Here You Come Again (song)

"Here You Come Again"
Single by Dolly Parton
from the album Here You Come Again
B-side	"Me and Little Andy"
Released	September 1977
Recorded	June 1977
Genre	Country pop
Label	RCA Nashville
Writer(s)	Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
Producer(s)	Gary Klein
Dolly Parton singles chronology
"Light of a Clear Blue Morning" (1977) "Here You Come Again" (1977) "Two Doors Down"/"It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" (1978)

"Here You Come Again" is a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and recorded by American entertainer Dolly Parton, which topped the U.S. country singles chart and won the 1979 Grammy award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance; it also reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, representing Parton's first significant pop crossover hit.

Having been composed by Mann and Weil, the song was a rare example of a Parton hit that she did not write herself. The songwriting duo originally composed "Here You Come Again" in 1975 as a potential comeback hit for Brenda Lee, but when Lee decided not to record it, the song made its way to Parton, who was in the process of redirecting her career as a successful mainstream country artist, to that of an entertainer with broader pop appeal, and was looking for a vehicle to assist with that transition. Even so, her producer, Gary Klein, told Tom Roland in The Billboard Book of Number One County Hits that she begged him to add a steel guitar to avoid sounding too pop, and he called in Al Perkins to fill that role. "She wanted people to be able to hear the steel guitar, so if someone said it isn't country, she could say it and prove it," Klein told Roland. "She was so relieved. It was like her life sentence was reprieved."^[1]

"Here You Come Again" was released as a single in September 1977 as the title track from Parton's album Here You Come Again, and was the centerpiece of her now famous pop crossover move in the late-1970s. The recording earned Parton the award for best female country vocal at the Grammy Awards of 1979.^[2]

The song peaked at number 1 for the week of December 3, 1977 and stayed there for a consecutive five weeks. It peaked at number 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in January 1978.

Chart performance

Cover versions

• B.J. Thomas recorded the song for his eponymous 1977 album. Since that album was released before Dolly Parton's, his version could be considered the original version, although it was not released as a single.
• Millie Jackson covered the song on her 1978 album Get It Out'cha System.
• Patti LaBelle recorded the song for her 1981 album, The Spirit's In It.
• Kikki Danielsson covered the song on her 1981 album Just Like a Woman, with lyrics written by herself in Swedish as Här är jag igen (translated: "Here I am again").^[3] It remains one of the few times the singer Kikki Danielsson was self-involved in songwriting.
• Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins performed the tune on his 1981 recording No Problem
• Maureen McGovern recorded a slower, sensual bluesy version for her 1988 CBS album, State of the Heart.
• Sylkie Monoff covered this song in 1994 and it was re-released in 2013.
• In 2006 Clay Aiken covered this song on his album A Thousand Different Ways.
• In 2006, Canadian Idol winner Eva Avila performed the song on the Top 5 Country themed week.
• Jade Valerie of the band Sweetbox covered this song for her album Sweetbox Meets Avex which is extremely rare. The song was to be placed on her album, Jade.
• In the 2007 season of American Idol, contestant Carly Smithson performed a slowed-down version of the song to which Dolly commended that Carly's voice was the type of voice that the song was written for. A full-length studio version is available for download.
• In 2009, Jill Johnson recorded the song on the cover album Music Row II.^[4]
• On her episode of The Muppet Show, Leslie Uggams performed the song. Her singing was accompanied by Lew Zealand throwing boomerang fish. This was initially an annoyance for Leslie, but it got worse when Lew started throwing swordfish.
• In 2014 this song was covered by Kacey Musgraves and Katy Perry on a June 13, 2014 episode of CMT Crossroads.

External links

• Here You Come Again lyrics at Dolly Parton On-Line
• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

References