First, it established Twain’s affection for the exclamation point, a punctuation mark that she would take to ludicrous extremes in the years to come.
Second, and far more importantly, it firmly established her point of view on relationships. She’s really just looking for two things: respect and monogamy.
The bare midriffs and the playful videos were just the window dressing. What Twain was really selling was a distinctively feminist point of view, permanently shifting the perspective that all female country artists would sing and write from in the years to come.
A more careful historian would tally up the number of female victim songs, pre- and post-1995, but really, just check out the catalog of Reba McEntire for a simple case study.
Thanks to this record, victim queens are outta here.
Written by Robert John “Mutt” Lange and Shania Twain
There are some majestic ballads on The Woman in Me, but the title track isn’t one of them.
Utterly devoid of the clear-eyed sentiment that would define Twain’s legendary crossover ballads, “The Woman in Me (Needs the Man in You)” is a dull, plodding affair. The verses say nothing of consequence, and while the chorus swoons reasonably, it can’t compensate for the general weakness of the rest of the song.
Great video, though.
Written by Robert John “Mutt” Lange and Shania Twain
By now, “Any Man of Mine” has become such a familiar Shania classic that it’s easy to take for granted what a bold artistic move it was at the time.
Though feminist viewpoints previously had surfaced in country music at times through the likes of Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells, they were the exception rather than the rule in 1995. In the early to mid-nineties, it was more common for female artists like Reba to be topping the charts with sad songs that often cast the woman as the victim.
Then here comes Shania with a rousing, fiddle-burning, boot-stomper in which she firmly proclaims that a man should strive to be worthy of his woman’s affections, and that a woman accepts nothing less. Her point was delivered through clever, witty lyrics that ranged from “Any man of mine’ll say ‘It fits just right’ when last year’s dress is just a little too tight” to “When I’m cookin’ dinner and I burn it black, he better say ‘Mmm, I like it like that.’”
Releasing a song like “Any Man of Mine” had to take some guts. Shania had already seen her first album flop, and had just previously scored her first significant hit with “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under.” One could easily understand if she wanted to keep up her newfound momentum, and groom her relationship with country radio by releasing some safe, middle-of-the-road bit of nineties schmaltz.
But she didn’t. She stayed true to herself, and made a genuine artistic statement of her own. And what do you know? It worked! With “Any Man of Mine,” Shania kicked, turned, and stomp-stomped all the way to the top of the charts, with “Any Man of Mine” becoming her first U.S. number-one hit. Since then, the tune has deservedly gone on to become one of Shania’s most enduring, best-loved hits.
It’s just so unmistakably Shania. No wonder this song is so fondly remembered by her fans.
Written by Robert John “Mutt” Lange and Shania Twain
It’s fun to imagine the looks on the radio DJs’ faces when they got this one in the mail. That pretty, weird-named lady whose records they’d brushed aside before, now looking all bizarro-sexy in a red “executive jumpsuit” thing on the cover, and with that song title.
It was a smart introduction to the Shania-Mutt Lange machine, in retrospect. “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” has all the sugary hooks and goofy feminist pluck that would come to define the singer and producer’s joint legacy, but it still sounds more or less like a “normal” country song, an easy little addition to the mid-nineties radio format. Who’d have guessed that as soon the pair got their foot in the door, they’d take over the whole building?
Written by Robert John “Mutt” Lange and Shania Twain
As I’m sure the rest of you do, I make playlists all the time. Many of them are lists of individual artists, but some of them have a concept.
My latest playlist is of covers. First, I have the original version (or the one that’s famous for being the original) followed by my favorite cover of it. My only rule is that I have to like both versions. So, songs where I like the cover but not the original won’t make the list.
I’ll share a sampling of what I have so far, as long as you share your latest or greatest concept playlist in the comments:
