You're Still the One

a study in how a pop phenomenon can come from the unlikeliest of places, fall back, then rise again

On August 28, 1965, a little girl named Eilleen Regina Edwards was born to Sharon and Clarence Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, joining older sister Jill. Eilleen’s parents’ relationship was tumultuous from the beginning, and adding a third daughter (Carrie Ann) didn’t help matters. Before Eilleen turned three, Clarence and Sharon divorced, whereupon Sharon moved with her three daughters to relatively tiny Timmons, Ontario. Sharon soon met an Ojibwe man named Jerry from the nearby Mattagami First Nations community, who became the primary father figure to the family. Soon, Sharon and Jerry had a son (Mark) and adopted Jerry’s nephew Daryl as their own, while also formally adopting the girls.

The family of seven struggled mightily, with poverty, mental illness, and domestic violence all playing a part. For a period, Sharon and the children were living in a homeless shelter after an incident of assault; the couple soon reconciled. With no money coming into the household, everyone was asked to pitch in where they could. Young Eilleen used her burgeoning talents to perform in a local bar late at night, where for $20CAD she sang for an hour after last call. Eilleen soon made a name locally, appearing on television and singing with a band. She also spent summers working alongside Jerry in the forestry business, where she would take her guitar into the woods and write songs at night.

Upon graduation, Eilleen pursued a career in music full time. She toured all across the province with a country band, took singing lessons, and made connections throughout the relatively insular Canadian country music industry. Although much of the music she played at this time consisted of either classic country or modern Top 40 songs, it was performing her own compositions that appealed the most to her. Eilleen’s songwriting skills attracted notice of their own independent from her voice.

Unfortunately, Eilleen’s trajectory to stardom was altered in 1987. Sharon and Jerry died in an automobile accident, and Mark was seriously injured. Jill had already started a family of her own, so it fell to Eilleen to keep the family together. She sacrificed her independence to care for Carrie Ann, Mark, and Daryl, moving all four of them to Huntsville, Ontario to perform what was essentially a residency at Deerhurst Resort. Mark and Daryl especially were handfuls, so Eilleen’s attention was focused squarely on their upbringing. It was only when the youngest was able to live on their own that Eilleen was able to go out on the road once more.

In 1992, Eilleen set up a showcase for record executives in the hopes of signing a record contract. Mercury Nashville Records won out over the competition, inking a deal for five albums. Eilleen changed her name around this time, believing that both her first and middle names (taken from each of her grandmothers) sounded too old-fashioned. She heard a first name inspired by her stepfather’s Ojibwe heritage in passing, and soon adopted it as her own: Shania Twain.

Her first self-titled album was released in April of 1993 to a resounding silence from the record-buying public. Despite appearing as a backup singer and featured artist on several other Mercury records, there was little fanfare or promotional muscle behind the release. Twain believed that the lack of success was due to not focusing on what she thought of as one of her key strengths: her songwriting. Almost all of the tracks were from pre-existing publishing catalogues, and only one track had a songwriting credit from her (credited as Eilleen, for what it’s worth). The first two singles reached only number fifty-five on the Hot Country Singles chart, while the third failed to chart at all in North America.

The album was a moderate success in Europe, where the blossoming country music scene chose her as a potential new star. More importantly, though, the album made it into the hands of a well-known producer who thought that Twain showed great promise with the right guidance. After some back-and-forth phone conversations over a period of several months, Twain and producer Robert “Mutt” Lange met for the first time at Nashville’s Fan Fair that summer. Their professional aims aligned, and so did their personal lives. Within a few months, they had become engaged, then married before year’s end.

1994 saw the pair work tirelessly on Twain’s next album. Lange (most famous for his work with Def Leppard and AC/DC) brought an arena-focused approach to Twain’s mainstream country-pop, infusing it with stadium-worthy energy and audience-pleasing hooks. In turn, Twain provided a thorough working knowledge of every country music trope imaginable; after almost two decades of performing classic country night after night, everything from Hank Williams to Sammy Kershaw was in her repertoire.

