This Incredible Tim McGraw Hit From the 90s Is Actually a Rodney Crowell Cover

In 1999, Tim McGraw released “Please Remember Me”. The heartbreaking song, a five-week No. 1 hit for McGraw, is the first single from A Place In The Sun, McGraw’s fifth studio album.

Before McGraw put his own spin on “Please Remember Me”, it was first released by Rodney Crowell. Crowell wrote “Please Remember Me” with Will Jennings. Crowell’s version of “Please Remember Me” came out in 1995. It is part of Crowell’s Jewel Of The South record.

A song of resignation, the chorus of “Please Remember Me” says, “You’ll find better love / Strong as it ever was / Deep as the river runs / Warm as the morning sun / Please remember me me.”

A Place In The Sun also includes “Something Like That”, “My Best Friend”, and “My Next Thirty Years”, all No. 1 singles for McGraw.

The Story Behind “A Place In The Sun” by Tim McGraw

“A Place In The Sun” may have been a big hit for McGraw. However, Crowell and Jennings initially wrote it for Crowell to release. The two songwriters were thousands of miles apart when they created “A Place In The Sun”.

At the time, Jennings and his wife had just temporarily relocated to Carmel, California, while Crowell was in Nashville, Tennessee.

“Rodney called me weeks later asking for something to work on for his album,” Jennings tells Songfacts. “I pulled the bits and pieces together, with the chorus title and tune, and sent it all to him. We worked on the phone between Carmel and Nashville and developed the rest of the song. “

Aaron Neville also recorded a version of “A Place In The Sun” with Linda Ronstadt. Their duet was not released as a single.

“Rodney made a great recording which was overlooked by the public,” Jennings recalls. “And a year or two later George Massenburg, who loved the song, played it for Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville and made a great record. Years went by and Tim McGraw picked up the song and made a fine record that closely followed Rodney’s production. And Tim’s version was a country and, almost, pop hit.”

“Rodney and I poured out our feelings about ending relationships, realizing the damage done, and wishing departed lovers a better life than they had with us,” he adds. “It’s about a breakup, and it was a particular person I had in mind, which I cannot reveal.”

McGraw’s “Please Remember Me” hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Patty Loveless sings background vocals on this song for McGraw.

Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images