In 1996, Chesney and Skip Ewing saw the movie Jerry Maguire. In one of the film's most memorable scenes at the end of the movie, Tom Cruise's title character gives out a heartfelt speech to Renée Zellweger's character, Dorothy Boyd; Zellweger stops Cruise and tearfully says "You had me at 'hello'." Chesney liked that line and decided to write a song based on it, mistranslating "at" to "from". Chesney and Zellweger were later married for four months in 2005.[2]
Chart performance
"You Had Me from Hello" debuted at number 71 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of April 17, 1999, while Chesney's previous single "How Forever Feels" was still at number one.