There is something to be said for second chances. A brash, catchy mix of rock and country sounds and pop attitudes, boasting more hooks than a Mississippi River trotline, by the end of 1996 it had sold more than eight million copies for Mercury Records. Twain had cut none of her own tunes on the first album, and almost no one else's on the second. I don't hate the album, but I'm better singing songs I write. I write my own music and I prefer it that way.
Songs make a difference.
Besides the key ingredient of an instantly identifiable voice, Twain brings stellar songwriting instincts to her collaboration with Lange, who penned 10 songs on the album with Twain and one by himself. Reading song credits on her first album, you'd think she wasn't a writer at all, but she had been performing everything from Dolly Parton country to George Gershwin, plus writing original tunes from a very tender age. Despite being personally more interested in the Carpenters, Twain was heavily influenced by the country music played constantly around her parents' Timmons, Ontario house. So I really wanted to draw from everything, but country was all my parents ever knew . . . My whole repertoire was country.