I Can’t Make You Love Me
Turn down the lights, turn down the bed
Turn down these voices inside my head
Lay down with me, tell me no lies
Just hold me close, don’t patronize – don’t patronize me
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
‘Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t
I’ll close my eyes, then I won’t see
The love you don’t feel when you’re holding me
Morning will come and I’ll do what’s right
Just give me till then to give up this fight
And I will give up this fight
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 lonely hours
I will lay down my heart and I’ll feel the power
But you won’t, no you won’t
‘Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t
Have you ever heard this pensive song? It is a beautiful combination of heartfelt lyrics and loads of passion.
The songwriting team of Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin wrote this classic love song. Reid said that he got the idea for the song when he read a newspaper article about a man who shot up his girlfriend’s car. When asked by the judge what he had learned the man replied,
You can’t make a woman love you if she don’t.
Bonnie Raitt recorded this song in 1991 for her album Luck of the Draw. Mojo magazine voted “I Can’t Make You Love Me” #8 on its The 100 Greatest Songs of All Time list in August of 2000. Right now, the song is ranked #339 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Clay Aiken sang this song on his Jukebox Tour during the summer of 2005. It was a huge hit and I wonder if we will ever hear Clay sing it again sometime.
Did you have a chance to hear Clay sing this song?
If not, the following video will make you tear up!
Get out the tissue!
Clay brings so much heart-felt passion with this song, I want to cry! Thank you, for sharing this beautiful performance by OMC!
It took a lot of concentration for Clay to get through a very serious song like this. The audience was nice enough to remain relatively quiet so this was possible. I’m sure that was appreciated. I recently lost most information when changing phones. I used to get to older Clay singing Bridge Over Troubled Water from a CANN post in my emails. Does anyone know how I can get to it now. I really love it. ❤️ UNCONDITIONAL love for you Clay.
yes i have herd clay sing this song and i almoset felt like crying
I love this song! I've never heard him sing it live in front of me, *sigh*, but thank God for clack!
It breaks my heart that I missed all the best years of Clay from 2003 – 2012. I was busy building an accounting/tax business and even though my employees and partner spent the lunch hour eating and talking American Idol and trying to convince me to watch….I just felt it was a show that I would not enjoy.
I saw the magazine article while at a Dr’s appt about Parker’s birth and shared the news with the office staff when I returned.
In 2012 my husband was dying of lung cancer. I have a severe hearing loss and had a terrible fear of falling asleep at night (since we were totally alone) and he would need me and I would not hear him. So, to try to stay awake I stayed online reading anything and everything imaginable. After awhile I ran out of things I could think of to look up and read.
Out of nowhere came the memory of the magazine article I’d read 4 years before….but could not remember Clay’s name. So the search began. It included Taylor Swift as well as Taylor Hicks and many in between. Please keep in mind I’d spent 3 months of surviving on 3 to 4 hours of sleep caught in one hour segments every 24 hours…so I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to do an American Idol contestant Google search.
I finally found him and watched every YouTube video I could find and read every article I could locate. Many people still don’t get it when I say ” I have no idea how I would have emotionally survived the last month of my husband’s life…had it not been for Clay Aiken.”
I was so disappointed that he stopped touring just when I found him. But, my life long best friend surprised me by taking me to Phoenix last December when he did the Christmas show.
I told her when she flew from California to be with me when my husband died that the only thing left that I wanted before I died was to see Clay in person. She made it possible for me to experience that, and it is something I will never forget. I cried through the entire show…it was impossible not to…for he was the one person that was with me in the darkest days of my life.
I believed at the time as I was watching and reading about him…. during those horrible nights of having to accept I was one day closer to losing the man I loved with my whole heart and soul that Clay was a special gift from God…to help me through the worst time of my life… and I will always believe that.
I so wish I could have been at the concerts so many of you were so fortunate enough to see. I am so thankful for CANN because it’s the next best thing. Thank you Martha for all your hard work to give us this wonderful website.