Songoftheday 7/18/21 - I give my hand to you with all my heart, I can't wait to live my life with you I can't wait to start...

"From This Moment On" - Shania Twain

from the album Come On Over (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's song of the day comes from Shania Twain, whose massive country crossover album Come On Over had already scored a trio of top-40 pop hits with "Love Gets Me Every Time", "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)", and then the top ten ballad "You're Still The One" in the spring of 1998. Also, the song "Honey, I'm Home" went to #1 on the Country Songs chart that summer. Before that in the spring, country radio was promoted the duet from her Come On Over album, "From This Moment On", featuring Bryan White. White, a traditionalist singer with a high tenor voice in the Vince Gill vein, had released his self-titled debut album in 1994, and from it landed two #1 country radio hits with "Someone Else's Star" and "Rebecca Lynn". His second album Between Now and Forever repeated the feat with "So Much For Pretending" and "Sittin' On Go". When Shania released Come On Over, White's third set The Right Place came out. The record had what would be Bryan's sixth and last solo top ten single "Love Is The Right Place", which rose to #4 at country radio, and came a notch from reaching Billboard magazine's pop Hot 100 list, "bubbling under" at #101. The original album version of "From This Moment On" had Shania and Bryan trading verses in this love song written by Twain with her husband/co-producer Robert "Mutt" Lange. As "You're Still The One" was created to be the anniversary celebration song template, this one was designed for the wedding reception, with the power-ballad structure Lange used so well in the rock/metal milieu translated for a pop/country audience. But as generic as the lyrics are, Twain (and for the moment White) sold it, giving a heartfelt performance that uplifted the material. The duet version climbed to the top ten on country radio in the spring of 1998, as "You're Still The One" was cresting on mainstream stations. When after the big success of "You're Still The One" brought on the promotion of this slow song to pop radio, in total opposite land to what is normal these days, White's part was dropped to just the backing vocals, with Shania re-recording the entire song. According to publicity, White's camp didn't desire him to be seen as a "crossover" artist, but it could've helped, since after he didn't have a big country radio hit again anyway. As for Twain's solo version, she seamlessly erases the need for a duet, and gives her most powerful vocal performance on the album...

Twain's solo take on "From This Moment On" became her second top ten pop hit in December of 1998. The song as a duet originally made it to #6 on Billboard's country songs chart. The solo version topped the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart for a week, and climbed to #22 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format list. Internationally, the single made the top ten in Australia (#2), Canada (#4), New Zealand (#7), and the UK (#9). Shania will be back to the series soon enough.

(7/10)

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Here's the original duet version with Bryan White that reached the country radio top ten...