Songfacts®:

• In this song, Mario pleads his case to a girl, letting her know he can do far better than her no-good, cheating boyfriend, if she would just let him love her. He can't figure out why she sticks with him, but knows that he'll treat her like a queen.
• This was produced by Scott Storch, a Canadian who had previously worked with Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé and Terror Squad. Storch co-wrote the song with Kameron Houff and Ne-Yo, who wrote the lyrics. It was the first American #1 Ne-Yo worked on.
• This song held the #1 position on the US Billboard chart for nine weeks in early 2005, and was also #1 in Germany and New Zealand.
• Nashville star Chris Lane covered this on his 2016 album Girl Problems, giving it a country twist. "I've been playing that song in my set for several years, and I've always wanted to record it," Lane told Billboard magazine. "I didn't think that could actually happen, but I'm so happy with the way it turned out."
• Ne-Yo told Billboard his breakthrough hit came about shortly after rap mogul Dr. Dre passed on a collaboration deal with him because he wasn't "hood" enough. Literally minutes after Dre turned him down, Ne-Yo bumped into Scott Storch.
  
  "I was feeling a little down," the singer-songwriter recalled. "So I run into Scott as I'm leaving, and he's like, 'Yo, I don't know what the hell Dre talking about, but you're dope. And if you ever find yourself in Miami, look me up.'"
  
  Though Ne-Yo didn't know who Scott Storch was, his manager did, and he arranged a meeting with the producer in Miami. "He (Storch) just happens to be working for Mario that week," Ne-Yo recalled. "We did, I think, three songs and 'Let Me Love You' was the second song that we did. At the time we knew it was something special, but we had no idea that it was going to do what it did."
• After receiving his first significant paycheck from writing "Let Me Love You," Ne-Yo called his mother at work and told her she never had to work again. He described the call as a defining moment as a son.