“Born to Be with You” was written by Don Robertson, a prolific Nashville and pop songwriter, and became a hit in 1956 for the close-harmony vocal group the Chordettes. A decade later it returned to the charts as a country number one for Sonny James.
The song is a plain, warm declaration of devotion — the singer was simply made for one person — and that directness has kept it traveling between genres for decades. Its easy melody and uncomplicated sentiment made it a natural fit for harmony singing of every kind.
J.D. Crowe and the New South recorded “Born to Be with You” on the album Ramblin’ Boy, an early sign of the band’s habit of folding well-chosen country and pop material into a hard-driving bluegrass setting — an approach that would shape progressive bluegrass through the 1970s.
