"You'll Accomp'ny Me" is a song written and recorded by American rock singer

Bob Seger Robert Clark Seger ( ; born May 6, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and The Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, break ...

. It appears on his album '' Against the Wind''.

Content

The song is in the key of

E major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equiv ...

with a main chord pattern of A–E.

History

It reached number 14 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. An entry in the ''Encyclopedia of Classic Rock'' describes the song as "forecast nghis career direction by crossing over onto ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''s

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

chart".

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

wrote in a review of ''Against the Wind'' that "the record really starts to kick into high gear with 'You'll Accomp'ny Me,' a ballad the equal of anything on its two predecessors." Jim Harrington of ''

The Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

'' selected "You'll Accomp'ny Me" as one of Seger's 10 best songs and as his "best love song." ''

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

'' said that it "starts out as a melodic ballad and gains almost in- spirational momentum" by the end. '' Cash Box'' called it a "genteel mid-tempo romance," stating that "drum and woodblock set the rhythm, but piano and swelling organ provide the passion."

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the record sleeve, sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner n ...

of Seger's 1994 ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

'' compilation. *

– lead vocals, acoustic guitar The Silver Bullet Band *Chris Campbell – bass * David Teegarden – drums Additional musicians * Ginger Blake – background vocals *

Sam Clayton Sam Clayton (born March 30, 1952) is an American singer and percussionist, primarily focusing on drums, conga and djembe, throughout his musical career. He is best known as a supporting vocalist and percussionist with the American rock band Lit ...

– percussion * Laura Creamer – background vocals *Linda Dillard – background vocals *

Bill Payne William H. Payne (born March 12, 1949) is an American pianist who, with Lowell George, co-founded the American rock band Little Feat. He is considered by many other rock pianists, including Elton John, to be one of the finest American piano roc ...

– piano, organ, synthesizer

Chart performance

Other versions

Country music artist

Frankie Ballard Frank Robert Ballard IV (born December 16, 1982) is an American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist. He has released two albums each for Reprise Records and Warner Bros. Records, and has charted eight singles on the Hot Country Songs c ...

covered the song for his 2016 album '' El Río'', and it was released to country radio in February 2017. The song charted at number 57, becoming Ballard's lowest-peaking single of his career. French-Canadian Folk singer

Anna McGarrigle Anna McGarrigle, CM (born December 4, 1944) is a Canadian folk music singer and songwriter who recorded and performed with her sister, Kate McGarrigle, who died in 2010. Early life Anna McGarrigle studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montré ...

wrote a French-language version of the song titled "Tu Vas M'Accompaneger". She performed it regularly at concerts during the 1980s, and it was included on

Kate and Anna McGarrigle Kate McGarrigle (February 6, 1946 – January 18, 2010) and Anna McGarrigle (born December 4, 1944) were a duo of Canadian singer-songwriters (and sisters) from Quebec, who performed until Kate McGarrigle's death on January 18, 2010. Music ca ...

's 1982 album ''Love Over and Over''.

Christine Albert Christine Albert (born 1955) is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is French bilingual, with Texas country. She is the founder of the compassionate non-profit Swan Songs, an organization that fulfills musical last wishes of individuals nea ...

included a version of the song where she altered between Bob Seger's original lyrics and Anna McGarrigle's French translation on her album ''Texafrance'' in 2008.

References

{{Authority control 1980 songs 1980 singles Songs written by Bob Seger Bob Seger songs Capitol Records singles Frankie Ballard songs Song recordings produced by Bob Seger Song recordings produced by Punch Andrews