Reba McEntire’s career is packed with songs that tug at the heart, but even for the Queen of Country, there are a few that remain almost too emotional to perform.
In an interview with Taste of Country Nights, McEntire admitted that certain songs still bring her to tears onstage — even after decades of singing them. One in particular has been making her emotional for years.
“I’ve cried lots of times over many, many years,” she said, pointing to a track from her 1985 album My Kind of Country. That song is “Somebody Should Leave.”
“It’s the one song I would always just break up and cry,” McEntire shared. “It was a very sad song — and it still is.”
But that heartbreaking ballad isn’t the only one that hits close to home. McEntire also revealed that “She Thinks His Name Was John” consistently moves her, while “The Greatest Man I Never Knew” may affect her the most of all.
McEntire recently reflected on the origins of “Somebody Should Leave” during the opening of her Oklahoma restaurant, Reba’s Place, sharing the story in a TikTok video. She recalled meeting legendary songwriter Harlan Howard, known for penning classics for Buck Owens, Patsy Cline, and countless others.
Nervous during the meeting, McEntire listened as Howard played several demos on a reel-to-reel tape. The first two didn’t connect. But the third stopped her cold.
“It was one of the saddest country songs I’d ever heard in my life,” she said. Trusting her manager’s instincts paid off — that song became her fourth No. 1 hit.
Today, McEntire continues to balance her storied music career with new ventures, including starring in NBC’s Happy’s Place and lending her voice to Dolly Parton’s re-recording of “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” alongside Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah, and Lainey Wilson — proof that even the most emotional songs can become lasting legacies.