Make No Mistake, She's Mine

Album: I Prefer The Moonlight (1987)
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Songfacts®:

  • Back in 1984, Kim Carnes and Barbra Streisand went to war over the same man - in a song, that is. Carnes wrote the duet "Make No Mistake, He's Mine," a #1 Adult Contemporary hit, for Streisand's 1984 Emotion album, which finds the women trying to stake their claim on the two-timing man they both love.

    A few years later, Kenny Rogers and Ronnie Milsap were preparing to go on tour together and realized they needed a song to sing when they shared the stage. When Milsap came up empty, Rogers suggested they play romantic rivals in a gender-swap remake of the Carnes/Streisand duet, to be titled "Make No Mistake, She's Mine." The single was a #1 hit on the Country chart and was included on Rogers' and Milsap's respective 1987 albums I Prefer The Moonlight and Heart & Soul.
  • This wasn't the first time that Rogers' and Carnes' careers crossed paths. In 1966, Carnes briefly joined the New Christy Minstrels and struck up a friendship with Rogers, a fellow member of the folk ensemble. A year later, Rogers and some of the other Minstrels left to form the country-rock band First Edition. They were the first act to cut one of Carnes' songs when they recorded "Where Does Rosie Go" for their 1971 Transition album.

    In 1980, Rogers tapped Carnes and her husband Dave Ellingson, another ex-Minstrel, to write Gideon, a concept album about the life of a Texas cowboy. It yielded one single, a hit duet between Rogers and Carnes called "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer."

    Carnes' popularity exploded the following year when "Bette Davis Eyes" hit the charts, but she and Rogers continued to collaborate. Carnes, along with James Ingram, sang on the crossover hit "What About Me?," the title track from Rogers' 1984 album. She also contributed backing vocals on Rogers' I Prefer The Moonlight, the album featuring "Make No Mistake, She's Mine."
  • According to The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits, Rogers and Milsap recorded the tune together with the band, but later they both overdubbed different sections, so producers Kyle Lehning and Rob Gailbraith had to piece together the best performances.
  • I Prefer The Moonlight yielded two more Top 10 singles on the Country chart: the title track at #2 and "The Factory" at #6. Milsap's album, Heart & Soul, also resulted in two more Top 10s: "Old Folks" (a duet with Mike Reid) at #2 and "Button Off My Shirt" at #4.
  • This won the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1988.
  • Naya Rivera and Chord Overstreet sang this version in the 2013 Glee episode "Diva."

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