User:Ipodnano05/Sandbox3

Come On Over is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Shania Twain. The album was released on November 4, 1997 by Mercury Records Nashville in the US and Canada. With alterations in both music and packaging, an international version was released in 1998. Similar to its predecessor The Woman in Me (1995), Come On Over saw Twain entirely collaborating with producer and then husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange on a variety of country pop numbers, mostly uptempo. Bearing a length of little over an hour, Twain and Lange sought to break the conventional country music formula on the album and explore the country pop genre to its fullest extent.

Twain and her husband commenced songwriting material for the album as early as 1994, and often wrote apart to later intertwine their ideas. The recording process was intensive, with Lange dedicating overzealous time and patience to each individual track. Though the singer indicated her sonic preferences, she ultimately ceded all production to Lange. On the international version, he revisited tracks to strip them of country influences and increase the album's marketability beyond the US and Canada.

Come On Over spawned twelve singles, of which eleven were sent to country radio in the US and Canada, and seven to pop radio formats internationally. Come On Over and its singles are credited for ushering a new, pop influenced era in country music.

Background
In 1992, Twain signed to Mercury Nashville Records in the United States, and released her eponymous debut studio album, Shania Twain, the following year. It was a commercial failure, merely peaking at number sixty-seven on Billboard Top Country Albums chart, and produced three singles, which were also commercial failures. However, the album attracted the interest of record producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The two collaborated on songwriting via phone calls for six months, and later established a romantic relationship. Soon after, they wedded in December 1993 and Twain's second studio album The Woman in Me (1995) established Twain as a superstar, shipping over 12 million copies in the US. It was also successful in the singer's native country, Canada, where it was certified double diamond by Music Canada and was once the best-selling album by a female country singer; Twain later surpassed herself. However, she still remained relatively anonymous in the remainder of the world and longed to crossover into pop markets. To establish herself as a global phenomenon, Twain and Lange were determined to fully exploit the pop and rock sensibilities The Woman in Me boasted on its follow-up.

The aim of the album was to move further beyond the country music formula established in Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The Dixie feel was exchanged for a more glamorous image in album art, videos, and promotion. Whereas most country albums were low-budget and around the ten-song, thirty-minute mark, Twain and Lange were intent on delivering audiences sixteen tracks and an hour of music.

Pressures of following up

Writing
As with The Woman in Me, Twain and Lange composed all songs on Come On Over. Songs for Come On Over were being written as early as 1994, when Twain and Lange were completing the album's predecessor. "You've Got a Way" came to fruition during this period; Twain wrote the lyrics in the upstairs of Michael Bolton's New Jersey home, as Lange worked with him on material for 1995 greatest hits compilation. Due to the singer's busy promotion schedule for The Woman in Me, the two would often work separately and later amalgamate their parts together. Twain would document her ideas on devices she carried with her at all times. She wrote down rough drafts of sheet music and lyrics on a notebook, and recorded bits of melodies into a small tape recorder or a MiniDisc recorder. She explained, "We write everywhere. When we're driving to the grocery store we write. Sometimes, I come up with a melody when we're in the car and if I didn't bring the tape deck, I have to sing it all the way home so I don't forget it. When I get home I run to the tape deck to record it." Twain's longtime friend Hélène Bolduc noted the singer perpetually observed others as they talked to find song ideas. She then jotted them on her notebook, and later referred to it in the midst of composing or when coming up with a title.

When Twain and Lange did write together, it was after they spent significant time in each other's company. The couple found it difficult to compose music after being distanced for long, and did not schedule time for writing, waiting for it to surface sporadically; songwriting usually initiated after more than one week together. Twain claimed they wrote the best material when relaxed, nearing bored because that is when the process felt most natural. They wrote all songs on guitar, for, according to Twain, Lange "is the type of guy who almost never puts the guitar down [...] he walks around with it." Twain composed on the guitar as well, but considered herself a far less skilled player than her husband. Ideas surged from both parties, with Lange mainly conceptualizing the uptempo numbers and Twain the ballads. While watching a soccer game in Milan, Italy, Twain began jotting down "From This Moment On" into her notebook and later used her guitar to continue writing. Initially, she composed the song for Céline Dion, and realized it worked best a duet while developing it with Lange. When Lange was writing music without a specific artist in mind, Twain persuaded him to include it on the album. Otherwise, she would retreat.

