Does it get any better than this?
On this date in 1993, the powerful duet of Reba McEntire and Vince Gill’s “The Heart Won’t Lie” sat atop the Billboard country singles chart. The song was the second single that was released from Reba’s album It’s Your Call, with the first single that was released being “Take It Back.”
“The Heart Won’t Lie” was originally supposed to be a duet with Kenny Rogers and Reba, but Rogers’ availability made recording the duet difficult. McEntire decided to go ahead with the song and actually recorded the song in its Mc-entirety (obligatory Reba joke) as a non-duet.
However, as the song was originally intended to be a duet, producers thought the story of the song would be better serviced with another singer alongside Reba. Thus, the 22 time Grammy–winner Vince Gill stepped in and recorded his portion, which was then added in to make it a duet.
Reba has always had the touch to create emotional love songs, and this one followed suit. The song described the love between two people who tried their best to hide it, but simply could not.
The lyrics of the song reveal this “forbidden love” when Reba sings:
“You try to live your life from day to day
But seeing you across the room tonight
Just gives me away
‘Cause the heart won’t lie
Sometimes life gets in the way
But there’s one thing that won’t change
I know I’ve tried
The heart won’t lie…”
They just don’t make music like they used to, and they certainly don’t make music videos like they used to either (do they make them really at all? and who is “they?”). This classic music video for the country-billboard-chart-topper features Reba and Vince Gill playing a pair who is in love but tries to conceal their feelings for one another.
With a nod to the movie An Officer and a Gentleman, Reba plays a Navy Officer Candidate and Vince plays the role of her drill instructor, a U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant.
Go ahead and put that on repeat.
And a quick side note: if you paid close attention to the “beach scene” in the music video, Reba is wearing a Murray State University sweatshirt. I happened to graduate from Murray State and was caught incredibly off guard by this. I actually did a double take and sent the video to others to confirm her sweatshirt said “Murray State University.”
I did some research and still have no idea why Reba was wearing the retro crew neck or what connection she might have to my alma mater, but it’s cool nonetheless.
Great publicity for my former university though, who probably have no idea Reba ever plugged them in this iconic music video.
Go Racers.
