Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge – I’d Rather Be Sorry

“A Song I’d Like to Sing” is a composition by Kris Kristofferson recorded as a duet with Rita Coolidge and first released in 1973 on the pair’s joint album Full Moon. The track served as one of the central moments on an album that presented the two singers as a paired artistic unit, blending Kristofferson’s songwriterly directness with Coolidge’s softer, more melodic approach. The record was issued during a period when singer-songwriter collaborations and crossover projects were common, and the song fits squarely within that early-1970s aesthetic.

At the time of the recording, Kris Kristofferson had by then established a strong reputation as a Nashville songwriter whose material had been widely recorded by other artists, while Rita Coolidge was developing a profile as a versatile vocalist equally at home in pop, rock and country settings. The two were married in 1973 and briefly pursued recording together; Full Moon grew out of that partnership. “A Song I’d Like to Sing” reflects the collaborative intent of the project, written to showcase interplay between Kristofferson’s conversational phrasing and Coolidge’s complementary melodic lines.

Musically, the track is arranged as a concise duet built around a clear melody and uncluttered accompaniment. Instrumentation remains restrained so the voices remain central: acoustic guitar and subtle rhythm parts provide a warm bed for the duet while occasional piano or light backing harmonies accent the melodic contours. The production favors intimacy and clarity, allowing the lyric’s plainspoken qualities to come forward rather than relying on heavy studio ornamentation.

Lyrically, “A Song I’d Like to Sing” adopts a self-referential stance in which singing itself functions as the subject matter. The words are economical and conversational, describing the simple desire to have a song that comforts or connects people. Rather than developing a dramatic narrative, the lyric highlights small, human details and everyday sentiment, a technique that makes the piece accessible and easy to interpret in live performance or radio contexts.

The single release of the song and its appearance on Full Moon generated moderate commercial attention and helped to publicize the Kristofferson–Coolidge partnership. The recording saw radio play and made a measurable chart impact in its initial run, with the album and single supporting each other during promotional cycles. The song’s commercial profile has generally been described as modest rather than breakout, but it contributed to the brief run of joint recordings and the public visibility of the couple’s musical collaboration in 1973.

In subsequent years the track has remained part of the archival footprint of both artists: it appears on reissues and compilation packages that document the Full Moon era and is available on modern streaming services where listeners can hear the duet in the context of early-1970s singer-songwriter work. The recording is sometimes cited as a lighter, lyric-focused moment within Kristofferson’s wider catalog and as an example of Coolidge’s facility for enhancing narrative material with melodic warmth.

Today “A Song I’d Like to Sing” is best understood as a period piece that illustrates the brief artistic partnership between Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge. It is representative of their collaborative aim: to combine Kristofferson’s economical, story-driven writing with Coolidge’s melodic sensibility in straightforward, song-forward arrangements. The track’s modest chart history and continued availability on reissues secure it a steady place in accounts of early-1970s crossover duet projects and the personal-professional intersection that characterized the couple’s recorded output.