Songwriters Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin tell the Story Behind the Song ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ to NSAI’s Bart Herbison

Story Summary

• The song was inspired by a quote in a Tennessean story from 1989.
• The song was recorded by Bonnie Raitt, George Michael, Prince, Boys II Men and Adele.

The heart-wrenching ballad, “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” written by songwriters Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin was inspired by a story in a 1989 edition of The Tennessean about street drunks. The song, according to the writers, started out as an uptempo bluegrass song intended for Ricky Skaggs.

What happened with the song became the polar opposite when its tempo was slowed down and the voice to bring it to life in 1991 was Bonnie Raitt.

Bart Herbison, executive director of Nashville Songwriters Association International, sat down with Reid and Shamblin to get the story behind this beloved song that in addition to Raitt, has been recorded by George Michael, Boys II Men, Adele, actress and singer Priyanka Chopra and Prince.

Not a traditional inspiration for a song

Reid and Shamblin recounted to Herbison the initial inspiration for this song was a line in a newspaper article in the Dec. 18, 1989 edition of the Tennessean. The story, titled, “A Day in the Jungle with Drinking Buddies” written by Anne Paine was about the life of a street drunk.

Not the traditional foundation for a love song.

But when Reid read the story, one particular quote struck him as poignant. One of the interviewees was recounting that he and his wife had divorced due to his alcoholism and said, “You can’t make a damn woman love you if she don’t.”

The two co-authored the song, but it wasn’t set on the slower tempo until Shamblin heard Reid playing a completely different melody on the piano one day.

“Mike said to me ‘come upstairs I want to play you something,” Shamblin remembered. “I sit there and Mike starts playing this melody with no words. Mike’s just playing this melody and I’m getting goosebumps again telling this because it was one of the most beautiful melodies I’d ever heard. And, and I didn’t verbalize this, but I’m thinking to myself as he’s playing that I don’t even know if you should put words to this because it’s so beautiful.”

Then Reid started singing the chorus to their uptempo song over this slower melody.

“It was like God entered the room and we go down into his basement and we finished the song that day.”

Sometimes a great song takes a while to evolve

Reid said that although the newspaper article had sparked two lines for the song,

I can’t make you love me if you don’tYou can’t make your heart feel something it won’t

“We just had those two lines and we banged around on that and we just couldn’t get anywhere,” Reid said. “And then we’d go write something else.”

But these types of time gaps during the writing of songs isn’t out of the ordinary.

“We would spend six or seven hours of a day and get a line or two sometimes,” Reid said. “Sometimes…it’s a matter of listening for it.”

‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ is ‘not our song anymore’

The song became one of Raitt’s most popular songs, reaching the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the Top 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. But more than chart position or awards and accolades, the song resonated with people and was recorded by several other prominent artists, keeping the song top of mind.

“I’m not sure we really think of it as our song anymore,” Reid said of the song’s significance. “Maybe we were paying attention and we were the vessel (during the write). But boy, when you get a delivery system like a Bonnie Raitt and and Don Was (producer) and Bruce Hornsby playing piano, you’ve got a winning combination.”

About the series 

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, the “Story Behind the Song” video interview series features Nashville-connected songwriters discussing one of their compositions. For full video interviews with all our subjects, visit tennessean.com/music. 

About The Author

Melonee Hurt

Music reporter

Melonee Hurt is a Growth & Development Reporter at various esteemed publications. She covers a diverse range of topics including arts and entertainment, music, theater, and consumer travel, with a particular focus on the music business, concerts, and festivals. Melonee’s work has been featured in notable outlets such as the Knoxville News Sentinel, USA TODAY, and the Tennessean.

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