In a reversal from her first album, Twain and Lange wrote or co-wrote every track on The Woman in Me. The studio musicians available to Twain were greatly improved as well; names like John Barlow Jarvis, Sam Bush, Paul Franklin, Hargus “Pig” Robbins, Dann Huff, and Brent Mason all contributed, as well as the Nashville String Machine. (For those of you unfamiliar, those musicians are the cream of the crop, playing on literally thousands of hit records across all genres. Each one is a giant in their field.) Lange’s presence meant that Mercury invested heavily in the album’s promotion, with elaborate music videos made for each of the singles.

Country music promotion of the time worked differently than either modern music or then-current radio practices. After the first single “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” was released to radio and music television in January ahead of a February album release, the physical single would not be released until much later in the year. The single quickly attracted attention from radio programmers (the tastemakers of the genre), and it soon became a once-an-hour staple of the rotation. When the next single “Any Man of Mine” was released to radio (with accompanying music video) in April, the combination was a one-two punch of country-pop perfection. Together they were issued as a double A-side in June, where the physical release reached number eleven on the country charts and a surprising thirtieth place on the overall Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. When combined with airplay, “Any Man of Mine” was Twain’s first country number one.

The third single “The Woman in Me (Needs the Man in You)” came out in August, utilizing the old A&R trick of following up two up-tempo songs with a slower number. Reviewers were onto Lange, comparing the song to his previous balladry with Bryan Adams and Michael Bolton. At this point, the confines of the “country” genre meant little; Mercury saw in Twain the potential for a huge crossover phenomenon like Garth Brooks or Reba McIntyre. Keeping the momentum going in November, Twain released another parenthetical title in “(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!”, which would become another country number one. Altogether, of the twelve tracks on the album, eight would go on to become singles with substantial radio play. Eventually, The Woman in Me would go on to sell more than ten million copies, becoming the most successful solo female artist’s country album since the height of Patsy Cline’s fame in the late Fifties.

Part of the promotional tour for Twain’s album was a sweep of television appearances, at nearly every relevant awards show and most talk shows that hosted live music. Somewhat strangely, Twain did not go on a performance tour for her album as would be traditional. She did perform at one-off festivals and industry showcases, but no long term engagements were planned. Twain has said in the past that she much prefers working in the studio to live shows, a product of being strongly encouraged to play bars and nightclubs when she was a child. In addition, she was reluctant to play any songs from her first album in concert, as she considered those songs a poor reflection of her overall talents. As such, she would be limited to just the songs on this album and a smattering of cover songs, hardly enough to fill the usual ninety minute concert setlist. Some critics intimated that her refusal to tour was a cover; more than one pundit speculated that she and Lange used so much “studio magic” in her songs that she was unable to replicate it in concert. Such allegations would follow her throughout her career.

Shania Twain used the post-release time to work on her next album. While out making appearances, she would work long-distance with Lange on ideas for songs before coming back to her home base in Nashville to collaborate directly with her husband. After working out the basic tracks in Nashville, the duo recorded different parts for each song in Toronto, Nashville, and New York City with another all-star lineup of studio musicians. In addition to the performers from the previos album, these sessions included Joe Chemay, Stuart Duncan, Biff Watson, and even legendary accordionist Joey Miskulin. Both Lange and Twain contributed musically, working together on melodies and arrangements. Twain took the lead lyrically, focusing on universal themes and clever wordplay rather than specifics from her own life or deep philosophical concepts. The duo were laser-focused on making a broadly appealing product that could resonate with the largest audience possible. Make no mistake: this was music designed to sell records rather than make sweeping artistic statements.

