"Come to My Window" is a song by Melissa Etheridge released in 1994 on her 1993 album Yes I Am. This was the first song to be released after Etheridge publicly announced her lesbian sexual orientation. With the driving force of gay rights, the song gained a lot of airplay on radio stations, mostly through call-in requests. The song debuted on the Billboard charts after the first week of its release. It was also the second song from Etheridge that earned a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

When the song was being promoted a portion of the song's beginning was omitted. This was to help accommodate some radio stations that wanted an instrumental beginning rather than a vocal one. The song's lyrics describes the intense love that Etheridge has for another person. It describes situations that she is willing to endure and how happy the other person makes her feel. In addition, the song features these lyrics:

I don't care what they think.

I don't care what they say.

What do they know about this love, anyway?

While these lyrics (and by extension, the song as a whole) would seem to implicitly allude to the singer's sexual orientation and activism, it can perceived several different ways. The song could be directed to a man (although from Etheridge's point of view this obviously isn't the case), or it could be directed to a son or daughter.

The music video was filmed in black and white. In the video, Etheridge is portrayed playing an electric guitar. Etheridge is shown moving fervently among different windows as if she is longing for someone. In various points, Etheridge smashes her guitar into the ground to emphasize the passion for the one she's waiting for. In fact, after the release of the music video on MTV, Etheridge told in her interviews that she "must have destroyed a million guitars" when they were shooting the video. The video also features Juliette Lewis as a mental patient, who at the beginning of the video (before the song starts) speaks the first view lyrics.

Charts

Trivia

The video also features "childlike" drawings in certain scenes. According to an episode of VH1's Pop Up Video, these drawings were created by a crew member's five year old daughter. Additionally, the video was to have included an appearance by a little girl; the mental patient's "lost childhood". While the appearance was filmed, it got lost during editing.

1994 singles