To Be in Love with Her is to be trapped in a bittersweet, unrequited devotion.
The Haunting Ballad of Unrequited Love
In the late sixties, an era often remembered for its seismic shifts in rock and roll, there existed a quiet, introspective corner of the music world where the heart’s most tender and painful emotions were explored with a masterful touch. It was in this space that Marty Robbins, a singer whose voice could be as smooth as silk or as sharp as a dagger, released a song that would resonate deeply with anyone who had ever loved someone from afar. From his 1968 album, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, came the poignant ballad, “To Be in Love with Her.” While it may not have achieved the dizzying commercial heights of some of his more famous hits like “El Paso,” its emotional depth and lyrical sophistication cemented its place as a hidden gem in his vast and celebrated catalog. Surprisingly, the song didn’t chart as a single, a testament perhaps to the changing tides of popular music, but for those who discovered it, the song became a personal anthem for the silent agony of unrequited love.
The story behind the song is a reflection of the human experience itself—a narrative of quiet suffering and the profound beauty found within it. As many older listeners will remember, Marty Robbins was a storyteller first and foremost. His songs often painted vivid scenes, and “To Be in Love with Her” is no exception. It’s a song about a man who loves a woman who is already in a relationship, perhaps married to another. He accepts his lot with a kind of resigned grace, finding a bittersweet solace in simply being near her. There’s no bitterness or resentment, only a profound, almost spiritual acceptance of his fate. He doesn’t seek to disrupt her life; instead, he finds a strange kind of fulfillment in his own silent devotion. The song’s meaning is universal, yet deeply personal. It speaks to the countless people who have carried a torch for someone they could never truly have. It’s an ode to the secret heartbreaks we all endure, the ones we can’t share or even fully articulate.
“To Be in Love with Her” is not about the grand, dramatic gestures of romance, but about the quiet, mundane details of a love that can never be. It’s in the simple act of seeing her, of being in her presence, that the narrator finds both his greatest joy and his deepest sorrow. The lyrics are a masterclass in understated emotion, painting a picture of a man who watches from the sidelines, finding a strange and beautiful truth in his own unfulfilled desires. The song is a warm, melancholic embrace, a gentle reminder that sometimes, the most powerful forms of love are those that remain unspoken, living in the quiet corners of our hearts. Listening to it today, it’s impossible not to feel a pang of nostalgia, a yearning for a time when music could be this honest, this raw, and this beautifully, heartbreakingly simple.
Oldies Songs 
Oldies Music