After finishing the recording, mixing and mastering took months, as Lange worked with mixers Mike Shipley and Olle Romo in conjunction with mastering engineer Glenn Meadows to create the perfect synthesis of country, rock, and pop. Different versions were tailored for the domestic and several international markets; Twain was wildly popular in Europe and abroad, where she was marketed by Mercury Records as a pop artist rather than pigeonholing her into the country genre. When considering international releases, the songs were geared more towards dance and club tastes with more prominent electronic instrumentation and more fervent drum parts.

Come On Over was released to North America in November 1997 to thunderous sales. The start of the year saw the international version debut, with equally massive sales. Of the sixteen tracks, twelve would eventually see a single release, and eleven music videos were produced. Twain’s visual appeal was leveraged heavily in marketing materials, positioning her as a sex symbol and a distinctly desirable woman. Her team of stylists dressed her in loud prints, lowered necklines, and sky-high hemlines whenever possible to attract the most attention. Her music videos were similarly iconic, creating a space for vivacious women in country and country-adjacent music that didn’t necessarily exist in the same way before. Consider how Reba, Trisha, or even Dolly were portrayed in comparison. Only Dolly saw a fraction of the pop crossover that Twain had achieved in just a few short years.

The impact of Come On Over on the broader country music industry cannot be overstated. The album would eventually sell a staggering forty million copies worldwide, setting records that stand to this day in a variety of categories. It is the highest selling album by a country artist, the highest selling album by a Canadian artist (sorry Celine), and one of the top ten albums by sales of all time. Only Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston have sold more copies of an album by a solo artist, and the soundtrack to The Bodyguard is debatable due to its incorporation of tracks by other artists. When you’re breathing the same air as Thriller, you’re doing something right.

Shania Twain embarked upon a sprawling eighteen month long tour beginning in May of 1998, playing one hundred and sixty five shows across three continents. The wait for the tour seemed to pay off immensely, as Twain sold more than two million tickets and earned upwards of eighty million dollars. The tour itself was spearheaded by Jon Landau, who served as manager for Twain and was a veteran of the Bruce Springsteen concert machine. One of the promotions used to drive ticket sales was a recurring radio contest, where the local country radio station would hold auditions to determine which lucky listener would sing onstage with Twain during “What Made You Say That”, the first single from the album. On the second leg of the tour at the Corel Centre in Ottawa, the winner was a young lady of just fourteen from nearby Nappanee, Ontario. That same young lady would go on to sign a record deal with Arista the next year for her own debut, 2002’s Let Go. That’s right, in some ways Avril Lavigne owes her career to Shania Twain.

After the exhausting tour ended in December of 1999, Twain and Lange took an extended break. They spent the better part of two years together, both travelling the world and establishing their home in Switzerland. Their family grew in August of 2001, when Twain’s son Eja was born. Around the time of Eja’s birth, the duo began working in earnest on their next album, recording in a number of different countries along the way.

For this go-round, Lange and Twain made the bold decision (with the help of new management group QPrime) to release the album in three different remixed versions: one country (green), one pop (red), and one… bhangra/filmi hybrid (blue)? Is that right? All contained the same nineteen tracks in the same order, just with radically varied arrangements. The goal was to further cement Twain as a world-spanning artist with global appeal, focusing especially on the relatively untapped Indian market. Lange helmed production on the red and green albums, while the blue version was masterminded by veteran production duo (and Mutt Lange proteges) Simon and Diamond Duggal.

For each market, the album would be released as a double CD, with two of the versions packaged together. In North America, the red/green combination was offered, while internationally the red/blue combo was the rule. Australia was the exception (having a strong tradition of country music themselves), and both combinations were available. Those who bought the double-disc combination were also able to download the third version of the album for their region from her website upon providing proof of purchase. A physical copy of just the red version was released by itself somewhat later.

Up! came out in November 2002, where it immediately topped the Billboard Hot 200 chart. Selling almost three quarters of a million copies in the first week alone, remaining at number one for five weeks after a staggering 2.8 million copies were sold. Eventually, Up! sold over eleven million albums, making Twain the first and only female artist in music history to sell ten million or more copies of three consecutive releases. She went out on tour in 2003, playing one hundred and thirteen concerts over the next twelve months. Over the course of the tour, she and her management cleared nearly a hundred million dollars in ticket sales.

