When Melissa Etheridge released her fourth album, Yes I Am, in 1993, her hit single, “Come To My Window,” earned her a second Grammy Award. The hit album, also featuring hits, “I’m the Only One” and “If I Wanted To,” finally gave Etheridge, who had written all of her albums in their entirety up until that point, the recognition she deserved as a bonafide songwriter.
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The second single on Yes I Am, “Come To My Window” was Etheridge’s grander anthem with a meaning of love and longing which she universally conveyed in her pleading lyrics I don’t care what they think / I don’t care what they say / What do they know about this love, anyway?
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On the Road
Also inspired by the breakdown of a relationship, “Come To My Window” was written during a particularly lonely time while Etheridge was on the road. “I wrote most of this song in a hotel room, which is where I did a lot of my writing once I started touring a lot after my first album,” shared Etheridge in 2009.
On tour, Etheridge revealed that there’s also a “superficial attention and adulation” constantly thrown at artists, which is countered by incredible loneliness. “Then you’re alone in your room, and it’s lonely,” said Etheridge. “I understand why some people turn to drugs.”
The Meaning
At the time, Etheridge was in a relationship that was on the rocks. “In my early 20s and 30s, I made some poor choices and what you choose is what you get,” she said. “I was struggling with fidelity, honesty, and what it is that makes a relationship.”
Writing in her hotel room, while missing her partner, and wanting to be back home, Etheridge began penning some of the first lines that came out for the song:
I would dial the numbers
Just to listen to your breath
Right from the beginning, the lyrics reflect an excruciating loneliness, and a plead to make things right with her lover:
I would dial the numbers
Just to listen to your breath
And I would stand inside my hell
And hold the hand of death
You don’t know how far I’d go
To ease this precious ache
And you don’t know how much I’d give
Or how much I can take
The Chorus
The chorus was used as a metaphor meaning “you can’t come through the front door,” revealed Etheridge. “I was telling her that we can’t meet and talk in an adult fashion,” she added. “We have to meet on the side and talk. And I always like a reference to the moon. It conjures up a cold, sweet image.”
Come to my window
Crawl inside
Wait by the light of the moon
Come to my window
I’ll be home soon
Rock and Roll
When Etheridge started writing the lyrics to “Come To My Window,” musically, she was already veering towards her rock roots for the songs on Yes I Am.
“The first three albums did fine,” said Etheridge. “I was being played on the radio and had a bit of a following. The hip-hop beats were starting around 1990, the time of my third album, I experimented musically with them. So for the fourth album, I was thinking of getting back to my soul—to the roots of rock and roll where I came from.”
Coming Out
“Come To My Window” was also the first single Etheridge released after coming out as gay in 1993.
“The gay community lifted me up and supported me,” shared Etheridge. “That bridge in the song was taken to an anthem level. It bypassed any meaning I ever put in the song and became part of a mass consciousness. It is still a huge moment when I perform it live.”
She added, “I realized that I was willing to compromise my wants, and wishes for someone else. The need was deeper than skin, it was in my blood. I needed to make a connection.”
I need you in my blood
I am forsaking all the rest
Just to reach you
An Open Window
The song was an immediate hit and spent 44 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart where it peaked at No. 25 and earned Etheridge her second Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Etheridge won her first Grammy for “Ain’t It Heavy,” released on her third album, Never Enough, in 1992.
“When I play ‘Come to My Window,’ and every single person is dancing and singing and waving, there’s nothing like that,” shared Etheridge, “and I am honored and grateful to partake in that with thousands of people.”
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for LOVE ROCKS NYC/God’s Love We Deliver
