Rumer shares her interpretation of 15 songs by Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Hugh Prestwood on her upcoming album Nashville Tears. Due April 24, the album includes the British singer-songwriter’s stirring take of Trisha Yearwood’s “The Song Remembers When,” which Billboard premieres today (March 12). The song will be offered as an instant grat track on Friday.
On “The Song Remembers When,” Rumer’s whispered vocals are heard over delicate acoustic guitar and soaring string accompaniment. A song Rumer describes as “the most perfect song ever written,” she hopes to introduce the U.K. audience to the Yearwood standard.
“It was a huge hit for Trisha Yearwood here in the States but not as widely known in the U.K. or other parts of Europe,” Rumer tells Billboard. “I hope to share this wonderful song with new audiences, and I hope she’ll think I’ve done it justice!
“Bittersweet and nostalgic, I think everyone can relate to how songs become such profound triggers for all of our memories as we go through life, however long they have been buried.”
“The Song Remember When” peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in December 1993. Yearwood released it as the lead single to her album of the same name that year. Kristin Chenoweth also included the song on her 2005 album As I Am.
Prestwood penned “The Song Remembers When” by himself and admits that he was skeptical when first approached about the idea of Rumer recording an entire album of his songs.
“Being long familiar with the vicissitudes of the music biz, my initial reaction was roughly the same as being told any artist had put a song of mine on hold: I was pleased but well aware that there were still many rivers to cross,” he says. “Then, Fred Mollin] sent me rough mixes on a few songs and I began to get excited. I loved how they were doing them and particularly how understated — yet deeply powerful – her vocals were. There is a pure honesty that I rarely hear in vocals these days.
“In my career it has always been a marvelous – and rare — moment when an artist blows me away with their rendition of one of my songs,” he adds. “To suddenly have over a dozen such renditions materialize all at once is astonishing – some kind of miracle.”
Listen to “The Song Remembers When” below.
