Shania Twain Starter Kit
August 30, 2009
There were two solo artists who changed the course of country music history in the nineties. The first was Garth Brooks, who ushered in the boom years with his mega-selling albums No Fences and Ropin’ the Wind. The second was Shania Twain, who permanently altered the female point of view in country music with her mega-selling albums The Woman in Me and Come On Over.
Twain’s debut album was decent enough, with some charming singles like “What Made You Say That” and the Gretchen Peters-penned “Dance With the One That Brought You” being among the highlights. But it was the combination of Twain’s pen and Mutt Lange’s production that made her a superstar. Throughout her career, she’s been a champion of mutual monogamy and carefree independence. She didn’t protest for women to be treated with equality and respect so much as write from the assumption that no other option had ever existed.
In truth, all three of her self-written albums are essential listening, but if none of the 60 million albums that Twain has sold are in your personal collection, here are some tracks to help you get started:
Ten Essential Tracks
“Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?”
From the 1995 album The Woman in Me
For all the heat Twain gets for being too pop, it’s hard to imagine anything this country getting played on even country radio today, let alone pop radio.
“Any Man of Mine”
From the 1995 album The Woman in Me
There were two songs from this album that essentially powered it toward becoming the best-selling female country album up until that point. I’ve always preferred this one over “I’m Outta Here!”
“No One Needs to Know”
From the 1995 album The Woman in Me
A charming record about falling in love but not letting anybody know about it yet. It was the fourth #1 single from the album.
“You’re Still the One”
From the 1997 album Come On Over
Her first big pop hit won her two country Grammys, and was her first of two songs to be nominated for overall Song of the Year.
“That Don’t Impress Me Much”
From the 1997 album Come On Over
Three men are summarily dismissed for putting their looks, their brains, and their car before showing love and affection to Shania Twain. Such men are unlikely to exist in the real world.
“Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”
From the 1997 album Come On Over
Arguably the most iconic single from Come On Over, it won her another Grammy and was a worldwide hit to boot, helping the album reach international sales in excess of 35 million.
“You’ve Got a Way”
From the 1997 album Come On Over
Shania unplugs with a quiet, acoustic love song.
“Up!”
From the 2002 album Up!
The title track from her epic fourth album is best heard in its country mix, with irresistible banjo and fiddle combos accompanying her frantic performance.
“Forever and For Always”
From the 2002 album Up!
Quite possibly her most beautiful ballad showcased how much she’d grown as a vocalist in the five years between Come On Over and Up!
“Ka-Ching!”
From the 2002 album Up!
This was the biggest pop hit from this album overseas, and it features a riveting video that skewers the banality of her own celebrity as it questions society’s focus on materialism. That it was originally intended for her Christmas album is too cool for words.
Two Hidden Treasures
“Amneris’ Letter”
From the 1999 album Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida
Of all the places to find Twain’s finest vocal performance, its home is on the concept album for Aida. Just a piano and Twain singing her heart out.
“Nah!”
From the 2002 album Up!
Sure, there are countless witty rave-ups and quite a few heartbreaking ballads that never made it to radio and remained album cuts. But I don’t think there’s a more enjoyable track among her lesser-known songs than this kiss-off anthem that has some “na na na’s” thrown in to boot.
Category: Back to the Nineties, Starter Kits
Tags: Garth Brooks, Gretchen Peters, Mutt Lange, Shania Twain
33 Comments so far
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I adore every single one of these songs. I missed the “firsts” discussion a few days ago, but Shania was one of the first artists (if not the first) to introduce me to country music, and I’ll never be ashamed to admit that. “No One Needs to Know” and “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” are two of my favorites, and I also really love “You Win My Love”…I can still vividly recall that music video.
Too many other great songs to name.
I’ve always had a soft spot for ‘Nah’ too. Nice pick. It’s hard to argue with this list.
I will say that I don’t Shania Twain had nearly the impact that Garth Brooks did, but I’ve always enjoyed her music. I think she took the ‘let’s make it rock and roll and it will sell 10 times better’ concept that Garth already had in place and put a female spin on it. Whether or not that qualifies as impacting the industry is debatable. Razor X and I have been debating this very point over at The 9513 forums.
I think she changed the point of view of females in country music, essentially ending the “victim song” tradition. That, even more than her music, is her real legacy on the country side of things.
