About The Song
If you have ever been in love with someone, you might be very well familiar with this situation. When you feel a sense of confusion and deep pain rippling through you – that gut-wrenching feeling of being unlovable – yet there’s this one person who gives you strength to stand alone again and face the world on your own. That’s what Anne Murray’s “You needed Me” is all about. The romantic ballad was a part of her album Let’s Keep It That Way.
In 1978, Anne Murray‘s popularity was starting to wane that she found herself struggling with the pressures of being in the music industry. At the same time, she was juggling a number of roles: being a wife to her then-husband Bill Langstroth and being a mother to her toddler son William.
One day, while going through a box of tapes, she came across a song that fully describes what she feels at the time. Right then and there, she knew she had to record that song. But the problem is, only the writer’s name, Randy Goodrum, was on the cassette.
Goodrum, on the other hand, was a keyboard player who wrote songs not to make a living as a songwriter nor necessarily for the industry. Luckily, Murray’s producer was able to find him by researching his name in the phonebook. He gave Goodrum a call, and the rest was history.
“You needed Me” turned out to be one of the biggest hits among Anne Murray songs. It peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was the Academy of Country Music Awards’ Song of the Year. It also took home the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance during the 21st Grammy Awards, helping Murray revive her career after many years of dwindling fame.