Pam Tillis Calls This 1991 Single the Best Song She Ever Recorded

In 1991, Pam Tillis had a hit single with “Maybe It Was Memphis“. The song, written by Michael Anderson, is part of her sophomore project, Put Yourself In My Place.

By the time Tillis released “Maybe It Was Memphis”, she had already released several songs, including “Don’t Tell Me What To Do” and “One Of Those Things”. But it’s “Maybe It Was Memphis” that became her biggest hit at the time.

Tillis began releasing songs in the early 80s, without much success. In fact, her debut album, Above And Beyond The Call Of Cutey, came out in 1983, eight years before Put Yourself In My Place. Though success might have come slowly to Tillis, at least at first, she never wavered in believing in her talent—or in the power of “Maybe It Was Memphis”.

“That was a song I found several years before I got my deal on Arista,” Tillis tells Songfacts. “And I just loved it. The good thing that happened with that song is I didn’t throw it out. Because I actually recorded it on Warner Brothers, and it wasn’t a good version. And then I just kept singing it. Lots of times, when an artist records a song and it doesn’t come off, they just move on to the next song.”

“But if I ever did anything right in my career, it’s the fact that I didn’t give up on that song,” she continues. “I actually re-recorded it when I got my deal on Arista and the second time it came up, it was the record that was everything I needed it to be. And it was a huge hit. So that doesn’t happen very often.”

The Message in “Maybe it Was Memphis” by Pam Tillis

The chorus of “Maybe It Was Memphis” says, “What was I supposed to do / Standing there looking at you / Lonely boy far from home / Maybe it was Memphis / Maybe it was southern summer nights / Maybe it was you, maybe it was me / But it sure felt right.”

Earlier in her career, Tillis released another version of “Maybe It Was Memphis”, which did not do well. Tillis knows artists rarely record a song again. Fortunately, she believed in “Maybe It Was Memphis” so much that she decided to include it on her sophomore project.

“I believed in the song so much,” Tillis tells RFD-TV. “And all that I knew was that every time I played it … people would go nuts.”

Tillis received a CMA Award nomination for Single of the Year for “Maybe It Was Memphis”. Her first Grammy nomination was also for this song.

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