Sara Evans Cuts Rod Stewart's Song

Sara Evans' new album "Stronger" will include one of her favorite songs by Rod Stewart, “My Heart Can’t Tell You No," but the song was intended for another leading lady in country music.

 

"I am a huge Rod Stewart fan, but that particular song I've loved since I was 18 years old," Evans said in an interview with The Boot. "I was working in a grocery store and I heard it playing in the store, and I was wondering, 'What is this song?' It was a big hit, and I kept hearing it alll the time. And I said, 'That is the best, most well-written, saddest song I have ever heard.' I have always loved it, and I always had it in the back of my mind to someday record."

 

"Then I found out Dennis Morgan wrote it, who wrote like every Barbara Mandrell hit," she continues. "He wrote 'Smoky Mountain Rain' for Ronnie Milsap. So, I met him at the BMI Awards, and he said, 'I hear a rumor that you're thinking about cutting my song.' And he told me that he intended that to be for Barbara and that Rod Stewart got a hold of it.”

 

However, the song almost didn’t make it on Evans’ album. "I did a guitar-vocal [demo] to see if it would even work with me," Evans said. "I played it for [producer] Tony Brown, and he said, 'Well, if you don't cut it, I'm going to cut it on Reba! That's the best idea. I've never thought about that song.' And so, we went in [to the studio], and recorded our own take on it."

"The opening line: 'I don't want you to come 'round here no more / I beg you for mercy.' I mean, haven't you had that person where you're just like, 'I can't be around you. I'm in love with you,' but they don't love you back?," Sara added. "'When the one you love's in love with someone else / Don't you know it's torture / It's a living hell.' I love songs like that where I can play the victim and really play that character."

 

This album marks Evans’ first studio album in six years, which also includes an acoustic version of her No. 1 “Born to Fly,” along with her current radio smash, “A Little Bit Stronger.”

 

The album will drop March 8.

 

Source: The Boot