Shania Twain: The Woman in Me (Super Deluxe Diamond Edition) - Review
By Jeffrey Davies | Spectrum Culture | October 8, 2020
Twenty-five years ago, before The Woman in Me would later make her one of the best-selling country artists of all-time, Shania Twain was just a small-town Canadian girl struggling to get by in Nashville. Before meeting Mutt Lange—who would become both her producer and her husband—she’d only had one underperforming album under her belt that failed to put her on the map. A quarter of a century later, her follow-up record not only made permanent radio mainstays out of “Any Man of Mine,” “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” and “No One Needs to Know,” but also redefined the country pop crossover and made Twain into a household name and living legend.
The Woman in Me introduced Twain’s signature crossover sound, which some might distinctly attribute to the ‘90s, but it’s been nevertheless imprinted in our minds so strongly that it still holds up 25 years later—in fact, it sounds just as refreshing as the country pop made today by Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini or the Chicks, all of whom have no doubt been influenced by Twain at one time or another. Songs like “(If You’re Not in it For Love) I’m Outta Here!” were emblematic of our self-created 1990s “girl power” bubble, but its lyrics are just as empowering in 2020 as they were in 1995: “Babe, I can change your world/ Make you a cover girl/ Yeah, you could be a beauty queen in a magazine/ Now tell me, what’s your sign?/ Why always the same old line?/ I’ll be in number 409/ If you change your mind.”
However, no playlist of empowering feminist anthems would be complete without The Woman in Me’s lead single, “Any Man of Mine,” which remains as popular today as it was when first released. Even country naysayers know the words to every verse: “Any man of mine better be proud of me/ Even when I’m ugly, he still better love me/ And I can be late for a date, that’s fine/ But he better be on time.” Indeed, Twain’s take on explaining what a woman wants still undoubtedly strikes a chord with audiences now, which is why it’s baffling to hear that the singer’s label initially discouraged her from choosing it as the lead single. They asserted that it was too bold for an artist still relatively new to the country scene, that a woman taking charge might disinterest men and alienate women. Certainly the single’s Grammy nominations for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance proved them wrong.
The 3-disc Diamond edition of The Woman in Me contains both previously unheard versions of some of the most popular tracks as well as new remixes. Dance mixes of “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” and “If You’re Not In It For Love” take inspiration from disco and ‘80s-influenced production, while alternative mixes of “Any Man of Mine” and “The Woman in Me (Needs the Man in You)” remove the steel guitar, emphasizing that these tracks were always, first and foremost, country songs. With or without the guitar or the new disco backings, these classics sound just as fresh and timeless as they did 25 years ago.
The third disc, however, consists entirely of “Shania Vocal Mix” versions of some tracks—original rough cuts that were recorded a year before the album was released in 1995. Without any backing vocals, these versions capture Twain at her finest, on the brink of stardom. While the third disc is certainly a welcome contribution to longtime Shania fans, it feels as though it may have been included solely for Twain to relive her glory days, considering there are certain notes she just can’t hit anymore as a result of her battle with dysphonia a decade ago. While her 2017 comeback record Now received mixed reviews, it would be sexist and ageist, among other things, to imply that Twain is past her prime and must rely on 25th anniversary Diamond editions to remain relevant. Her talent and influence, long may they reign, is enough to reassure that the listeners in us will always need the icon in her.
Summary: With or without the guitar or the new disco backings, these classics sound just as fresh and timeless as they did 25 years ago.
