It would've been really easy for
Shania Twain to quit after her self titled album flopped. The fact that Mercury Nashville didn't quit on her was another sign of good faith, especially given how labels worked with new talent in the 1990's. By the time 1995's "
Woman In Me" came out, a lot had changed in Shania's world. In addition to getting to record another album, Shania met and fell in love with
R.J. "Mutt" Lange, a highly respected rock music producer. Many people were skeptical about the partnership when it was announced that he'd work on the new record. They needn't worry about it. Whatever it was that drew these two talented people together has worked because a decade later Shania's first
Greatest Hits CD is being released, after more than 41 million records sold in the united states alone.
The Woman In Me spawned six smash hits from the blarin' twin fiddles of
Who's Bed have Your Boots Been Under and
Any Man Of Mine to the sensitive
No One Needs To Know and the title track
The Woman In Me (Needs A Man Out Of You)."
If You're Not In It For Love (I'm Outta Here)" and "
You Win My Love" are other two hits from the record.
While that album sold over 12 million copies (to mostly country music fans), the next record,
Come On Over sold nearly double that (currently 19 million sold in the USA). It featured 16 tracks and of those 16 sons, 8 were smash hit singles (all included here). But what put Shania over the top and into the minds of pop fans the world over was her omnipresent ballad
You're Still The One." Following that on the pop charts was another hit ballad "
From This Moment On" (It should be noted that the country radio, and original version of the song, (a duet with
Bryan White), isn't on the CD but rather the one from "
Come On Over - The International Versions" The following 2 singles to chart worldwide were "
That Don't Impress Me Much" and "
Man! I Feel Like A Woman!." The other singles to chart on country radio (a couple of them Number one hits) are "
Come On Over," "
Honey, I'm Home," "
Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)" and
"Love Gets Me Every Time"
The third album Shania released (4th if you consider her "international versions" disc for Come on Over) was her most ambitious project yet.
Up! was released in 2002 to favorable reviews (including
mine). The project was ambitious because it was a double disc release throughout the world. The USA and Canada got the country and pop discs while the rest of the world received the pop and "world" styled discs. This meant that Shania was trying to please all her fans in one single phase. There were five country radio hits from the CD. Of the five only "
Up!," "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!" and
Forever And For Always" were included here.
While some will wonder why Top 10 hit “
She's Not Just A Pretty Face” or pop chart hit “
It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing” weren't included on the "Greatest Hits" CD, I know that they both served as "bridge singles" to hold fans over until this CD was released with it's handful of new tracks to help drive sales of the album. and what good singles the new songs will be. Once again to please her fans, Shania's included 2 versions of first single "
Party For Two." One with country newcomer
Billy Currington, the other with
Mark McGrath, The Host of Extra and vocalist of pop group
Sugar Ray. I have to say that McGrath's vocals on this whimsical and goofy track seemed "forced" and "mailed in." Currington, on the other hand sounds playful and quite good next to Shania. Radio fans agree for the single is officially another Top 10 hit for Shania. The other two new tracks are gonna be all over the airwaves in 2005. One of them ("
I Ain't No Quitter") by its very nature, will be only a country hit (thus following her chart trend) while the other one is a tender ballad ("
Don't") that will also follow a career trend and become a popular mainstream it.
As for how all of these hits are presented on the CD, they're presented in reverse chronological order with the latest hits from "Up!" leading off the CD and ending with the new tracks. The lyrics for all of the songs are included and, as always, there's a healthy dose of pictures of Shania. While all of her CDs came off as "mini-hit" albums with little filler, "Greatest Hits" presents the most successful female artist of all time in her full glory, a collection of peppy, poppy tunes for the masses. While that angers any fan of traditional country, "Greatest Hits" serves up what the vast majority people want from Shania. It will also hold fans happy until her next album is released by the fall of 2005.
France
Germany
United Kingdom
Australia
USA