Despite the widespread appeal of her tour and the incredible financial gain, the Up! album was seen as a slight setback in comparison to Come On Over. Then again, how could it not be? Towards the end of the run of performances, Twain was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Lyme disease is an infectious disorder brought on by a tick bite that can have a variety of effects throughout the body including lethargy, joint and muscle pain, and temporary paralysis of body parts. Twain’s first symptom was a relative lack of vocal power in concert, where she found herself unable to project in the manner she had been accustomed. Soon, she found herself struggling to be heard in a crowd, in quiet conversation, and especially over the phone. Believing that her symptoms were largely the result of fatigue after the lengthy Up! tour, she rested for most of 2004.

Her greatest hits compilation came out that year, with three new songs included and released as singles. There were two versions of her song “Party for Two”, one with Billy Currington as her duet partner and the other with Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath. The album became the fastest selling hits compilation by a female artist ever, racking up more than four million copies in the US and several million more abroad. Unfortunately, this would be Twain’s last album for more than a decade.

Twain’s voice continued to deteriorate over the next couple of years, with slews of doctors unable to determine the root cause. Scattered attempts at recording resulted in a handful of appearances on others’ tracks, most notably a duet with fellow Canadian country icon Anne Murray in 2007. Her musical career had become intrinsically linked to her relationship with Lange, and suddenly she found herself adrift in both arenas.

Lange cheated on Twain with the woman Twain considered to be her best friend, her secretary Marie-Anne Thiébaud. To make matters worse, Twain had confided in Thiébaud about all of the intimate details of her increasingly tense marriage. In 2008, Lange told Twain that he wanted to end their relationship; shortly thereafter Thiébaud’s husband Frédéric told Twain about his suspicions. Twain was understandably devastated; she found herself alone with a young son in a foreign country, deprived of her support system and unable to sing or even speak normally. In addition, Twain began to reckon with the emotional trauma of her childhood and early adulthood. With the aid of therapy, she was able to reconcile the violent and tumultuous relationship of her parents with the fundamentally decent people she knew them to be, and she finally began processing their tragic and untimely deaths.

Eventually, Twain met with a doctor in Philadelphia who specialized in vocal ailments. Dr. Robert Sataloff had experienced a similar issue himself in his moonlighting as an opera singer. With his combination of experience both medical and musical, Sataloff diagnosed Twain with dysphonia and prescribed a regimen of warm-up exercises and surgical interventions that would include the insertion of Gore-Tex pieces on either side of Twain’s larynx to strengthen her voice box. Sataloff had undergone the surgery himself to great effect. As best as he could determine, the bout of Lyme disease had caused substantial nerve damage to the delicate tissues of her throat, and in combination with fatigue and emotional trauma her body was unable to recover on its own.

Slowly, Twain began to build back both her physical strength and her emotional strength. In 2011, she made great strides: she finished her autobiography From This Moment On, began filming her own reality show Why Not Me? with Shania Twain on the OWN channel owned by Oprah Winfrey, and took up a residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for more than a hundred shows over the next two years. Twain ended up marrying Frédéric (having bonded with him over their shared experiences), and even forgave Lange for his infidelity. (She is far less magnanimous in regards to Marie-Anne, for what it’s worth. On multiple occasions she has expressed a wish that the former best friends had never met.) Twain moved with her new husband and her son to the outskirts of Las Vegas to begin the process of recording new material without Lange.

In 2015, Twain announced that she would go on tour once more, this time covering North America with seventy two shows over five months. The Rock This Country tour earned nearly a million dollars a night, perhaps spurred by her claim that this would be her final national tour. Thankfully (or maybe not if you were drawn in by that hype), she changed her mind and began planning another tour framed around her forthcoming album.

Enlisting a cadre of producers and taking the reins herself behind the board, Twain completed Now in 2017. It was a triumph for Twain on multiple levels. She reaffirmed her place at the top of the country and pop charts in America, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. She demonstrated that she didn’t need Lange as her supposed Svengali pulling the strings to make good music, co-writing every track on the album herself. Perhaps most importantly, she displayed her new voice to the world. Now huskier and lower in range, her voice gained gravitas and substance while still retaining the flexibility and agility she had in her youth. While the timbre had changed, her skill as a musician had not decreased one whit. Over the next year, she played seventy-seven concerts worldwide, earning almost a million dollars a night once more. Her success at the box office earned her the number two spot of the decade, behind only the phenomenon that is Taylor Swift.

In 2019, Twain announced that she would take up another two year residency in Las Vegas, this time at the Zappos Theatre. However, COVID-19 would cut the run short beginning in March 2020; shows resumed in December 2021 and ran until September 2022 for a limited run of thirty eight concerts. At the end of her residency, Twain signed with Republic Records following the end of her Mercury contract. She began working with producers ranging from BTS producer David Stewart to modern country impresario Dave Cobb, all with Twain making the final decisions. She even asked her son Eja to contribute to the composition of an album track.

Queen of Me came out in February of 2023, her first album to earn a parental advisory sticker. The album is wide-ranging in genre, covering country, electro-pop, rock, and dance with equal aplomb. Her vocal power has improved since her surgeries, with increased strength that cuts through the dynamic arrangements. Twain went out on tour in April, and as of this writing is still performing shows throughout the US, Canada, and the UK.

Shania Twain’s influence is felt to this day. Without Twain, there is no Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves, Carly Pearce, or Maren Morris. That isn’t to confine her impact to just country artists; Harry Styles says that Twain is his biggest influence in both music and personal style, while Halsey, Post Malone, and Rihanna have all expressed interest in working with her. Perhaps most importantly, Taylor Swift herself has said that without Twain’s crossover into pop territory, she would have never had the courage to transition away from country. Twain’s ideas about how to market an emerging artist, eschewing live concerts in favor of television appearances and music videos, still resonate to this day. In very real ways, the highest end of music promotion works because Shania Twain cut the path.

Now let’s move on to what I believe to be the best Shania Twain songs of all time. These are my opinions and my opinions alone; I get all the credit and I get all of the blame. If you disagree with my selections, you’re probably correct. I’ve rearranged this list multiple times, and I’m still not entirely satisfied. Luckily, with an artist like Twain I’m spoiled for choice. We’ll start with number ten…

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10. Love Gets Me Every Time

The lead single from Come On Over serves as a thesis statement for the rest of the landmark album. Opening with a drum part right out of Bon Jovi or Def Leppard, the song segues into Twain’s twangy delivery seamlessly. When the chorus hits, the song blossoms into country methodology with pedal steel, fiddle, and even a tic-tac bass part for good measure. There’s even a tasty little solo (most likely from guitar wizard Brent Mason) that ties the whole thing together.

9. I’m Gonna Getcha Good

This song comes from Up! and therefore came in three different flavors for different markets. Above is the “red” version geared towards pop audiences. Below is the “green” version aimed at country listeners:

And finally the “blue” version with an Indian remix (courtesy of Simon and Diamond Duggal:

I would love to see this same approach taken more often by modern artists, where they rework the same central song in different styles. Imagine the possibilities. Back in the late eighties and early nineties, most popular songs received multiple official remixes on their 12-inch releases designed for club play. There’s no reason we shouldn’t bring this back. Isn’t it better to get your music in as many hands as possible? More listeners means more merch, and more merch means more rent money.

8. The Woman in Me (Needs the Man in You)

The title track of Twain’s breakthrough album is a masterclass in finding a good template and adapting it to your situation. The song takes the basic structure of any number of Bryan Adams ballads (think “Heaven” or “Every Thing I Do”), tweaks it a little to fit vaguely countrified vocals, and ties a ribbon around it. The star of the show is clearly Twain’s voice, where it showcases how smooth she can be when she uses her lower register. We love a contralto, don’t we?

