Brett Eldredge has recorded a new version of his heartfelt ballad, “Raymond,” wringing even more emotion from the deeply personal Alzheimer’s ballad — which is dedicated to his grandmother.
First released in 2010, the track tells the story of a man who works at an assisted living facility and a woman suffering from the memory-erasing disease. She calls him “Raymond,” mistaking him for her late son, but instead of correcting her the man plays along, helping put a smile on her face.
Eldredge co-wrote the track in order to work through what his own grandmother was experiencing, and now he’s given it a make over as part of the the Alzheimer’s Association’s Music Moments album. Speaking in a video about the project, he explains that his grandmother was “the most amazing, selfless person I think I have ever known,” and why Alzheimer’s research is so important to him.
“From the moment I watched my grandmother go through this, I knew that I wanted to help make sure that others didn’t have to go through seeing somebody struggling with Alzheimer’s disease,” Eldredge says. “I really do feel that we are going to find a day when Alzheimer’s is no more, and we will sing a lot more songs about it.”
Transforming the song into a delicate, heartstring tugging piano ballad, the new version of “Raymond” joins a collection of tracks (re-imagined and/or unreleased) from the likes of Lee Ann Womack, Joan Jett, Sting and more, all to “honor the personal, emotion connection between music and life’s most important moments that no one would never want to lose to Alzheimer’s or a related form of dementia.”
Eldredge is currently coming off the Gold-certified success of the Number Two radio hit, “Love Someone” (part of his 2017 self-titled album), and the Music Moments album is out now. Sadly, his grandmother has passed away in the years since “Raymond” was written.
Music Moments Track List:
