up On You“. If they had, they likely would have made it a big, big hit. Raitt released “Love Sneakin’ Up On You”, written by Jimmy Scott and Tom Snow, in 1994, on her Longing In Their Hearts record.
In the uptempo track, Raitt sings, “Nowhere on earth for your heart to hide / Once love comes sneakin’ up on your blind side / You might as well / Try to stop the rain / Stand in the track of a runaway train / Just can’t fight it when a thing is meant to be / Come on let’s finish what you started with me.”
The success of the song, the only Top 5 single from the record, is what likely helped Raitt win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Album, for Longing In Their Hearts.
“Something To Talk About”
Right before “I Can’t Make You Love Me” was released, Bonnie Raitt released “Something To Talk About” from Luck Of The Draw. Shirley Eikhard penned the feel-good track, which begins with, “People are talking, talking ’bout people / I hear them whisper, you won’t believe it / They think we’re lovers kept under cover / I just ignore it, but they keep saying / We laugh just a little too loud / Stand just a little too close / We stare just a little too long / Maybe they’re seein’ something we don’t, darling.”
Anne Murray was originally going to record “Something To Talk About”. When Murray ultimately passed on it, Raitt recorded it instead. The song earned Raitt a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
“Something To Talk About” may have never made it to country radio, but it did inspire a big hit. Lee Brice had a No. 1 hit with “Rumor,” released in 2018, a song he wrote with Ashley Gorley and Kyle Jacobs, with Raitt’s song in mind.
“It’s a homage for sure,” Brice tells Taste Of Country. “My voice, when we were writing this song, it was before my (vocal) surgery. So I was kind of screaming to get anything out at all. … It’s kind of cool because who knows if we’d have gone down that road — this extra soulful thing — without that moment before my surgery.”
Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images for Americana Music Association
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