7. You’re Still the One

“You’re Still the One” was Twain’s first single to be sent directly to Top 40 stations instead of getting country radio crossover; as such it’s the birth of the Shania Twain phenomenon. Mercury sent the song to Top 40 stations first, waiting two weeks before sending it to adult contemporary programmers, then two more weeks before hitting country playlists. This approach created a groundswell of support, but risked alienating country music stations. Ultimately the backlash was outstripped by the pop sales by orders of magnitude, creating the first modern crossover star.

6. From This Moment On

Although the most popular version of this song is Shania’s solo, the original was written and performed as a duet. On the album, the track is a collaboration with Bryan White, a country singer most notable for 1995’s “So Much for Pretending”. White had four country number ones in the nineties, but suffered a downturn in sales and a subsequent mental health episode that sidetracked a promising career. Live, Twain has performed with the Backstreet Boys taking both White’s part and filling in the background vocals. The duet arrangement is frequently adapted for weddings, especially when the participants can legitimately sing. Which version is better? Listen and decide for yourself:

5. Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?

For most of us, this song was the first time we encountered Shania Twain. The lead single from The Woman in Me, it’s a declaration that something special is being attempted. Although more directly countrified in its arrangement, there’s still an air of pop and arena rock than typical “hayseed” fare of the time. It’s also notable for being the first collaboration between Lange and Twain, and only their two voices are in the background washes. Aren’t multitracked vocal parts fun?

4. Man! I Feel Like a Woman!

Do you want to know the deep dark secret of Shania Twain’s music? It’s not that it’s based on arena rock like AC/DC or Def Leppard. It’s that it’s far closer to the Raspberries or Cheap Trick than anything else, just with fiddles and pedal steel filling in the spaces. Despite the video that pastiches Robert Palmer, there’s far more “I Want You to Want Me” than “Addicted to Love”. (I feel like Robert Palmer gets the short end of the stick when people focus only on the songs with videos rather than a complete career of pretty good music. I don’t think there’s enough there for a full article, though.)

3. (If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!

There are numerous official versions of this song. The above is the “Mutt Lange Album Mix” with strong Eurodance vibes. The country version from the original single is here:

And there’s a “dance” mix here:

Regardless of which version you find yourself most attracted to, it’s a floor filler. It’s just a matter of which floor you’re filling: a Berlin night club or a barn dance in rural Canada. Making the Eurodance vibes even more explicit, Lange and Twain licensed the song to Real McCoy for an official Eurodance remake:

2. That Don’t Impress Me Much

Shania Twain’s skintight, midriff baring leopard print hooded pantsuit is the outfit that launched a thousand drag queens (or at least should have). When Harry Styles says that he is influenced by her style, I can’t help but think that this is what he means. As for the song, it’s as far from country as you can get while still featuring a fiddle and a steel guitar that much. Honestly, the music is secondary compared to how iconic Twain’s look would become. She even dusted off a similar outfit for her 2020 collaboration with queer-country maven Orville Peck, “Legends Never Die”:

1. Any Man of Mine

This might not be everyone’s pick for the best Shania song, but it’s mine. The second single from The Woman in Me was Twain’s first song to crossover to pop stations, but it’s perhaps the most distinctly country song of the Lange era. Combining drum parts reminiscent of Queen with a Brooks and Dunn “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” steel guitar, it’s unapologetically a line dance song. Although given my druthers, I’d rather cut a rug to the Cledus T. Judd parody from his album I Stoled This Record:

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On that note, I’ll conclude this week’s article. Let me know what you thought in the comments or on social media. I’m on most of them under this same username, although underscores can be tricky. If you have any idea for future installments, feel free to yell at me, although preferably not in person (looking at you, Thea). I’ll see you next time, space cowboys.