On The Woman In Me, I was just being myself and letting my personality come through in the music. When the fans, started catching on, that was really exciting for me. To see you relating to what I was saying and celebrating the confident voice of a woman, it was awesome ❤️
The HD version of my video for 'Home Ain't Where His Heart Is (Anymore)' is now on my @youtube. Get the tissues, this one will put you in your feelings ❤️ Watch here:ShaniaTwain.lnk.to/Remastered
Saved the best for last... The 'You Win My Love' music video is now remastered in HD! 🏎 ❤️ True story, I drew that beauty mark on to cover a huge zit I got on the morning of the shoot! You gotta do what you gotta do 😂ShaniaTwain.lnk.to/Remastered
Thanks for accepting me as a member of the site. It looks like a lot of fun. I recently wrote a review/web article online about The Woman In Me: Diamond Edition 3-CD box set. I'm very impressed by this set. As I mention, I think Shania was ahead of her time musically, and it shows in current artists like Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Lauren Alaina, and Carrie Underwood. The live tracks from the Let's Go! Las Vegas residency demonstrate how The Woman In Me songs work well in a concert setting. The Shania Vocal Mix disc is fun to listen to also, with the different track lineup, and the overdubs and extra production not added yet. I know it would have made the set more costly, but it would have been nice to include a Blu-ray with the eight videos released to promote The Woman In Me.
Below is a link to my review/web article of The Woman In Me: Diamond Edition three disc set. If this against the site rules, then the link can be deleted. I don't want to break any site rules.
Thanks again. I look forward to checking out more of the site.
Women in every platform in life have to fight harder to be heard, to be recognised and to find opportunities. There are so many skillful women doing original things and I want to shout about them as much as I can! I asked 8 kick-ass illustrators to help me celebrate The Woman In Me by creating a bespoke artwork in their style and it is a gift to share them with you! ❤️
Thanks for accepting me as a member of the site. It looks like a lot of fun. I recently wrote a review/web article online about The Woman In Me: Diamond Edition 3-CD box set. I'm very impressed by this set. As I mention, I think Shania was ahead of her time musically, and it shows in current artists like Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Lauren Alaina, and Carrie Underwood. The live tracks from the Let's Go! Las Vegas residency demonstrate how The Woman In Me songs work well in a concert setting. The Shania Vocal Mix disc is fun to listen to also, with the different track lineup, and the overdubs and extra production not added yet. I know it would have made the set more costly, but it would have been nice to include a Blu-ray with the eight videos released to promote The Woman In Me.
Below is a link to my review/web article of The Woman In Me: Diamond Edition three disc set. If this against the site rules, then the link can be deleted. I don't want to break any site rules.
Thanks again. I look forward to checking out more of the site.
Thanks for accepting me as a member of the site. It looks like a lot of fun. I recently wrote a review/web article online about The Woman In Me: Diamond Edition 3-CD box set. I'm very impressed by this set. As I mention, I think Shania was ahead of her time musically, and it shows in current artists like Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Lauren Alaina, and Carrie Underwood. The live tracks from the Let's Go! Las Vegas residency demonstrate how The Woman In Me songs work well in a concert setting. The Shania Vocal Mix disc is fun to listen to also, with the different track lineup, and the overdubs and extra production not added yet. I know it would have made the set more costly, but it would have been nice to include a Blu-ray with the eight videos released to promote The Woman In Me.
Below is a link to my review/web article of The Woman In Me: Diamond Edition three disc set. If this against the site rules, then the link can be deleted. I don't want to break any site rules.
Thanks again. I look forward to checking out more of the site.
BILLBOARD UPDATE (week of October 24): Shania's Greatest Hits re-enters the Billboard Top Country Albums chart at No. 48 in its 160th overall week on the chart.
I like that the 2-CD set removes the borders on the cover art (I think it looks brighter) - I'm just wondering if the contents inside the CD jacket are the same or if they've been updated for the Diamond Edition? Anyone own the physical 2-CD diamond edition?
I like that the 2-CD set removes the borders on the cover art (I think it looks brighter) - I'm just wondering if the contents inside the CD jacket are the same or if they've been updated for the Diamond Edition? Anyone own the physical 2-CD diamond edition?
Good question. I'd like to know too. As far as info & text, what are the contents INSIDE the 2-CD cover jacket? Is it the same as the original album or has it been updated to reflect the Diamond Edition?
