I Still Believe In You

The title track and lead single from Vince Gill's sixth studio album, this became his first #1 Country hit.

Gill penned the song with John Barlow Jarvis, whose other credits include the Judds hit single "Love Can Build a Bridge." It is an apologetic tune written to Gill's first wife, Sweethearts of the Rodeo singer Janis Oliver, after they'd had a squabble. Jarvis recalled the penning of the tune to Nashville Hype: "Vince and I talked about writing backstage at one of the CMA shows," he remembered. "We finally booked an appointment on a Sunday at my house. He forgot to tell his wife, and they had a bit of a spat about it, apparently. So he was in the mood to write a make-up song. I pretty much had the music idea fleshed out before he got there. I would say he wrote 90% of the lyrics while I wrote about 90% of the music." "Oh, one more thing," Jarvis added. "It wasn't a ballad at first! It was a midtempo almost Fleetwood Mac kind of thing. Vince and his producer Tony Brown wisely slowed it down. It made a big difference!"

Gill and Oliver divorced in 1998. Oliver told Nashville's Tennessean the tune is still a painful reminder of their past. "Some songs that come on the radio still break my heart," she admitted. "I can pretend like they don't tug at my heart or make me wistful, but there are some songs I can't listen to anymore, like 'I Still Believe in You,' because of the circumstances around them and what he told me they meant to him. To hear that now is confusing."