Songoftehday 11/19/19 - And I can be late for a date that's fine, but he better be on time...

"Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?"/"Any Man Of Mine" - Shania Twain
from the album The Woman In Me (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's song(s) of the week come from Canadian country singer Shania Twain, who was born Eileen Edwards in the city of Windsor right across the river from Detroit, Michigan. With her parents divorcing when she was a toddler, she moved with her mother and siblings to the city of Timmins in northern Ontario, where her mother Sharon remarried a local man, Jerry Twain, whom she adopted his surname from. She had a long haul of working side jobs and gigging in bands before she worked on establishing a singing career, at first a pop/rock one, but soon enough edging to her country roots. With Sharon and Jerry dying in a tragic auto accident in 1987, She had to return from Nashville to Canada to take care of her family. Eventually, after changing her first name to "Shania" ("She's On Her Way" supposedly in a Native American dialect), Twain was signed to Mercury Records, where she sang backup on a couple albums before releasing her self-titled debut record in 1993. Two singles released from the record both climbed to #55 on Billboard magazine's Country Singles chart - "What Made You Say That" and "Dance With The One That Brought You" - but there was a lot of buzz about the record, and especially my experience in the country dancing/two-step crowd (which was reaching its peak at the time) had the two songs played a lot during that time. One person particularly impressed was producer and songwriter Robert "Mutt" Lange, who had been one of the most sought-after behind-the-glass people in music, having produced the likes of metal gods Def Leppard and AC/DC to pop stars like Billy Ocean and Bryan Adams. And apparently the attraction was more than professional, with Lange marrying Twain six months after meeting her. The pair wrote all the songs that Lange would produce for her sophomore album The Woman In Me. Released in 1995, the record got off to a modest start, with the release of the swing tune "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?". Most likely a concession to label executives who at the time were worried about the pop-styled sounds of a lot of the album, the traditional style tune nonetheless had Lange undeniable flair for a hook, whether it be from the guitar or a fiddle, and the harmonies followed the same blueprint that made the songs in Def Leppard's Hysteria so damn catchy. Twain's voice in this one was close enough to her debut that country radio grabbed on, although not without a little reservation...

"Whose Bed...?" climbed the country airplay chart and stopped just short of the top ten at #11. Unlike most country hits, though, the single was released as a cassette and CD single, along with what would be the second song promoted to radio. Fans started buying, and "Whose Bed" entered the pop Hot 100 chart in America mostly due to that early sales base that would only grow.

That second song, "Any Man Of Mine", would be the song that truly "broke" Shania to the masses. Written by Shania and "Mutt", the song made no pretenses of being a by-the-book country song, with the verses stomping along in an almost marching like rhythm again much like Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me". But the chorus devolved into a completely different signature and production that brought the necessary fiddles and steel guitar in as she proclaims her demands on a future lover. Country radio was at first worried until they saw the (sales) receipts, as fans ate this up like chowder while line-dancing aficionados did their moves to the song all over the U.S. and Canada. And let's not discount Lange's male counterharmony, which was a big draw and something quite different on country radio, especially from a female singer...

"Any Man Of Mine" quickly replaced "Whose Bed?" as the prevalent track on the single, rising to #1 on Billboard's Country Singles chart, where it stayed for two weeks. And the sales of the songs were such that the single reached the Hot 100 top 40 at a time when country radio airplay wasn't being counted towards it (it was #13 on the sales-only chart at its best). In her native Canada, while the single didn't make the regular charts, both songs topped that country's Country chart. The next song promoted to radio was a traditional country ballad, the title track "The Woman In Me (Needs The Man In You)", which rose to #14 on the country singles chart and entered the pop Hot 100 at #90. But like before, the pop-country hybrid of "(If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here!", which was paired with "The Woman In Me" on the single, again proved the public preferred this new sound, spending two weeks at #1 on the Country Singles chart and helping the single rise to #74 on the pop Hot 100. The latter also brought Shania Down Under to Australia, where the song was her first hit at #5 there. That was followed by "You Win My Love", which took another pair of weeks at #1 on the Country Singles chart, although only "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 chart at #108 (it wasn't paired with another song on it, perhaps why, also fifth single). Then came the more traditional and sweet "No One Needs To Know", used in the movie Twister, and was the most successful of the "traditional" songs on the album, taking a week on top of the Country Singles chart (no doubt helped again by Lange's prominent male counterharmony). Not stopping for air, Twain released a second ballad from the set, "Home Ain't Where The Heart Is (Anymore)", which made it to #28 on the Country Singles list. Finally, an extended version of the album's coda, "God Bless The Child", entered the Country Singles chart at #48, and even sold enough to return Twain to the pop Hot 100 at #75. With eight charting singles from the album, Shania proved she was one of the biggest stars and influences in the direction of the sound of country music for the upcoming years. With her next record and the advent of country radio on the Hot 100, her star would only rise higher.

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First off, I believe this was on The Tonight Show with Shania first promoting "Any Man Of Mine" with a live and tight band....