__________________
Tommy's #1 SHANIA TWAIN SuperSite shaniasupersite.com Our eyes are closed, but we're not asleep, We're wide awake beneath the sheets
I was just a small town Canadian artist trying to make it in Nashville, I had no idea this album was going to be what it became. I certainly hoped it would be successful! But my idea of what I thought that could be was nowhere near where it ended up! I’m very grateful to all of you for the support ❤️💎 #TheWomanInMe @tasteofcountry
If I had to choose a favourite song from The Woman In Me now, it would have to be God Bless The Child. I wrote this song very shortly after the death of my parents and it helped me through that very difficult time in my life 💜
I had so many wonderful experiences putting The Woman In Me together. I was pushing my limits, liberating myself, digging deeper into my self expression, celebrating my own strength and femininity, constantly pursuing my originality, all whilst getting a huge education on the world and the music industry, very fast! I couldn't have dreamed of what the album would go onto achieve and I've been surprised all over again with the Diamond Edition! I've been overwhelmed by the response to the 25th anniversary reissue and want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support and love you have shown me. 💎❤️ This ride is so much more fun with you all by my side 😘 Watch the 25-Year Retrospective Documentary now:ShaniaTwain.lnk.to/25YearsofTWIM
The Woman In Me was my chance to finally prove myself with my own songs and… thankfully it worked 😘💎 Watch the 25-Year Retrospective Documentary now:ShaniaTwain.lnk.to/25YearsofTWIM
This is probably my favourite video I've ever done, I got to visit Egypt for the first time and on top of that I spent the day riding a beautiful horse. A dream come true! 🐎❤️
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Shania Twain, ‘The Woman in Me (Diamond Edition)’
By Mike Duquette | The Second Disc | December 23, 2020
There’s one good thing we can pull from 2020’s reissue slate, it’s diversity. The end of the year’s biggest box sets focused less on the typical classic-rock heavy-hitters and more on genres, eras and artists that typically don’t get the red carpet treatment. It’s a trend that would surely be nice to continue.
The new “Diamond Edition” of Shania Twain’s The Woman in Me (Mercury Nashville/UMe B0032601-02) checks off all three of those boxes, yet it’s initially an odd sell. After all, isn’t it Twain’s next album, 1997’s juggernaut Come On Over, that’s begging for a reissue? The album was released in two differentmixes, and its songs were not only big on the country charts but crossover pop smashes, too. But a closer inspection of The Woman in Me proves that it deserves proper historical context, as both an underappreciated herald of the country genre’s reinvention in the ’90s and an unlikely musical partnership that made it happen.
During the ’90s, country earned something of a reappraisal in pop culture. In 1991, after Billboard implemented automated SoundScan data in their chart tabulations, Garth Brooks‘ No Fences (1990) hurtled from No. 16 to No. 4 on the album chart. That year’s Ropin’ the Wind debuted atop the Billboard 200. A year later, Billy Ray Cyrus’ line-dancing earworm “Achy Breaky Heart” became an international Top 5, and acts like Alan Jackson led a “new traditionalist” movement that modernized the honky-tonk sound for a new generation. By the end of the decade, the female trio then known as the Dixie Chicks issued two back-to-back albums to be certified diamond (more than 10 million units shipped) by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Amidst this new wave came Shania Twain, a modest but ambitious Canadian singer with a tragic backstory (she raised her siblings in her 20s after a car accident left her an orphan) and a strong work ethic. You’d be forgiven for ignoring her self-titled debut in 1993; she herself doesn’t hold it in high regard, and it’s your standard first country album for the time: heavy on hired guns from Nashville, light on personality. But nobody would have guessed the step she took to show off that personality: a collaboration with songwriter/producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange. At the time, Lange was behind commercial breakthroughs for AC/DC and Def Leppard and helped construct mid-phase successes for Billy Ocean and Bryan Adams – Nashville hadn’t touched his songcraft.
