The Real Story Behind The Classic "I'll Leave This World Loving You" From Ricky Van Shelton

Oct 29, 2018

Before the song "I'll Leave This World Loving You" found success in 1988 with Ricky Van Shelton, its story actually begins with its original artist, Wayne Kemp.

Kemp first achieved nation-wide attention in 1965 when his song "Love Bug" was recorded by country legend George Jones, who helped the song reach #6 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles. Earlier, Kemp attempted to record his own songs, but didn't find any substantial success.

Three years later, Kemp's song "Image of Me" was used by Conway Twitty and became his first major hit. Twitty liked Kemp and his work, leading to a long-running partnership between the two. Twitty recorded Kemp's "Darling, You Know I Wouldn't Lie," "That's When She Started To Stop Loving You," and his first No. 1 single, "Next In Line."

Afterwards, Twitty hired Kemp onto his road band as guitarist. As Kemp worked with Twitty, he continued to pursue a recording career of his own. Between 1965 and 1975, he recorded several country records for Decca Records.

While they performed solidly, Kemp never managed to achieve the same level of success as a singer as he had as a songwriter.

In 1975, Ronnie Milsap decided to use one of Kemp's songs, "I'll Leave This World Loving You," to fill out his album A Legend In My Time. Five years later, Kemp decided to change his record label and began recording for Mercury Records.

It was in that year that he decided to re-record "I'll Leave This World Loving You." Sadly, his version of the song was never a hit.

It wasn't until nearly a decade later when the song was rediscovered by a certain staff producer working at Columbia Records. This producer was searching for songs he liked so that he could eventually have a singed singer whose style fit the song record the material.

That producer was Steve Buckingham, and in 1987, he found his singer: Ricky Van Shelton.

Shelton's debut album Wild-Eyed Dream produced three No. 1 singles, all of which originated from Buckingham's collection of older recordings. The success of the first album prompted them to collaborate on a second album. Among the songs they selected was Kemp's song "I'll Leave This World Loving You."

Shelton was familiar with the song as a waltz, so when he set about remaking it, he reworked it to a "4/4". This means that by using different phrasing and enunciation, it usually sounds better when it's recorded as a country song.

When Shelton implemented this idea to the song, it became a massive success upon released. It reached No. 1 on Billboard's country chart on November 19, 1988, becoming his fourth song to peak at the charts.

If you haven't heard the song, be sure to check out the music video below. Feel free to spread the word about Shelton's classic reworking of Wayne Kemp's masterpiece, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.