I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me

Album: Rhythm & Romance (1985)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Nashville songwriter Billy Montana told us that many songs are based on the lives of the writers, but often turned into something else. Says Montana: "I think that we try to tap on our experiences, but it's not necessarily that something will happen to us and we'll go home and write about that particular event. I remember a story one time, Rosanne Cash said that she didn't win an award that she thought she was going to win, so she went home and she wrote 'I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me.' And it was like, Wow, man. Because you always think of it as being a love song, but she was actually talking about the CMA"
  • This was a #1 Country hit, and it went to #16 on the Adult Contemporary charts.
  • Cash wrote this with Rodney Crowell, who she was married to at the time.
  • Cash performed this on Saturday Night Live in 1986.

Comments: 4

  • Dave H from Upstate New YorkWho sang the background vocals for Roseanne on “I don’t know why you don’t want me “?
  • Armed Forces Dj from MinnesotaGreat song. Listen to it to this day. Love the lyrics and RC’s vocal sell’s it!
  • T. Welch from ArkansasThis is one of RC’s best songs. I first heard on on Armed Forces Radio while stationed in Europe.
  • Douglas Smith from Hartford City, InVince Gill sang the BGV's on this track.
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