Songoftheday 5/20/22 - But I've got all I want when it comes to loving you, you're my only reason you're my only truth...

"I Need You" - LeAnn Rimes

from the albums Jesus:Music From & Inspired By The Mini-Series (2000) and I Need You (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's song comes from LeAnn Rimes, who was still a teenager at the turn of the millennium, yet had landed five top ten albums on the Billboard 200 sales chart, selling millions, and scored one of the biggest hits of all time with her version of "How Do I Live". In 1999, she duetted with Elton John on "Written In The Stars" from his Broadway-bound treatment of Aida, which made the pop Top-40 that spring. Later that year, LeAnn released her own self-titled fifth album on Curb Records, which spun off the top ten country radio hit "Big Deal" that almost made the pop top-40 in the beginning of 2000.

Rimes' next release would be another project contribution, this time to the soundtrack to the TV miniseries Jesus, which originated in Italy but was broadcast in America on CBS, that sported some major stars that you'd never imagine in a religious movie like Gary Oldman, Jacqueline Bisset, and Debra Messing. The song was "I Need You", which was written by Ty Lacy and Dennis Matkosky, and produced by LeAnn with father Wilbur Rimes. For a song about the "lord and savior", the track sounds pretty seductive (think Faith Hill's "Breathe" for inspiration), though LeAnn's voice is stellar and non-sexual in her expression of that "need". Ooh boy. Anyhoo, the song was pure pop, and sounded great, and pop stations were all over it (country radio got a separate mix that really wasn't marketed to the public well)...

"I Need You" missed the top ten on Billboard magazine's pop Hot 100 by one notch in August of 2000. The song climbed to #8 on the Country Singles chart, and #34 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, but its biggest success was on Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio, where it spent a week at #2 and a full two years on the chart. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Finland (#10), the UK (#13), Spain (#15), Denmark (#15), Canada (#18), Ireland (#19), Sweden (#20), and Italy (#25). The companion album to the Jesus miniseries, released in March of that year, climbed to #79 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. The following year, Rimes released a new album built around I Need You, which became her sixth consecutive top ten at #10. But as the single was peaking, LeAnn had already begun legal action against Wilbur for stealing money from her. But Rimes will be back to the series for (at least) one last go.

(8/10)

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Here's LeAnn performing "I Need You" on The Tonight Show...