About The Song
“A Picture of Me (Without You)” is a country music song written by Norro Wilson and George Richey.
According to Rich Kienzle’s liner notes for the 1994 Sony retrospective The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country, the song was written specifically for Jones with co-writer Norro Wilson singing the song for George “imitating the Jones style to show how he wanted it sung. Even with the string arrangement, the country feel remained undiminished”. The song is similar to an older Webb Pierce song called “That’s Me Without You”. It was originally recorded by Jones, whose version peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1972. In his 1995 autobiography I Lived to Tell It All, Jones quoted lines from the song to describe his own sadness at the passing of his brother-in-law W.T. “Dub” Scroggins in 1993.
In the song, the narrator tells his lover to imagine incomplete things, like “a world where no music is playing, a church where nobody’s praying, a sky with no blue, and by seeing this, she can see his picture without her by his side.
The song was covered by Lorrie Morgan on her 1991 album Something in Red. Morgan’s version was released as the album’s second single in June 1991 and reached #9 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in November 1991.
Video
Lyrics
Imagine a world where no music was playin’
Then think of a church with nobody prayin’
If you’ve ever looked up at a sky with no blue
Then you’ve seen a picture of me without you
Have you walked in a garden where nothing was growin’
Or stood by a river where nothing was flowin’
If you’ve seen a red rose unkissed by the dew
Then you’ve seen a picture of me without you
Can you picture Heaven with no angels singin’
Or a quiet Sunday morning with no church bells ringin’
If you’ve watched as the heart of a child breaks in two
Then you’ve seen a picture of me without you
