The 10 Best Bonnie Raitt Songs, Ranked

Bonnie Raitt’s career is one of the great long arcs in American music. She arrived in the early 1970s already sounding unusually complete: a gifted slide guitarist, a singer with an instinctive sense of phrasing, and an interpreter who could move among blues, folk, R&B and singer-songwriter material without treating any of those traditions like a costume.

Commercial success did not arrive immediately. Her early Warner Bros. albums earned enormous respect from musicians and critics, but Raitt spent years as the kind of artist other artists talked about even when mainstream radio did not. She brought songs by writers such as John Prine, Chris Smither, Jackson Browne and Richard Thompson to new audiences while establishing herself as one of the rare female guitarists in rock whose instrumental ability was impossible to dismiss.

Then came one of the most satisfying second acts in popular music. After career and personal setbacks in the 1980s, Raitt signed with Capitol and released Nick of Time in 1989. The album won the Grammy for Album of the Year and turned a respected veteran into a major commercial star without requiring her to abandon the identity she had built since 1971. Luck of the Draw followed with even bigger songs.

That makes ranking Bonnie Raitt especially interesting. Her career is not a straight line from obscurity to fame. The 1970s records contain performances every bit as essential as the later hits, while the commercial breakthrough gave her access to songs and production that expanded her audience dramatically.

This list balances the early blues-rock years with the later peak, emphasizing interpretation, musicianship, emotional impact and the recordings that best explain why Raitt has remained so admired for more than five decades.

Here are the 10 best Bonnie Raitt songs, ranked.

---

10. Runaway

Album: Sweet Forgiveness | Released: 1977 | Songwriters: Del Shannon, Max Crook

Del Shannon’s “Runaway” was already an oldies-era classic by the time Bonnie Raitt recorded it for Sweet Forgiveness. The obvious move would have been to recreate the dramatic early-1960s feel. Raitt did something much more interesting: she turned the song into a funky, loose blues-rock track that sounds completely at home in her own catalog.

The rhythm section gives the performance a different center of gravity, and Raitt’s vocal is less wounded than Shannon’s original. She sounds knowing, almost amused by the emotional chaos in the lyric. That change in attitude is part of what makes the cover successful.

• • •

9. Give It Up or Let Me Go

Album: Give It Up | Released: 1972 | Songwriter: Bonnie Raitt

“Give It Up or Let Me Go” is an early reminder that Bonnie Raitt was not only an interpreter. She wrote the song herself, and it gave her room to combine humor, independence and the roots-music vocabulary she had absorbed before making her first album.

The performance has a relaxed, almost front-porch quality, but the musicianship underneath is precise. Raitt’s slide guitar is central, and the arrangement draws from blues and old-time styles without sounding like a historical exercise.

• • •

8. Love Me Like a Man

Album: Give It Up | Released: 1972 | Songwriter: Chris Smither

Chris Smither wrote “Love Me Like a Man,” but Bonnie Raitt’s version became one of the performances most closely associated with the song. She changes the gender perspective, brings her own phrasing to the lyric and turns it into a statement of expectations rather than a simple plea.

The performance is rooted in the blues, but Raitt never sounds as if she is imitating an earlier singer. Her timing is conversational, and the slide guitar gives the track a voice that answers the vocal rather than merely accompanying it.

This is one of the reasons Raitt became so respected so quickly. She understood tradition deeply enough to enter it without pretending to be from another time or place. The music was alive for her, not something to preserve behind glass.

• • •

7. Not the Only One

Album: Luck of the Draw | Released: 1991 | Songwriter: Paul Brady

“Not the Only One” is one of the quieter treasures on Luck of the Draw. Written by Irish singer-songwriter Paul Brady, the song gives Raitt room to sing with warmth and restraint rather than the playful swagger heard on some of the album’s bigger singles.

The lyric is about recognition: the realization that longing, regret and uncertainty are not private experiences. Raitt’s performance makes that idea feel compassionate rather than self-pitying. She does not push the vocal toward a dramatic climax; she allows the melody to carry the emotion.

That restraint matters because Luck of the Draw arrived after the massive success of Nick of Time. Raitt could easily have tried to make every track sound like a major event. Instead, the album contains performances that trust nuance.

• • •

6. Have a Heart

Album: Nick of Time | Released: 1989 | Songwriter: Bonnie Hayes

“Have a Heart” sounds more polished than much of Bonnie Raitt’s earlier catalog, yet it never loses her personality. Written by Bonnie Hayes, the song has a sleek adult-pop frame, a strong rhythmic pulse and a chorus that gives Raitt plenty of room to shape the lyric.

The production on Nick of Time was crucial to the album’s success. Don Was helped create a contemporary sound without disguising who Raitt was. On “Have a Heart,” keyboards and polished textures surround her, but her phrasing keeps the track emotionally grounded.

The lyric asks for honesty and consideration, themes that suit Raitt’s mature vocal persona. She can sound wounded and skeptical at the same time, which gives a straightforward song more emotional layers than the words alone might suggest.

• • •

5. Thing Called Love

Album: Nick of Time | Released: 1989 | Songwriter: John Hiatt

John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love” gave Bonnie Raitt exactly the kind of vehicle she could attack without losing subtlety. The song has swagger, humor and a bluesy rock pulse, and Raitt sounds as though she is enjoying every line.

Her guitar work is an important part of the recording. Nick of Time is often remembered for its vocals and emotional maturity, but “Thing Called Love” reminds listeners that Raitt’s identity has always included the instrument in her hands.

