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How Can I Help You Say Goodbye

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"How Can I Help You Say Goodbye"
Song
"How Can I Help You Say Goodbye"
Song

"How Can I Help You Say Goodbye" is a single release by Patty Loveless, recorded at Sony/Epic in the early spring of 1993. It was included on her first album with Epic Records, Only What I Feel, her sixth career album. The single was released in March 1994. It was the fourth single released from the album.

Content

In the three verses, the narrator describes with florid imagery three experiences of loss in her life: moving away from her best friend as a young girl, separating from her husband as an adult, and her mother's death. Each time, in the repeating chorus, her mother seeks to comfort her, asking "how can I help you to say goodbye?"

Background

Loveless' album, "Only What I Feel" had sold over 650,000 copies and had been certified as an RIAA Gold Album. Sony/Epic was receiving requests from radio stations that this song be released as a single, and in March 1994 it was released. This song climbed up the charts, reaching #3 in June. It was also nominated for the 1995 Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song. The accompanying video was also nominated by both the CMA and the ACM as 1995 Video Of The Year.

The song charted for 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart, reaching #3 during the week of June 4, 1994.

Burton Collins, who was an actor at the time, had never written a song before "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye". He told Country Weekly that the title was spoken to him by his grandmother shortly before her death in 1988. After being introduced to Karen Taylor-Good by a mutual friend, he wrote the song with her. Collins said that he and Taylor-Good wrote the song in three hours.[1]

Track listing

U.S. 7" vinyl single

  1. "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye" – 5:00
  2. "How About You" – 2:41

Chart positions

Chart (1994) Peak
position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[2] 19
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[3] 3

Year-end charts

Chart (1994) Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)[4] 48

Laura Branigan version

Laura Branigan also recorded the song in 1993 and it was included on her last studio album Over My Heart. It was released in 1994 as the third and final single from the album. The song was later included on Branigan's 1995 greatest hits album The Best of Branigan.

Track listing

U.S. CD single

  1. "How Can I Help You to Say Goodbye" – 4:29

References

  1. ^ Flans, Robyn (April 12, 1994). "The Story Behind the Song". Country Weekly. 1 (1): 14. ISSN 1074-3235.
  2. ^ "Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 2503." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. June 13, 1994. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  3. ^ "Patty Loveless Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  4. ^ "Best of 1994: Country Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 1994. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
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