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As a result, it entered Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart at number 35. Scott Siman, McGraw's manager, had been working with both the label and radio stations to "address the fact that we don't have a studio recorded version of this song". A remixed version was released to radio in June 2007, while McGraw's then-current single "I Need You" was also climbing the charts. This remix was added to later presses of his then current album Let It Go, and Curb began promoting the song as a single in place of "I Need You". McGraw decided to perform the song on the ACM Awards soon after writing it.
"If You're Reading This" is a song performed by American country music artist Tim McGraw. The song was first performed at the Academy of Country Music awards, which were held in Las Vegas, Nevada and aired May 15, 2007 on CBS. Shortly after McGraw's live performance, several radio stations began playing a telecast of the song, boosting it to a debut at number 35 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts from unsolicited airplay. A remixed version of the live recording was later released to radio as a single, overlapping Tim's then-current single, "I Need You", a duet with wife Faith Hill. Despite the lack of a studio recording, the song received airplay on country radio after several stations began playing the CBS telecast of McGraw's live performance.
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The ACM Awards show producers did not know which song McGraw was singing until the time of his performance. The reaction to the performance was so strong that radio stations wanted to play it immediately, but McGraw hadn't recorded a studio version yet. The stations played the live performance version of the song instead, and that version entered the Billboard charts at No. 35. In June, McGraw released a remastered version of the song, which removed most of the audience noise. "If You're Reading This" had a good chart performance overall, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 8 on the US country year-end chart. McGraw and Faith Hill's 2007 duet, "I Need You" was climbing the charts at the same time.
"If You're Reading This" is the second song in McGraw's career that has charted from a live performance. In 2001, "unknown fans" taped McGraw's performance of the song "Things Change" during the CMA awards, and posted the recording to Napster; as a result, several stations downloaded and played the live telecast of that song. When McGraw performed the song at the ACM awards show, one hundred relatives of soldiers joined him onstage, under a banner that read "Families of Fallen Heroes". "If you're reading this, my mama's sitting there, looks like I only got a one-way ticket over here / I sure wish I could give you one more kiss / The war was just a game we played when were kids,"he sings the emotional first verse.
'If You're Reading This': The Story Behind Tim McGraw's Emotional Song Honoring Fallen Soldiers
The audience, which included McGraw's wife Faith Hill and other country stars, responded with a standing ovation. McGraw sings from the perspective of the soldier as if he were reading the letter to his loved one after he died. Throughout the song, the soldier writes to his loved one, wishing he could give her "one more kiss," asking to be buried in the "open field out on the edge of town," and ensuring that his soul is in heaven -- "Where my mama always prayed that it would go."
In October 2007, "If You're Reading This" reached a peak of number 3 on the Billboard country charts, becoming McGraw's forty-second Top Ten country hit overall. McGraw co-wrote the song, with Brad and Brett Warren of country duo The Warren Brothers, approximately three weeks before the ACM awards aired. © 2019 cowboylyrics.com All lyrics are property and copyright of their owners. "Not only is it a human being and a solider who has died, but the ripple effect from that... The families that are affected, the children, the wives, the parents, the cousins, the friends," McGraw told WKRNat the time.