Actually, Loretta Lynn did that 30 years earlier.
Really a good list here. The only song I see missing that would really be a hidden treasure is Dance With the One Who Brought You from her early days as a country singer.
“Party For Two” is a cool song too!
I always loved “You’re still the one”, and my mother, who’s not a country fan, loves “That don’t impress me much.”
It is hard to argue with this list but I would probably swap a few with “Party for Two”, “The Woman In Me”, “Don’t Be Stupid”, “I’m Gonna Getcha Good” or “Love Gets Me Every Time”.
@ Razor X,
Loretta Lynn did not end the victim pose for female artists in country music – heck, Tammy Wynette was at her peak at the same time. She did release some records that were quasi-feminist statements at the time, but the victim trend continued long after Loretta had come and gone from country radio, right through the big hits of Rosanne Cash and Reba McEntire in the 1980s.
It was really Twain replacing McEntire as the new standard for how much women could sell that shook everything up. It’s one of the brightest dividing lines in country music history.
I don’t think any of those women sang “victim songs”, though a possible case can be made for “Whoever’s In New England” falling into that category.
In addition to being beautiful Shania could be a regular Mother Theresa for all I know. I just can’t listen to her. Her voice sounds so whiny to me. I may be the only country music fan who owns 7 Lisa Brokop cds and nary a Twain. Saw Lisa at the Bluebird Cafe in January accompanied only by her guitar and she was great. A Canadian like Twain, she has never had a top 40 hit in the U.S. but I love her music.
Ha. Whiney is good in country music.:)
I like Shania music for what it is. While I think “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” is super country and awesome, I acknowledge that songs like “From This Moment” and “You’re Still the One” falls into light AC.
I like Lisa Brocop too.
My hidden treasures would include “Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is Anymore”, “It Only Hurts When I’m Breathing”, & “Is There Life After Love.” For all the “She’s too Pop” furor that once raged around Shania, re-listening to “The Woman In Me” album is a revelation. It’s Country, no mistake about it. It’s way more Country than almost anything that Country Radio is playing today. Amazing how time changes one’s perspective.
Love the article I too believe it was Twain that brought about the change for women in country.
Shania introduced me to country music then my mind was wide open from there. I can honestly say that she has more great songs then not on each of her albums.
My wedding dance was “Forever and for Always”, boy that is a long song to dance to in heels and a heavy dress, fast too!
I am looking forward to what she can produce without Mutt. I am totally expecting her to come back in a big way, at least I hope.
I too agree that she permanently changed country music for all female vocalists. I don’t think this was Shania’s intention or anything, I have just assumed it’s because the 90’s country music scene was already changing.
If you look Reba’s 90’s music you can see that her being the victim songs were getting fewer and fewer as she went through the early 90’s. It doesn’t mean her 80’s songs like “Whoever’s In New England” were bad because many of her 80’s songs are better quality than her 90’s material. But her songs stories were changing.
Martina McBride and Faith Hill were also on the scene pre-Shania, and you can see that their musical messages about women were different than the majority of female country songs that came before them. The reason for the change was probably because a new generation of women were entering the scene with different views than the women before them. So I don’t think Shania started the women-empowerment movement but I do think she finally made it mainstream for country music women.
Martina has made a career out of singing victim songs. Someone evidently forgot to tell her that Shania put an end to them.
I don’t really think that’s true of Martina, particularly post-Shania. There’s the trio of “Whatever You Say”, “Where Would You Be” and “How Far”, but they’re exceptions in a decade-long string of message-oriented songs that have more to do with “Big Messages” (“Blessed”, “Concrete Angel”, “This One’s For The Girls”, “In My Daughter’s Eyes”, “God’s Will”, “Anyway”, “For These Times”, “Ride”, and so on).
I think Reba’s victim songs really peaked during the early nineties, with “Does He Love You” being the worst, but also “It’s Your Call” and “You Lie.” I happen to like all of these songs. It’s just a type of song that went out of fashion.
Rosanne Cash had some doozies of her own – “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me”, “Second to No One”, and “Blue Moon With Heartache” immediately leap to mind. Again, all great songs.
I just see it as Garth’s big success made all the guys wear hats and mimic that sound, while Shania’s big success ended the days where expectations for male and female artists were different. Some positive, some negative results for both post-Garth and post-Shania country music.
