Just Like That

Album: Just Like That... (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • Bonnie Raitt wrote this song after watching a 2018 news story about a woman who donated her son's heart when he died. For the first time, the woman was meeting the man who received the heart. He let her listen to his chest so she could hear the beat of her son's heart.

    Raitt was so moved by the story that she decided to write a song based on it, which became "Just Like That."
  • "Just Like That" was the surprise winner of the Song Of The Year Grammy at the 2023 ceremony, beating out tracks by Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. The 73-year-old Raitt told the story behind it in her acceptance speech.

    "I was inspired for this song by the incredible story of the love and the grace and the generosity of someone that donates their beloved's organs to help another person live. The story was so simple and so beautiful for these times. People have been responding to the song partly because of how much I love John Prine, who was the inspiration for the music of the song and telling a story from the inside. I don't write a lot of songs but I'm so proud that you appreciate this one."
  • When she appeared on Marc Maron's podcast, Raitt said she recorded just one take of the vocal and could barely get through it because the song was so emotional for her. Fortunately, that take packed in all the emotion she was feeling and suited the song perfectly.
  • "Just Like That" is the title track to Raitt's 18th album. She recorded it in 2021 after weathering the pandemic, and released it in 2022, 51 years after releasing her debut album in 1971. It's one of three songs on the album she wrote herself.

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