1. Buddy Miller, “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go” (Miranda Lambert)
2. Hank Williams, “Hey, Good Lookin’” (The Mavericks)
3. Elvis Presley, “Suspicious Minds (Dwight Yoakam)
4. Dolly Parton, “Coat of Many Colors (Shania Twain/Alison Krauss)
5. Waylon Jennings, “Dreaming My Dreams with You” (Alison Krauss and Union Station)
6. Johnny Cash, “Understand Your Man” (Dwight Yoakam)
7. Merle Haggard, “The Way I Am” (Alan Jackson)
8. John Prine, “That’s the Way the World Goes ‘Round” (Miranda Lambert)
9. John Anderson, “Swingin’” (LeAnn Rimes)
10. Buddy Miller, “Don’t Tell Me” (Alicia Nugent)
11. Kasey Chambers, “Pony” (Ashley Monroe)
12. Tammy Wynette, “Stand by Your Man” (Dixie Chicks)
13. Bill Monroe, “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (John Fogerty)
14. Conway Twitty, “Goodbye Time” (Blake Shelton)
15. Hank Williams, “I Saw the Light” (Blind Boys of Alabama/ Hank Williams Jr.)
16. Bob Dylan, “Shelter from the Storm” (Rodney Crowell/Emmylou Harris)
17. Merle Haggard, “Today I Started Loving You Again” (Buddy Jewell/Miranda Lambert)
18. Nitty Gritty Dirtband, “Fishing in the Dark” (Garth Brooks)
19. The White Stripes, “Dead Leaves in the Dirty Ground” (Chris Thile)
20. Al Green, “Lets Stay Together” (John Berry)
21. David Allan Coe, “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” (Doug Supernaw)
22. The Decemberists, “Shankill Butchers” (Sarah Jarosz
23. Steve Earle, “My Old Friend the Blues” (Patty Loveless)
24. Eric Clapton, “Lay Down Sally” (Delbert McClinton)
25. Fred Eaglesmith, “Time to Get a Gun” (Miranda Lambert)
26. Dolly Parton, “Jolene” (The White Stripes)
27. Johnny Cash, “I Still Miss Someone” (Suzy Bogguss)
28. Pearl Jam, “Better Man” (Sugarland)
29. Kris Kristofferson, “From the Bottle to the Bottom” (Dierks Bentley/Kris Kristofferson)
30. Don Williams, “Lord, I hope this Day is Good” (Lee Ann Womack)
31. Bob Dylan, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s all right” (Randy Travis)
After two singles that peaked at #55, the final release from Shania Twain didn’t even chart, though the music video did receive decent rotation on CMT.
It’s a torch ballad that compares favorably to the Con Hunley original, which peaked at #19 in 1980. Twain takes a few more liberties with the melody than Hunley did, though not quite as much as Tom Jones did when he recorded it.
Once again, it’s a production that was already a decade out of date in 1993, and it could have been the swan song of a promising career had there not been a fateful meeting with a certain rock producer.
Her entire debut album has a retro feel, but “Dance With the One That Brought You” is the one track that sounds vintage without sounding dated.
The gorgeous tune is a perfect fit for Twain’s nuanced vocal, proving to anyone willing to listen that it was never Mutt Lange’s studio wizardry that made her voice shine.
A charming should’ve been hit that has made her debut album a worthy purchase for those few who discovered it at the time, and the millions more who discovered it once she was a superstar.
The video got the attention of Mutt Lange and Sean Penn, but Shania Twain’s first single made little impression beyond that at radio and retail.
It’s not a novelty song, but it might as well be, given the dated-on-arrival arrangement and mostly silly premise. What saves it from being a complete dud? Twain’s playful vocal and a fairly catchy hook.
Despite some amazing album artists – a Willie Nelson here, an Emmylou Harris there – country music has always been a singles format. Over the past seven years, we’ve charted the development of some artists from the very beginning, like Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band, just by reviewing their singles.
With Retro Single Reviews, we’re going to go back in time to tell the story of the genre’s biggest artists from the very beginning, by reviewing all of their singles in chronological order.
Here’s how it works: At any given time, we’ll be working our way through the catalog of five artists. When we complete one of them, we’ll add a new one to the rotation.
The first five artists are:
Alan Jackson (1989-present)
He began his career on Arista Records in 1989, recording with them through 2010. This year, he is prepping his first album on his own label.
Tim McGraw (1992-present)
In his twentieth year on the charts, McGraw is also prepping to leave his longtime label, which is making more money off of hits collections these days than anything else.
Dolly Parton (1967-present)
The most successful female singer-songwriter in country music history has duets with everyone from Porter Wagoner to Ladysmith Black Mambazo in her catalog of singles.
George Strait (1981-present)
With three decades of singles already under his belt, he’s had more #1 hits than any other country artist, and trails only Eddy Arnold and George Jones among all-time hitmakers.
Shania Twain (1993-present)
The top selling female country artist of all time, she’s just released her first new music in six years. Her career includes several singles that were released only in international markets.
Muscle & Strength Building Products nia-Twain-Today-is-Your-Day.jpg”>Shania Twain returns with her first single in six years, and it’s kind of a beautiful mess.
Kind of beautiful because it’s the most nakedly sincere she’s been on record, especially as a vocalist.
Kind of a mess because it sounds like a fan-made pop remix of a damn good country song.
It’s jarring to listen to the first couple of times, especially if you heard one of the far more sonically pleasing acoustic versions on her remarkably powerful reality show.
But it’s not the clunky arrangement that’s so jarring, but rather the pervasive sense of melancholy and self-doubt that seeped into the final version, going against the song’s lyric in particular and Twain’s rah-rah, positive thinking confidence that defined her signature work.
I don’t think that that Shania’s coming back, but as good as those classic records are, they’re not nearly as interesting as the pathos she’s displaying these days. She just has to find a better co-producer to capture it on record.
1995 | Peak: #1
1995 | Peak: #1
Shania Twain returns with her first single in six years, and it’s kind of a beautiful mess.
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