The lyric questions the strange behavior people accept in the name of love, and Raitt delivers it with a knowing tone. She is not an innocent observer. She sounds like someone who has been through enough to recognize the absurdity and still remain open to the experience.

• • •

4. Nick of Time

Album: Nick of Time | Released: 1989 | Songwriter: Bonnie Raitt

The title track of Nick of Time is one of Bonnie Raitt’s most personal songs because it confronts aging, uncertainty and the awareness that life’s timelines do not always match our plans. She wrote the song herself, and its themes were especially resonant at the moment her career was being unexpectedly reborn.

The opening is intimate, almost private. Raitt sings about watching time move through the lives around her and feeling the pressure of her own choices. The arrangement remains understated so the lyric can carry the weight.

What makes the song extraordinary is that it is not simply about getting older. It is about the fear of missing a chance — for love, family, purpose or reinvention. That emotional territory helped the album connect with listeners who had grown up alongside Raitt and were confronting similar questions.

• • •

3. Something to Talk About

Album: Luck of the Draw | Released: 1991 | Songwriter: Shirley Eikhard

“Something to Talk About” is the song that turned Bonnie Raitt from a comeback success into a mainstream pop fixture. Canadian songwriter Shirley Eikhard had offered the song to other artists before Raitt recorded it, and it is difficult now to imagine anyone else’s voice inside it.

The lyric begins with gossip: people think two friends are secretly involved. Rather than deny the rumors, the narrator decides there might be something worth exploring. Raitt’s delivery is playful, confident and slightly mischievous, exactly the tone the song needs.

The groove is equally important. It moves with an easy funkiness that allows the chorus to feel spontaneous even though the arrangement is tightly controlled. Raitt never oversings; she sounds relaxed, which makes the record more inviting.

• • •

2. Angel from Montgomery

Album: Streetlights | Released: 1974 | Songwriter: John Prine

John Prine wrote “Angel from Montgomery” from the perspective of a middle-aged woman trapped inside a life that has become smaller than her dreams. Bonnie Raitt did not write the song, but she became one of its most important interpreters, to the point that the composition is inseparable from her career.

Raitt’s 1974 recording understands the dignity in Prine’s narrator. She does not treat the character with pity. Instead, she sings the lines as lived experience: exhaustion, memory and the stubborn desire for something more.

The song became even more powerful in concert as Raitt grew older. The meaning changed with her voice and age, which is one reason it remained in her repertoire for decades. A performance sung in the 1970s cannot carry exactly the same weight as one sung forty years later, and the song is strong enough to absorb that change.

• • •

1. I Can’t Make You Love Me

Album: Luck of the Draw | Released: 1991 | Songwriters: Mike Reid, Allen Shamblin

“I Can’t Make You Love Me” is one of the great heartbreak ballads in modern popular music because almost everything about the performance is restrained. Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin wrote a lyric based on an unbearable truth: love cannot be negotiated or forced.

Bonnie Raitt sings it as someone who has already accepted the answer. That is what makes the performance devastating. There is no begging, no dramatic accusation and no attempt to turn the other person into a villain. The pain comes from clarity.

Bruce Hornsby’s piano provides the emotional frame, and the arrangement leaves enormous amounts of space. Every unnecessary gesture would weaken the song, so the musicians resist filling the silence.

Raitt’s vocal is one of the finest of her career. She changes the weight of individual words through phrasing rather than volume. By refusing to oversell the sadness, she allows the listener to bring personal experience into the spaces around the lyric.

The song has since been recorded by numerous artists, but Raitt’s version remains the standard because the judgment behind it is nearly flawless: the right song, the right key, the right arrangement and exactly enough emotion.

What Did We Leave Out?

“Love Sneakin’ Up on You” is the most obvious later-career omission and could easily fit into another version of this Top 10. “Dimming of the Day,” Richard Thompson’s beautiful song, is another example of Raitt’s exceptional interpretive instincts.

Fans of the early albums may argue for “Women Be Wise,” “Louise,” “I Feel the Same,” “Under the Falling Sky” or other blues and folk performances that show how fully formed she was before mainstream success arrived. “Too Long at the Fair” is another early favorite that deserves consideration.

The difficulty is not finding ten good Bonnie Raitt songs. It is deciding how to balance two remarkable careers: the revered roots artist of the 1970s and the Grammy-winning star who finally reached a mass audience at the end of the 1980s.

Why Bonnie Raitt’s Best Songs Still Work

Bonnie Raitt’s longevity comes from credibility that cannot be manufactured. She is a serious guitarist, a distinctive singer and an interpreter with exceptional taste. Those qualities existed before she sold millions of records and remained intact after the commercial breakthrough.

The early career matters because it established her musical authority. Raitt did not discover the blues after becoming famous; she had been studying, playing and advocating for the music from the beginning. Her slide guitar connects her directly to that tradition while her song choices kept the catalog open to folk, rock, R&B and contemporary writers.

When Nick of Time finally made her a major star, the success did not require reinvention. Don Was and the musicians around her simply placed the existing artist in a setting broad enough for radio to hear what musicians had known for years.

The later hits also benefit from maturity. Songs like “Nick of Time” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me” need a singer who understands what not to do. Raitt’s greatest gift may be judgment — knowing when to play, when to leave space and how much emotion a lyric can carry before it breaks.

That is why the 1970s performances and 1990s classics belong in the same story. The production changed. The artist did not.