(8/19/99, 1 a.m. PDT) - Country thrush Martina McBride's new single, "I Love You," is burning up the charts only three weeks after its release to radio, and the song is also featured on the soundtrack of the new Julia Roberts/ Richard Gere hit flick Runaway Bride. LAUNCH spoke with the singer about the song and how it found its way onto one of the summer's hottest soundtracks.

"I found 'I Love You' last summer and just immediately said, 'I have to have this song," McBride related. "It's really fun, and it's different for me. A couple months later I said, 'Gol, this would be a great song for a movie.'"

McBride's co-producer, Paul Worley, got in on the act. "He said, 'Well, y'know, there's this movie that I know the person that's putting together the music for. Do you want me to play him this song?' And I said, 'Sure. Why not? Y'know, give it a shot.' And they called back, and they said, 'If we had written a song, we could not have written a song that is more perfect for these two characters. We really want this song in the movie.' So it kind of just all fell into place and went from there."

"I Love You" is the first single from Martina's forthcoming album, Emotion, which will be released in September.

-- Margy Holland

courtesy of www.launch.yahoo.com