Retro Single Review: Shania Twain, "She's Not Just a Pretty Face"

2003 | Peak: #9

Shania Twain at her girl power best.

No, wait. Scratch that.  Her woman power best, as “She’s Not Just a Pretty Face” is about the wide range of indispensable and often unexpected roles that adult women play in our society, whether it’s the astronaut or politician that all of us see from television, or

the woman pumping gas at night to make ends meet.  That woman was Twain’s mom, by the way, who is sweetly immortalized in song here.

I also particularly love the warm steel guitar and the fiddle runs that run throughout the song.  It just works better as a country song than as a pop one.

This is Twain’s most recent solo single to reach the country top ten, and also her fifth and final Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

Written by Robert John “Mutt” Lange and Shania Twain

Grade: A

Next: When You Kiss Me

Previous: Thank You Baby! (For Making Someday Come So Soon)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OkttkFkPes

 

2 Comments

  1. I like this song a lot. I think the list structure could have been a hindrance, but I think Shania pulls it off with her sincerity, while the chorus helps bind it together. Plus you have to love the way she includes the personal touch of referecing her mother. It’s a nice showcase of Twain’s intelligence as a writer, as well as her unique perspective.

    I sure do love the fiddle and steel on this record. Even though none of the songs on Up! were traditional country, I find that I almost always like the country versions better (with a few exceptions, such as “I’m Not In the Mood,” for example). The country touches really do seem to add a special quality to the music – They don’t seem superfluous at all.

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