When pop artists cover country songs, few hits this side of “I Will Always Love You” are bigger than “I Swear.”

The pop-leaning ballad — composed by Frank Myers and Gary Baker — was first a country hit for John Michael Montgomery, then an inescapable smash in the summer of 1994 when it was recorded by R&B stars All-4-One. Not too shabby for a tune that Myers started writing not with a guitar in his hands, but a steering wheel.

You are viewing: Who Originally Sang I Swear

Myers told the story of “I Swear” to Bart Herbison, executive director of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Frank, I’m gonna make a lot of songwriters mad here. It’s the perfect song, and few are. … You came to town and you were Eddie Raven’s bandleader, and through that you met a character named Gary Baker. Tell us about “I Swear.”

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I live about three hours from Gary, and one morning he called me when I was getting ready to go down (to Muscle Shoals, Ala.) to write. He says, “I’ve got an idea for you to think about on the drive down. It’s called ‘I Swear’ … and it’s like, ‘I’ll love you forever.’ I just think it’s a good title.” I said, “Let me think about it on the drive down.” So I did, and I actually wrote the chorus, music and words, driving down to his house.

I got to thinking, “I swear what” you know? “I swear on my life? By the moon and the stars?” I just kept thinking of all these things and put the lyric together, and the music came with it. I put it down on this little recorder. We were writing with Robert Byrne that day, God rest his soul. We went to Robert’s house and wrote a song, and Robert made us some barbecue chicken and we ate. It was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and we were driving back to Fame (Studios in Muscle Shoals) because I left my car there. I said, “I wrote a chorus to that title you gave me this morning.” Robert’s not there. He didn’t want to work any more. So we got back to Fame, and we sat in (songwriter/producer) Walt Aldridge’s office and wrote the verses.

… Everybody in town passed on it. But it was more of a pop-sounding demo. Then I personally pitched it to John Michael (Montgomery) three times. He said, “I like this song a lot. It’s a little pop. I’m not sure it’s better than what we have,” and that was his comment, and that was on a houseboat up in Kentucky with him and his mom and dad, and Eddie (Montgomery) and Troy (Gentry) before they even became Montgomery Gentry.

But he changed his mind, and he did it. What happens next is nothing short of incredible. It won all of these awards, and then this never happens — All-4-One, they’re on fire, and they cut it.

The story behind that is Doug Morris, who ran Atlantic at the time up there, he asked Rick Blackburn, who was running Atlantic Records at the time here, if he would try to crossover “I Swear” with John Michael. Rick said, “No, I don’t want to make country radio mad.” He says, “Well, OK, then we just signed a deal with David Foster to do some production things. He did a label with us, and we have this new group called All-4-One.” They had their first single out. It was a hip-hop kind of thing that they had out, “So Much In Love.” Morris asked, “Do you mind if David cuts a track on these guys?” They said, “No, go ahead.”

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The craziest thing: We didn’t know anything about that. So one day Gary and I are writing up here in Nashville, and I get a call from (A&R executive) Al Cooley. He says, “Hey man, is Gary with you by any chance?” I said, “Yeah, we’re actually writing today.” He says, “Well, come across the street. I want to play you something.”

So we walk into Al’s office and sit down, and the next thing I know here comes Rick Blackburn. They played it, and it started out, and I actually thought it was a joke at first, until we got into it, and thought “Wow, this is cool.” … Rick goes, “Yes, it is going to be a pop single. Yes, David Foster produced it. Yes, it’s going to be a No. 1 record, and yes, it’s going to win a Grammy.” Very prophetic.

— Compiled by Dave Paulson, [email protected]

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, each week we will release a new video featuring NSAI executive director Bart Herbison interviewing a Nashville songwriter about his or her work.

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