But Shania bet the house on their work: their collaboration soon became personal, and within six months of meeting, they were married. And it paid off considerably: eight of the album’s 12 songs were released as singles, and seven of them placed in Billboard‘s country Top 40, including chart-toppers “Any Man of Mine,” “(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!” “You Win My Love” and “No One Needs to Know.” The album reached the Top 5 of the pop charts and became Shania’s first of three back-to-back-to-back albums to earn diamond status – the only solo woman to achieve this feat.
Today’s genrefluid times, where Taylor Swift walks the line between country and pop with impunity, might obscure the quirks of The Woman in Me. Lyrically, it’s laser-focused on love – its highs, its lows, losses and discoveries – and starkly in the first person, with little of the character or narrative work that often runs through Nashville. Despite the copious pedal steel and fiddle – not to mention the presence of multiple Nashville ringers, from guitarist Dann Huff to pianist Hargus “Pig” Robbins – the song structures are distinctly Mutt-like. Every piece of song is eminently hummable, down to the thunderous intros and dramatic pre-choruses. (Compare the stomping “oohs” on the beat of “Any Man of Mine” to the opening riff of “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”) While the album can sag a bit in places due to its familiar through lines, Lange’s pop/rock sensibilities and Twain’s feminine twang makes for a novel combination.
Shania’s work is probably so beloved because of its malleability: her comfort with pop tropes (and an ability to make them her own) is what made her an international hitmaker in the first place. The bonus material of The Woman in Me helps drive that point home: the majority of the set’s first bonus disc features CD single-only remixes of tracks like “Whose Bed,” “Any Man of Mine” and “I’m Outta Here!” Many of them play with the balance of how much country is in each song, testing what would play on contemporary and international radio. (Among the stranger tracks: fleshed-out versions of closing a cappella snippet “God Bless the Child,” which turns a simple, from-the-heart hymn into a cheesy heal-the-world number.)
Five of the second disc’s bonus tracks, taken from Twain’s 2019 Las Vegas live residency, and the disc exclusive to the Diamond Edition – an early, unissued mix of the album from 1994 – attempt to place the singer more firmly in the country bucket. Being known for these crossover songs must carry some sort of weight for Twain; she and Lange separated in 2008 after the producer had an affair with her best friend, and she later revealed health struggles that weakened her voice. (In one of show business’ more bizarre ironies, she is now married to ex-husband of said best friend.) The presence of this “Shania vocal mix” material may be to more properly center her in the narrative – but the hard truth is, of course, that it’s hard to replicate that Mutt feeling outside of a studio. If you don’t think the songs on Woman hit quite as hard, it may not be your cup of tea.
Still, there’s no denying The Woman in Me packs a punch, and this reissue is a chance for the album to step out of the shadow of its blockbuster successors. Eve Barlow’s essay does a great job of contextualizing the record in modern-day country/pop/feminist terms, although parts of the package could benefit from more of Shania’s perspective (outside of a rote intro and two pages of personal reminiscences). There’s more than enough third-person pontificating of her place in pop culture, but when we get to a deluxe Come On Over (one can hope!), it may be a treat to get even more from her perspective.
It is possible, however, that Shania – like Taylor Swift, whose ability to spin country and pop into a monocultural frenzy makes her an heir to Twain in some respects – prefers to let her music do most of the talking. And the Diamond Edition of The Woman in Me really does have a lot to say.
Shania Twain on 'The Women In Me' Album | CMT Hit Story
We can’t even imagine country music without the classic hits “Any Man Of Mine” and “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under!” Twenty-five years later, Shania Twain takes a look back on the ground-breaking album “The Woman in Me.”
