“I Know How He Feels”
Reba McEntire
Written by Rick Bowles and Will Robinson
Radio & Records
#1 (2 weeks)
November 11 – November 18, 1988
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
December 3, 1988
Reba McEntire’s final two albums of the eighties were also her final two albums with co-producer Jimmy Bowen.
These two sets – 1988’s Reba and 1989’s Sweet Sixteen – find McEntire preparing to be a legacy act, moving away from the current sounds on the radio and developing her live show to the point that she was regularly selling out arenas.
Both of these albums sold well and produced three number one singles between them, but radio success was less consistent. Reba launched with an antiseptic cover of “Sunday Kind of Love,” which had a striking period piece music video but was forgettable as an audio experience. It went to No. 5, her lowest charting single since her Whoever’s in New England commercial breakthrough. She rebounded with the best single from this brief era.
It has the only fresh production approach on Reba, building slowly to a crescendo as more instrumentation joins in over its running time. At the start, there’s barely any accompaniment at all, showcasing her increasingly theatrical vocals, which are especially spine-tingling here. Reba does well playing the bad guy on this track, and you feel her pain as she sees the man she treated so poorly leaving her behind in the darkness as his light shines on someone else.
This is the first of three consecutive number one singles, which make up her final chart toppers of the decade. Not bad for a lady who almost became a legacy act four decades ago.
“I Know How He Feels” gets an A .
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Welcome back Reba! After a couple of mediocrities that made it to the top earlier in the year, she knocks it out of the park. I’ll admit when I read the song title, it didn’t ring an immediate bell. I remembered the song after listening but as so often happens with artists who have dozens of huge hits on their discography, a number of them get memory-holed and get little to no recurrent radio play. This one deserves a wider revisit and it’s a case study on the magic that can happen when a great singer gets their hands on a well-written song that showcases their vulnerability in a unique or enriching way. She navigates her way through this one as richly as she did “One Promise Too Late” the previous year.
Grade: A
…you wouldn’t think this was written by two men – or would you? must have been quite a sight, when they tried to put themselves in women’s footwear to write this one. well done though and perfect for reba at the time.
Pam Tillis said about “All the Good Ones are Gone,” also written by two men, that “I don’t think they wrote it. I think they channeled it. I think they took a couple of Midols and winged it!”
This hit is yet another example of Reba’s exceptional ability to bridge generations of country women by leveraging emotional vulnerability and honesty to full effect, capturing the nuanced conflict inherent to moments of regret.
It takes a special strength and self-awareness to so confidently admit your own mistakes and shortcomings while still holding your head high and moving forward.
What a song!