There was definitely a recalibration of the music made by Martina, Faith and Reba post-Shania, though I agree with Dan that the substance of Martina’s music didn’t change. I think it was more the pop flavor of the production. (She really learned the wrong lessons from Shania’s success in a lot of ways.)
For me, it’s impossible to imagine Reba singing something like “Strange” or “I’m a Survivor” pre-Shania. And Faith clearly shifted to a more pop style with her third album, which was the first to be released after Twain’s full impact had been made.
I think Martina is a bit of a mixed bag. For every “Where Would You Be” she has other women empowering hits like “Life #9″, “Ashes”, or “Heart Trouble” which convey a more empowered woman who won’t stand for being a victim or at least not in a self-loathing way.
I will admit that Faith was stretching it a bit as I was soley basing this off her “Take Me As I Am” hit off her duet album.
On the Reba subject, she was kinda like Martina around that time in the 90’s since she did have those victim type songs but she had “Fancy”, “Is There Life After There”, and “Take It Back” along with some others.
I’m glad you guys brought up that Martina (post-Shania years) has gone on to have more victim songs, as it’s a bit ironic.
I think Reba’s victim songs really peaked during the early nineties, with “Does He Love You” being the worst, but also “It’s Your Call” and “You Lie.” I happen to like all of these songs. It’s just a type of song that went out of fashion.
Rosanne Cash had some doozies of her own – “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me”, “Second to No One”, and “Blue Moon With Heartache” immediately leap to mind. Again, all great songs.
I wouldn’t classify any of these songs as victim songs. If anything, “Does He Love You” and “It’s Your Call” are confrontation songs, while “You Lie” is a song about someone who is in denial about a relationship that is on its last legs. I would classify the Rosanne Cash songs as broken-heart songs, but not victim songs.
Maybe we’re just not working with the same definition. To me, some of Martina’s songs like “Concrete Angel” are victim songs. Or Jason Michael Carroll’s “Alyssa Lies”. And then there are the doormat songs — one that immediately comes to mind is one from Dolly Parton’s first album for RCA called “The Only Way Out (Is To Walk Over Me)” where the protagonist literally throws herself at her husband’s feet and begs him not to leave her, telling me that he will have to step over her if he does choose to go.
I also don’t see Shania as some great feminist icon. Her impact on the genre was to shift it (unfortunately)in more of a pop/rock direction, and in the way she used sex appeal in her videos. She had tremendous commercial success, and while most of her songs are fine for what they are, I don’t find the content of any of them to be particularly earth-shattering.
Razor regardless of what you think, I do believe she will go down as on the best female country stars in history. No other woman has yet to entertain the crowds she has and in the way she has.
She pushed the envelope and I find a lot of people have trouble accepting that!
No other woman has yet to entertain the crowds she has and in the way she has.
And what way is that exactly?
I think the primary affect of Shania Twain’s influence is in the crisp, nearly crackling sound of her recordings. I wouldn’t call it a change for the better but it was highly influential. Also her retooling (I call it “watering down”) of her music to make it more palatable to non-country audiences
I don’t think there was anything terribly revolutionary about Shania’s lyrics – they pushed the envelope a little; however, the 1970s were full of very forward lyrics sung by artists as diverse as Loretta Lynn, Connie Cato, Jeannie Pruett, Linda (Hargrove) Bartholemew, Sunday Sharpe and Tammy Wynette. The 80s and 90s saw the likes of Lucinda Williams and Cherly Wheeler long before Shania’s arrival
Yes, the victim songs lingered on (and the genre today is poorer for their relative absence) but the spread of music in the past was at least as great as it is today. And it was authentically country
Paul, you expressed exactly what I wanted to say. As for the “retooling” or watering down, I always sharply discount the accomplishments of anyone who finds success that way. There’s nothing revolutionary or unique about making a more pop-sounding record so non-country fans will buy it. When someone can achieve Shania-level sales with something that is authentically country, then I will be impressed.