Wow, another year has flown by, and one full of reflection for a lot of us. It's now 26 years(!) since The Woman In Me came out... I still feel 26! 😂 The diamond release gave me a whole new appreciation for that time in my life. I took a trip down memory lane to share some behind-the-scenes stories from the Any Man of Mine video shoot with you, watch here:shaniatwain.lnk.to/AnyManBTVIt was a great day on John and @reallyboderek’s ranch, horsin' around
Digging into the backstory of @ShaniaTwain’s “Any Man of Mine” on this week’s episode of Country Music Road Trip Radio. The sales, chart history, and that memorable CMA Awards performance. 💎 Listen here:https://spoti.fi/3rE2HIi
***"Any Man Of Mine" was released April 26, 1995. It was the second single from Shania's album The Woman In Me (1995). The song was nominated for two Grammy Awards and became Shania's first No. 1 hit on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. It also reached a peak of No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, her first appearance on that chart.
'Any Man of Mine': The Story Behind Shania Twain's Playful Warning
By Darby Sparkman | Wide Open Country | May 1, 2021
Shania Twain put men in their place with her hit single "Any Man of Mine." The Canadian country-pop star laid down the law when she released the song in 1995 as the second single off her record The Woman in Me. The song became Twain's first No. 1 on country radio and her second Top 40 on the pop charts.
Twain wrote the song with her then-husband and producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Twain credits the gutsy song for a lot of her success.
"'Any Man of Mine' was a risky song to release," Twain told CMT Insider. "At the time, a lot of people were afraid of it. It was way too edgy for what was going on. Everybody was kind of leery about releasing it. And I remember when I went on the radio tour to introduce all this new music, it was so amazing getting a reaction to that song. Some people just loved it. They just fell in love with it right away. And other people it really did scare. I don't know whether they just didn't like it or whether they thought, 'Whoa!'"
Twain says she calls the song her "career song."
" That's the song I think that really, really broke me in a big way, because it was so different," she said.
How could she not with the song earning Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance nominations during the 1996 Grammy Awards? The song also won Single of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards in 1995.
Twain knew that with every great song, there must be a great music video. She uploaded a video on her Youtube channel called Behind The Video. There, the superstar reminisced on the location of the shoot, working with John and Bo Derek, and how she ended up being the fashion director on the set.
Her department store fashion didn't come without a cost, though. In the video, the star wears a pair of denim jeans, a denim vest, and a white t-shirt that does not cover her midriff. THE AUDACITY! A woman in country music not dressing modestly was nearly unheard of at the time.
CMT's Chet Flippo wrote, "Twain's allure was greatly enhanced by her videos, which truly were revolutionary for the time for country music. She was hectored at the time of the 'Any Man of Mine' video, with its belly button barrage, for ruining country music by exposing her navel. But that's about all she ever really did show, when you look back at her video work. She slyly hinted at the rest. And six months after that video midriff revelation, you couldn't walk down Music Row without encountering seeming hordes of midriff-baring babes with their navels hanging out."
Twain was revolutionary in country and pop music. Her strong personality set her apart from those around her and made her a music and fashion icon. Twain's songwriting brought her these greatest hits: "If You're Not In It For Love," "You're Still The One," "That Don't Impress Me Much," "Man, I Feel Like A Woman," and "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under."
No One Needs To Know right nowww 🌪 We know how to have a good time, even during a tornado 😂 Loved incorporating elements of the movie Twister into this music video.
***"No One Needs To Know" was released May 15, 1996 as the sixth single from Shania's album The Woman In Me. The song was written by Shania and Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The song became Shania's third consecutive No. 1 hit on country radio, and fourth overall. It spent one week at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in July 1996. The song was also used in the 1996 film "Twister" and included on the soundtrack.
***The music video for "No One Needs To Know" was filmed in Spring Hill, Tennessee and directed by Steven Goldmann. It was filmed on April 3, 1996 and released on May 15, 1996 on CMT. One version of the video contains scenes from the movie "Twister", while another, the 'Performance Only' version is just of Shania and the band. The 'Performance Only' version of the video is available on Shania's 2001 DVD "The Platinum Collection".
