"I'll Be" is a song written and performed by American singer Edwin McCain. The song was serviced to US radio in October 1997 and was commercially released on September 8, 1998, as the first single from his second album, Misguided Roses (1997). McCain recorded an acoustic version of the song for his follow-up album, Messenger. The radio version of "I'll Be", which was released on a CD single with "Grind Me in the Gears" as the B-side, differs from the album version. Its opening melody is played with electric guitar (as opposed to acoustic on the album) and the vocal and saxophone lines differ. Upon its release, the song reached number five in the United States and number 52 in Canada. On December 22, 1999, McCain recorded a version with Warren Haynes on the live concert album from the 11th Annual Christmas Jam, a benefit concert for Habitat for Humanity in Asheville, North Carolina. The album is titled Wintertime Blues: The Benefit Concert. In 2015, McCain re-recorded "I'll Be" for his EP Phoenix. Content Although "I'll Be" has become a popular wedding song, McCain said "it's really more of a prayer" written in a moment of personal desperation after a break-up, the idea being that "maybe if I write my future, it'll come true." McCain said, "It was the end of a relationship for me, and it was also an admission of my inability to function in a relationship, hence the love suicide line. And it was the hope that I would be better, grow and be better as a person. I was struggling with some personal problems at the time, as well, so it was all of those things. It was this admission of failure and this prayer that I could be a better person, wrapped up as sort of the end of a relationship kind of thought. And it was something that I said to a girl that I'd been going out with. I knew that she was waiting, and I always said to her, 'Don't ever look back on this in any other way than I'll be your biggest fan.' You know, 'I'll always be a fan.'" Chart performance In the United States, "I'll Be" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart on the issue dated February 28, 1998, and went on to peak at number four there in November, in its 39th week on the