During the almost 55 years since the release of her eponymous debut album, Bonnie Raitt has established herself as a top quality singer and slide guitar player; she has won many awards over her career, including 13 competitive Grammy awards (from 31 nominations), topped off in 2021 by a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also performed at nine Grammy Awards ceremonies.
I Can’t Make You Love Me featured on Raitt’s 11th (and her biggest selling to date) studio album, 1991’s Luck of the Draw. Raitt used the sleeve notes to dedicate this album to legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who tragically passed away in 1990, with the dedication “Still burning bright“. Raitt credits Vaughan as being instrumental in helping her to become sober in the late 1980s, at a time when she was abusing alcohol; his death coincided with her working on Luck of the Draw.
Luck of the Draw became a significant release in Raitt’s career and, principally on the back of successful singles such as Something to Talk About (a #5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100), I Can’t Make You Love Me and the Paul Brady-penned Not the Only One, helped her make the transition from respected blues artist to somebody far more mainstream. The album followed on from , and surpassed, the success of Nick of Time, released two years earlier.
I Can’t Make You Love Me reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #50 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was written by Allen Shamblin and Mike Reid, both members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Interestingly, Reid is a former NFL player, having played for the Cincinnati Bengals for five years before launching a career in music.
A sad, emotional ballad, the Raitt version of the song mainly features Raitt’s vocal, supported by piano played by Bruce Hornsby. Other musicians are long-time Raitt collaborator James “Hutch” Hutchinson on bass, Heartbreaker Benmont Tench (Hammond organ), Tony Braunagel (drum kit) and Paulinho da Costa (percussion), along with David Lasley and Arnold McCuller on backing vocals. It was co-produced by Raitt and Don Was. The lead vocal was recorded in a single take, with Raitt feeling unable to reach the same levels of emotional involvement in subsequent takes. Lyrically it’s powerful, “‘Cause 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.”
If a song is good enough, it will naturally transcend genres and appeal to a wide range of tastes (think the Gnarls Barkley hit Crazy; I only realised what a great song this is when it was covered by Shawn Colvin on her 2009 album Live). I Can’t Make You Love Me has been covered by a multitude of artists, with differing styles and interpretations, artists such as Prince, Kandace Springs, Adele, George Michael, Boyz II Men, Bonnie Tyler, Bon Iver, Maggie Rose and Vince Gill, Kenny Rogers, Patti LaBelle and Paul Carrack. As well as instrumental versions by Journey guitar maestro Neal Schon and saxophonist Candy Dulfer. Oh, and there’s a version by co-writer Reid, too.
In August 2000, Mojo magazine included I Can’t Make You Love Me in its list of “The 100 Greatest Songs of All Time,” coming in at an impressive #8. Similarly, in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine published its list of “The Greatest 500 Songs of All Time” and I Can’t Make You Love Me again featured, this time at #339 and repeated the exercise in 2021 when the song appeared at #372.
In 2016, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