__________________
Tommy's #1 SHANIA TWAIN SuperSite shaniasupersite.com Our eyes are closed, but we're not asleep, We're wide awake beneath the sheets
‘The Woman In Me’: How Shania Twain Revealed Her True Potential
From ‘The Woman In Me’ onwards, everything that happened to Shania Twain was going to be measured in multiples of ten million
By Paul Sexton | uDiscover Music (UK) | February 7, 2022
Shania Twain may still have been a global star-in-waiting when her second album, The Woman In Me, was released on February 7, 1995. But it was the eye-popping success of the record in the US that led to the career explosion of 1997’s Come On Over, and the international launch of the Canadian artist early the following year. Everything that happened from now on was going to be measured in multiples of ten million.
The 2020 release of the 25th anniversary Diamond Edition of the 1995 album offered new perspective, and a wealth of unreleased material, from a turning-point record.
A leap of faith Twain’s first, self-titled album had been released in 1993, to little more than polite response. Produced by Harold Shedd and Norro Wilson, it contained two mid-charting country singles in “What Made You Say That” and “Dance with the One That Brought You,” and one that missed the charts altogether, “You Lay A Whole Lot Of Love On Me.”
But at the end of 1993, six months after they met, the singer married producer-songwriter Robert John “Mutt” Lange. The lesser-spotted studio guru already had a decade and a half of spectacular achievements to his name as producer, and often co-writer, of some of the best-selling albums of all time. His work with AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Bryan Adams alone had marked Lange out as one of the hottest names in the business.
Lange and Twain set to work on what was to become The Woman In Me and played demos of their new songs to Mercury Records boss Luke Lewis. All of them made the leap of faith that would seal her future superstardom. The material was undeniably less rooted in country than before, but the crossover potential of these incredibly catchy, hook-laden songs was so strong that no fewer than eight singles came off the record. Some of Nashville’s finest musicians were featured, including mandolin player Sam Bush, pedal steel hero Paul Franklin and guitarist-producer-writer Dann Huff.
‘I feel like I’ve lived a couple of lives’ Ahead of the album, January 1995’s “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” was the first marker for Twain’s savvy, inventive new country-pop sound. Now aged 29, she had many years as an unknown under her belt, combining a difficult adolescence in a poor, fractured household with under-age singing in local Ontario clubs.
“I really do feel like I’ve lived a couple of lives,” Twain told this writer. “My musical career started when I was eight years old. I was travelling from town to town, doing clubs, getting paid under the table, inhaling all the second-hand smoke you can possibly imagine and dealing with adults.”
They were often harrowing years, but the hard knocks would serve her well. Twain’s instinct for survival was matched by a talent for clever wordplay, one of country music’s key ingredients. That not only made her stand out, it would take her appeal way beyond Nashville and help The Woman In Me to become, at the time, the biggest-selling album by a female artist in country history.
‘The whole point is to entertain people’ Twain was en route to a role she hadn’t necessarily aspired to, as the epitome of the modern, empowered woman – one who could stand her ground with a clever combination of sex appeal, wholesome charm and, crucially, humor. “The image she has concocted is a careful balancing act,” Jon Pareles would later write in The New York Times. “She’s assertive and [very inexplicitly] sexual, but she makes it clear that she’s a one-man woman, loyal above all.”
Twain’s approach was, essentially, to keep things light and accessible. “The whole point behind songwriting for me is to entertain people,” she said. “I’m not trying to lay heavy loads on people when they’re listening. I try to make things conversational, and it’s not that easy. It’s easier to rhyme and make things sound poetic.”
If “Whose Bed…” was conversational, The Woman In Me’s second single, “Any Man Of Mine,” was irresistible, giving Shania her first country airplay No.1 and cracking the Top 40 of the Hot 100. No fewer than three further country chart-toppers would follow: “(If You’re Not In It For Love) I’m Outta Here!,” “You Win My Love” and “No One Needs To Know.”