Thematically and lyrically, the two decided center Come On Over on accentuating the positive. Thus, Twain opted to omit personal details and focus on entertaining the listener. She stated, "There are some things I won't want to share. I'm not that dramatic, I don't feel the need to communicate my innermost feelings – and people wouldn't get it, so what's the point? I only want to release music that people relate to. I write a lot of music I don't share, for the same reason people have diaries. It's not a creative thing. It's therapeutic." Instead, she decided to portray her personality through the songs's lyrics, which critics have labeled to be jaunty or sassy lyrics, per Lange's encouragement. For instance, "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)" incorporated her vernacular, as Twain would find herself saying "don't be silly, don't be stupid" frequently, rather than her actual sentiments; she revealed to CMT that neither she, nor Lange have experienced the romantic jealously the song spoke of. Many of the titles' pert puns, exclamation marks and double entendres sourced from Lange, whom according to music industry executive Ralph Simon "was always the master of the double entendre; if ever there is some sexual ambiguity in the lyric, it's down to Mutt". Robin Eggar, author of Shania Twain: The Biography, cited Bryan Adams' "The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You" from his 18 til I Die (1996) album as an earlier example of such.

Production and recording
All tracks were recorded at Masterfonics Tracking Room in Nashville, Tennessee, with Jeff Balding serving as the principal audio engineer. Additional recording took place in Emerald Sound Studios, GBT Studio, and Seventeen Grand Recording in Nashville, in Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Canada, Sound Barrier Studios in New York City, New York, and Svn Studios in Mamaroneck, New York. Once again Twain ceded all production to her husband, citing a difficulty for her as the vocalist to be objective about her own points. She stated, "You don't always know what your best points are and what your weak points are [...] A good producer knows what those elements are. I know what sound I want, but he's the producer. I don't go into the studio to tweak the guitar sound for ten hours. I can't even be interested in that." Nonetheless, she did have input in the direction of the music. During the songwriting process, the couple would typically communicate their ideas for production. Furthermore, Twain would indicate what she wanted before the sound was executed in the studio.

Composition and lyrics
Twain described "From This Moment On" as "the eternal love song" she wrote for her parents as she and her siblings always believed they would remain together until they were killed in a car accident.

Credits and personnel
As listed on the liner notes:


 * Jay Alvarez – assistant programming
 * Ron Baird – booking agent
 * Jeff Balding – engineer
 * Bruce Bouton – lap steel guitar, pedal steel guitar, steel guitar
 * Bob Bullock – engineer
 * Larry Byrom – slide guitar
 * Mike Caroll – engineer
 * Barbara Carr – management
 * Joe Chemay – electric bass guitar, fretless bass guitar
 * Glen Duncan – gang fiddle
 * Stuart Duncan – fiddle
 * Larry Franlkin – fiddle
 * Paul Franklin – pedal steel guitar, cosmic steel guitar
 * Howard Fugler – hair
 * Mark Hagen – assistant engineer
 * Rob Hajacos – fiddle, gang fiddle
 * David Hamilton – strings, string arrangement
 * Aubrey Haynie – gang fiddle
 * John Hobbs – acoustic piano, organ, Wurlitzer electric piano
 * George Holz – cover, color photography
 * Dan Huff – electric guitar, electric sitar, electric twelve-string guitar, guitar texturing, rhythm guitar, riffs, six-string bass guitar, talk box, wa-wa pedal
 * John Hughey – pedal steel guitar
 * Jamie Kimmelman – stylist
 * John Jarvis – acoustic piano, Wurlitzer electric piano
 * Sandy Jerkins – assistant engineer
 * Jon Landau – management
 * Robert John "Mutt" Lange – background vocals, producer


 * Paul Leim – drums
 * Wayne Scot Lukas – stylist
 * Brent Mason – electric guitar, licks
 * Carl Marsh – strings, string arrangement
 * Stacey Martin – hair, makeup
 * Glenn Meadows – mastering
 * Joey Miskulin – accordion
 * Michael O' Martian – acoustic piano
 * Alison Oscar – management
 * Gus Phillipas – black and white photography
 * Olle Romo – engineer, Pro-Tools, programming, sequencing and editing
 * Mike Shipley – mixing
 * Eric Silver – mandolin
 * James Somberg – assistant programming
 * Jan Stabile – management
 * Arthur Stead – acoustic piano, organ, synthesizer
 * Susan Sterling – makeup
 * Mark Stewart – assistant engineer
 * Brian Tankersley – engineer engineer
 * Bjon Thorsrud – pre-production programming
 * Shania Twain – background vocals, lead vocals
 * Michaele Ward – management
 * Tim Waters – assistant engineer
 * Biff Watson – acoustic guitar, electric riff, nylon string guitar, rhythm guitar
 * Bryan White – guest vocals
 * Timothy White – black and white photography

Charts and certifications

 * Album charts (main entry)


 * Album charts (year-end)


 * Album charts (Decade-end)


 * Album charts (All-time)


 * Album certifications


 * Singles