Reba McEntire’s “You’re Gonna Be” was released as a single in 2005 off the country singer’s double-disc compilation album, Reba #1s.
This is McEntire’s first-ever compilation featuring her solo No. 1 hits – including Reba McEntire songs from the earlier years of her career – as a way to celebrate her three decades in the music industry. Remarkably, the album is actually composed of thirty-five tracks wherein twenty-two of them were Billboard chart-topping hits, while two of them were new tracks: “Love Needs a Holiday” and of course, “You’re Gonna Be.”
Re-titled as “You’re Gonna Be (Always Loved by Me),” the song is about a first-time mom and her 6 lbs and 9 oz. baby who looked up to her like she has all the answers in the world. Though she’s never done it before, and she’s feeling a little scared that her little one would suffer through some of her mistakes, she vows to protect her child from everything that’s wrong.
She assures him that though “life has no guarantees, but always loved by me. You’re gonna be!”
Guess no one could relate to the song better than Reba McEntire does, who always makes time for her kids despite her time-consuming career. Technically, the “Consider Me Gone” singer only has one biological child, but she considers all of her five stepchildren – from her then-husbands Charlie Battles and Narvel Blackstock – as her own flesh and blood.
While the heartwarming song only peaked at No. 33 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, the album debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard country album chart. It even ranked No. 12 on the Billboard 200.
The compilation and the two new tracks were produced by the country singer herself and country-singer-songwriter Buddy Cannon.
You can listen to Reba McEntire’s “You’re Gonna Be” in the video below.