‘I never want to be underestimated' By the end of 1995, The Woman In Me stood at four million US sales; in November 1997, it hit the hallowed diamond certification for ten million, and by 2000, it was at 12 million. Thanks to her subsequent global fame and the retrospective sales it encouraged, the worldwide figure was 20 million.
Twain’s new status as the down-to-earth star next door was emphasized as The Woman In Me ruled the country scene later in 1995. She told Nashville Weekly: “I’m the kind of person who likes to get my hands dirty. I like to work hard. We just planted 5,000 trees on my property, and I’m the first one out there with a shovel. I love to work. I like to labour. I love chopping wood and planting trees. I’m not sure people know that about me.
“I really am a northern girl, a woodsy type,” she continued. “I can ride a motorbike and four-wheel. I can drive a bus and I can drive a truck. I love being a woman…but I never want to be underestimated.”
'Any Man of Mine': The Story Behind Shania Twain's Playful Warning
By Darby Sparkman | Wide Open Country | August 11, 2022
Shania Twain put men in their place with her hit single "Any Man of Mine." The Canadian country-pop star laid down the law when she released the song in 1995 as the second single off her record The Woman in Me. It became Twain's first No. 1 on country radio and her second Top 40 on the pop charts, immediately endearing her to U.S. audiences.
She co-wrote "Any Man of Mine" with her then-husband and producer, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, a gutsy song she credits for bringing a lot of her success that followed.
"'Any Man of Mine' was a risky song to release," Twain told CMT Insider. "At the time, a lot of people were afraid of it. It was way too edgy for what was going on. Everybody was kind of leery about releasing it. And I remember when I went on the radio tour to introduce all this new music, it was so amazing getting a reaction to that song. Some people just loved it. They just fell in love with it right away. And other people it really did scare. I don't know whether they just didn't like it or whether they thought, 'Whoa!'"
Twain says she calls the song her "career song."
"That's the song I think that really, really broke me in a big way, because it was so different," she said.
How could she not, with the song earning Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance nominations during the 1996 Grammy Awards? The song also won Single of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards in 1995, proving that it really did resonate with more fans than it actually scared. She was a true trailblazer from the beginning, pushing boundaries and making the music she wanted to, even if it was scary at the time.
Twain knew that with every great song, there must be a great music video, so she definitely delivered. She uploaded a video on her Youtube channel called Behind The Video. There, the superstar reminisced on the location of the shoot, working with John and Bo Derek, and how she ended up being the fashion director on the set.
Her department store fashion didn't come without a cost, though. In the video, the star wears a pair of denim jeans, a denim vest, and a white t-shirt that does not cover her midriff. THE AUDACITY! A woman in country music not dressing modestly was nearly unheard of at the time.
CMT's Chet Flippo wrote, "Twain's allure was greatly enhanced by her videos, which truly were revolutionary for the time for country music. She was hectored at the time of the 'Any Man of Mine' video, with its belly button barrage, for ruining country music by exposing her navel. But that's about all she ever really did show, when you look back at her video work. She slyly hinted at the rest. And six months after that video midriff revelation, you couldn't walk down Music Row without encountering seeming hordes of midriff-baring babes with their navels hanging out."
Twain will always be remembered for being revolutionary in country and pop music. Her strong personality set her apart from those around her and made her a music and fashion icon. Twain's incredible songwriting brought her even more notable hits throughout her career, including "If You're Not In It For Love," "You're Still The One," "That Don't Impress Me Much," "Man, I Feel Like A Woman," and "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under."
Anybody recognise this place? 👀 We shot the music video for Boots 👢 at Longhorn Coffee Shop back in 1994... I was passing through Santa Ynez and made a little detour to swing by and see it, I haven't been here since we filmed the video 30 years ago! ❤️