Come to My Window

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"Come to My Window" is a Grammy Award-winning song by Melissa Etheridge released in 1994 on her 1993 album Yes I Am. This was the first song to be released after Etheridge publicly announced her sexual orientation of being a lesbian. With the driving force of gay rights, the song gained a lot of airplay on radio stations, mostly through call-in requests. The song debuted on the Billboard charts after the first week of its release. It was also the second song from Etheridge that earned her a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

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[edit] Song information

When the song was being promoted a portion of the song's beginning was omitted. This was to help accommodate some radio stations that wanted an instrumental beginning rather than a vocal one. The song's lyrics describes the intense love that Etheridge has for another person. It describes situations that she is willing to endure and how happy the other person makes her feel. In addition, the song implicitly alludes to the singer's sexual orientation and activism by the lyrics:

"I don't care what they think.
I don't care what they say.
What do they know about this love, anyway?"

[edit] Music video

The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, was filmed in black and white. In the video, Etheridge is portrayed playing an electric guitar. Etheridge is shown moving fervently among different windows as if she is longing for someone. In various points, Etheridge smashes her guitar into the ground to emphasize the passion for the one she's waiting for. In fact, after the release of the music video on MTV, Etheridge told in her interviews that she "must have destroyed a million guitars" when they were shooting the video. The video also features Juliette Lewis as a mental patient, who at the beginning of the video (before the song starts) speaks the first few lyrics.

[edit] Charts

Year Single Chart Position
1994 "Come to My Window" Adult Contemporary 4
1994 "Come to My Window" Mainstream Rock Tracks 22
1994 "Come to My Window" The Billboard Hot 100 25
1994 "Come to My Window" Top 40 Mainstream 13
1995 "Come to My Window" Adult Top 40 27
1995 "Come to My Window" Top 40 Adult Recurrents 4
1995 "Come to My Window" Top 40 Adult Recurrents 5

[edit] Trivia

The video also features "child-like" drawings in certain scenes. According to an episode of VH1's Pop Up Video, these drawings were created by a crew member's five year old daughter. Additionally, the video was to have included an appearance by a little girl; the mental patient's "lost childhood". While the appearance was filmed, it got lost during editing.

The song was played by the World Wrestling Federation in the background of a tribute to fallen wrestler Owen Hart.