Singled Out: Pamela McNeill's Give Back My Love (Reimagined)

Pamela McNeill just released her new single, "Give Back My Love (Reimagined)", and to celebrate we asked her to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

Give Back My Love was written around 2001. It was the first song off of my 2nd album, American Breakup, and received a good amount of radio play in the Upper Midwest.

A lot of my life has been spent traveling to and from shows. As I reflected on that, I realized I found the hours alone in my car almost sacred. In a world of consistent travel, sitting behind the wheel was my "alone time." It was where I would work out things that were going on in my life - and I still do that to this day.

I knew I wanted to create a lot of "space" in the verses to give it an open feel. As if things are flying by and you don't have time to catch it all. I closed my eyes and just let the strumming pattern I'd created in Pro Tools play on repeat. It didn't take long for the first line to reveal itself - "for seven hours I was on the freeway" - and the rest of the lyrics poured out after. It led me to the chorus where the melody along with the title Give Back My Love were waiting. I wrote the whole song in less than an hour. I remember being excited because it had a different feel compared to other songs I had been writing at the time.

Fast forward to now, my producers John Richardson and Adam Ollendorff thought it might be cool to try and bring a few songs from my previous catalog into the studio to "reimagine" them. I was completely on board. I gave them carte blanche pick the songs they wanted and they came back with a few right away. Give Back My Love was one of them. I absolutely LOVE the new version. It captured the openness that I wanted and feels like a "Driving Song."

They took what was originally the bridge, "come back sweetness, come back faith..." and placed it throughout the song in chorus fashion. I was so used to the original version that it took me a minute but now I absolutely love it and feel like it's exactly how it's supposed to be.

The studio sessions for this song were done in Nashville and were inspiring and so much fun. The whole band gelled and captured that free and open feel. I'm particularly in love with Rachel Loy's bass playing. She absolutely NAILED it! Her melodic sense and feel is a beautiful thing and I couldn't love what she - and the rest of the band did - more.

Also, the fact that one of my singer-songwriter heroes, Sarah Buxton, came in to sing backing vocals put it all over the edge. We hit it off immediately. Working out the harmonies with her is a career highlight for me.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about Pamela here

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