Songfacts®:

• This was the theme song for the Tom Cruise movie Days Of Thunder, which is about a NASCAR driver. Joshua Rifkin and Eric Rackin wrote this for the film and sent it to Maria McKee, who had moved to Ireland after the failure of her first solo album. She only agreed to record it if she could change the lyrics, turning the song into a more emotive ballad.
• McKee was born in Los Angeles and as a teenager she followed her half-brother, Bryan Maclean of Arthur Lee's band Love, into the recording industry. By the early 1980s the siblings were working together in the Maria McKee Band, which after changing its name to the Bryan Maclean Band disbanded in 1985. She then formed the country-rock band Lone Justice and by the end of the year she'd achieved her first chart success with Feargal Sharkey's chart topping recording of her song "A Good Heart." Lone Justice managed a few well-received albums but when they broke up in 1987, McKee's career went into temporary decline. After the UK success of "Show Me Heaven," McKee took almost three years to climb back into the UK Top 40, before "I'm Gonna Soothe You" reached #35 in 1993. This was her final UK hit.
• In The UK, a dance version by Saint featuring Suzanne Dee returned this song to the chart in 2003, peaking at #36.
• The Days Of Thunder soundtrack created 2 other hits, Guns N' Roses version of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and Elton John's "You've Gotta Love Somebody."
• The UK 1989 Top Ten song "Real Gone Kid" by Deacon Blue was about Maria McKee. Their lead singer Ricky Ross wrote this song about her after seeing her in concert when she was Lone Justice's vocalist. He was inspired by McKee's wild behavior on stage. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for all above