I don’t discount any of Shania Twain’s success. I fully acknowledge that she did make some powerful statements and even pioneered, if not the message, but the overall tone of the delivery of the strong-woman song as Kevin pointed out. I just don’t really agree that any of this has really affected the song selections of any of the women who’ve been mentioned in any major way. Martina was singing ‘Independence Day’ and ‘Life #9′ before Shania hit it big. Faith re-recorded Janis Joplin’s ‘Piece of My Heart’, ‘Wild One’ and more of the same kind of themes. Reba was changing toward the modern woman in the early 90s too, particularly with ‘Is There Life Out There’, and even ‘Take It Back’, the wonderful ‘For Herself’ from the It’s Your Call album, among others. So they had all done those themes before – and certainly the generation before them had a few, albeit notably less, from a similar mindset – ‘Don’t Come Home a’Drinkin’ – before Shania’s success.
I’d also give you that on the heels of her major success, that sort of message has become more and more the norm, especially the youth-driven market of today, but I’m still not sold it was Shania Twain’s success and not mostly the overall shift in society in the past 15-20 years since ‘victim songs’ still dominated.
I like Jake’s assessment of Shania making it more mainstream, but not really introducing the concept. And maybe that alone can be called artistic impact, but I don’t call it that.
Add:
Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is Anymore
You Win My Love
Love Gets Me Every Time
I’m Gonna Getcha Good
and It Only Hurts When I Breathe is pretty good too.
“And what way is that exactly?”
They way Kenny does now she was doing stadiums before he was, and if you have been to both artist concerts you would know that Shania’s energy and the energy she brings out in the crowd is beyond Chesney.
Before you say something about Kenny’s performaces,he has been on top for the past four years so no matter your toughts on him it is a fact, and Shania sold out just as many as he did!
[...] 10 essential Shania Twain tracks, courtesy of Country Universe’s Starter Kit series. [...]
They way Kenny does now she was doing stadiums before he was, and if you have been to both artist concerts you would know that Shania’s energy and the energy she brings out in the crowd is beyond Chesney.
I have seen Shania in concert, and while she put on a good show, it was nothing earth-shattering. As for Chesney, I’d rather be waterboarded than attend one of his concerts; regardless of how many stadiums he’s sold out.
I don’t discount any of Shania Twain’s success. I fully acknowledge that she did make some powerful statements and even pioneered, if not the message, but the overall tone of the delivery of the strong-woman song as Kevin pointed out.
What powerful statements did she make?
I have her first album and really like it. It’s enjoyable early 90’s country. “Still Under The Weather” could be considered a hidden treasure from that one. However, The Woman In Me is still my favorite. “Any Man Of Mine” was my introduction to Shania, and I love all the other singles too, like “No One Needs To Know,” “The Woman In Me,” and “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under.” “Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is Anymore,” is also a great track as mentioned by others.
As for the singles from Come On Over and Up, I disliked most of them when they first came out, but now I find myself enjoying them, as well. Nostalgia? Maybe, but I sure like them better than what’s on radio now. “Forever And For Always” and “You’re Still The One” are a couple of my favorites from her crossover days.
Maybe we need some kind of male empowerment. Because now the men on country seem content to celebrate their ignorant backward lifestyles. We have “Redneck Yacht Club,” “Boots On” “Country Boy” “Country Man” “Chicken Fried,” “She’s Country” and all sorts of similar junk. “Bonfire” too.
Shania at least had an aura of success around her (even if she sometimes worked at “mundane” jobs). I can respect the image that Shania made for herself, but not the degraded “I’m a hick and I’m proud” image of many of today’s country men.
Shania didn’t water country down. She strengthened it. Its a shame to see country today appealing to the lowest of the low. We need more pop influence in country, not less. We need less of the redneck stuff. Less Gretchen Wilson. That stuff is detestable compared with Shania.
I love Shania because she makes what she does look easy and it is not. No matter what the critiques are she has sold millions of albums worldwide and is/was(?)the best selling female artist of all-time. That means the people like her music and I believe of course that Mutt Lange is just a genius regarding creating great hooks. I am interested to see where Shania goes post-Mutt, and am pulling for her. It must be hard to lose the professional partnership,(I don’t know anything about her personal life)…
“We” (loosely speaking) are so interested in categorizations and containments–one thing I’ve seen is that a lot of people enjoy Shania’s music and she delivers it in a unique, personable, and entertaining way. I hope whatever she does next, in terms of music is always and forever from her heart from this moment on. ;)
Personally, I’ve had many moments of being lifted by Shania especially during her Chicago concert in 2003. Whatever she’s doing works. ($300 million plus can’t be all that bad either…)Shania = success. Up! Up! Up!