The story of I Can’t Make You Love Me, a song that was first recorded by Bonnie Raitt in 1991, is a long one. Never a number one hit, it’s nonetheless considered a classic, and has a tale that involves everyone from George Michael and Prince to Adele, Bruce Hornsby and Bon Iver.
The greatest credit, though, should go to Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin, the two Nashville songwriters who penned I Can’t Make You Love Me. Reid’s background was as a talented college footballer, but he always dreamed of being a writer. Discussing the origins of I Can’t Make You Love Me With Top 2000 a gogo, he said: “There was an article in the newspaper about a guy. He lost his wife and he lost his family and he got himself in trouble and the phrase was ‘well, you can’t make a woman love you if she don’t’.
