0:00

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take

0:02

apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell

0:04

the story of how they were made. I'm

0:07

Rishi K. Shiraway. This

0:11

episode is brought to you by Progressive, home of

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the name your price tool. You say

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to get started. Progressive

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Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and

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coverage match, limited by state law. Shania

0:32

Twain is a singer and songwriter from

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Ontario, Canada. She's the

0:36

only female artist to have had three

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consecutive diamond albums, albums that have sold

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over 10 million copies. Actually,

0:43

her 1997 album, Come On Over, is

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the best-selling album by a female solo

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artist of all time. One

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of the most iconic songs from that iconic

0:52

album is You're Still the One. It

0:54

was co-written and produced by Mutt Lang,

0:56

who had previously produced some other classic

0:59

albums like Back in Black by ACDC

1:01

and Pyromania by Def Leppard. He'd

1:03

also produced Shania Twain's previous album, The Woman in

1:05

Me, from 1995. For

1:08

this episode, Shania told me the story of writing

1:10

You're Still the One. She told

1:12

me what the song meant to her when she was making it

1:14

over 25 years ago, and what it

1:17

means to her now. My

1:24

name is Shania Twain. You're

1:51

Still the One was written when I was married

1:54

to Mutt Lang. We

1:56

had met and married within six months. He

1:59

was quite a few years old. older than me and

2:01

we were from very, very different worlds. Mutt

2:04

had a very British and South

2:07

African accent, which was quite strong.

2:09

I was

2:11

born in Ontario, Canada.

2:13

So the

2:15

combination of us was a

2:17

real contrast. But

2:20

musically, we were not from

2:22

such different worlds. Mutt being a

2:24

very, very big country music fan

2:27

and rock was a staple

2:29

in all of my upbringing

2:31

in Canada. Much of it

2:33

being what Mutt had written and produced. I

2:36

knew the Death Leopard albums,

2:38

the Foreigner albums, the Cars albums,

2:42

and of course, ACDC. So

2:46

I felt like I had already known him for

2:48

so long inside out

2:50

because Mutt Lang was those records

2:53

on many levels. It's

2:56

just so obvious that we

2:58

needed to be together, which was

3:00

difficult for other people to believe

3:02

on the outside. There was a

3:04

lot of skepticism about whether our

3:07

relationship would last. In

3:10

interviews, I would be asked questions like,

3:13

what is your role in this music

3:16

relationship? Questions that

3:19

insinuated that I was a product

3:23

being shaped and formed

3:25

and developed. Questioning

3:27

my ability because I was the newbie and

3:29

Mutt was already so accomplished. So

3:32

you're still the one. Was definitely

3:35

written with me feeling like

3:37

I needed to say, we're going

3:40

to make it. We're going to get through all the skepticism. Ten

3:42

years from now, everybody will see that you're

3:45

still going to be the one for me. The

3:55

day of writing, you're still the one is so clear in my head.

3:57

I start humming a melody. Around

4:00

in the kitchen, which is very common

4:02

for me, the lyric looks like

4:04

we made it comes out. Looks

4:07

like we made it.

4:10

I thought, hmm, I'm onto something here, but

4:13

we're not that far into our

4:15

marriage. I could be getting ahead

4:17

of myself. I know we

4:20

still have a long way to go together, so

4:22

I'm just gonna put it out there and I'm gonna say it

4:24

in the song. I

4:27

picked up my guitar. And

4:30

the melody came really fast. Looks

4:33

like we made it. Look

4:36

how strong we've come to

4:38

look easy. We're not

4:40

a took a long way. We

4:44

knew we'd get there

4:46

someday. And

4:49

then the chorus lyrics came together. That

4:51

was the next thing I did. You

4:54

still don't wanna run. You

4:57

don't wanna be. You

5:02

still don't wanna run. I...

5:10

And what came in, he just

5:12

sat across from me. I played him

5:14

what I was doing and he said,

5:16

okay, well, let's just roll the course over a few times. So

5:21

I played and sang and played and sang and

5:23

he would just do it again and do it

5:25

again and do it again. And

5:28

I could see his mind coming

5:30

up with something and then he

5:32

just started singing. And

5:37

that was the hook to me. I'm just like, that's the

5:39

hook. That is the hook. You

5:51

still don't wanna be. Good

5:54

night. The

5:57

way Mutt and I heard the music together. It

6:00

wasn't going to sound like any other country

6:02

record on purpose. Our

6:05

first album together, The Woman and Me, just rubbed

6:07

a lot of people the wrong way. I

6:10

got a lot of criticism

6:12

questioning my authenticity

6:14

as a country

6:16

artist. And

6:19

I was foreign. I wasn't even American. Never

6:21

mind. I wasn't Southern. So

6:23

I was offensive to some of them,

6:25

and they made it pretty clear. But

6:28

I knew I belonged there because those were my

6:31

roots. I mean, I'd been singing

6:33

in bars from the age of eight years old, writing

6:35

my own music from the age of 10. And

6:38

my repertoire as a little girl

6:40

was Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette. It

6:42

was George Jones. And

6:44

that is in me. But

6:47

I wanted to be my own artist. And

6:51

the music was going to be a

6:54

hybrid of all

6:56

of my various influences stylistically

6:59

R&B, rock, folk,

7:02

and of course, country. And

7:04

so the song was recorded in Nashville because

7:07

there's a different feel to the country

7:09

music player. So for

7:11

example, it affects the groove

7:14

entirely. If

7:16

you bring a country drummer into

7:19

a session, he's going to give a song

7:21

a very different feel than if you bring

7:23

in a rock drummer or

7:26

if you bring in an R&B drummer. And

7:29

the session for you're still the one was particularly

7:31

for me about the drums. You

7:35

see that pattern? It's

7:38

brushes on the snare. It's

7:40

like you exhale and you're

7:42

in a slow dance. It's

7:47

a very romantic, soulful groove.

7:53

We didn't usually get the tempo right. So I

7:55

remember working a long time on that. I

7:58

was there singing along. We

8:01

could set that tempo for the drummer

8:03

Paul Ryan. They

8:07

did, I bet, they'll

8:09

never make it But

8:11

just look at

8:13

us, hold it now

8:18

We're still together, still

8:20

going strong

8:25

It wasn't a challenge for me vocally, it was

8:27

very, very natural I tend

8:29

to sing lazy that way and

8:31

so the delivery of the song

8:33

stayed very true and pure to

8:36

the way I wrote it Right down to the

8:38

backing vocals You're still

8:40

the one I run to,

8:43

the one that I belong

8:45

to You're still the one

8:47

I want for the love

8:52

Mutt did backing vocals and

8:54

he gives a style to

8:57

things, like a signature sound

8:59

to his vocals For sure, you

9:01

know that's Mutt Lang backing vocals

9:04

The one I want for

9:07

the love And

9:10

it was a great contrast to

9:12

my very solitary storytelling

9:15

You're still, you're still the

9:17

one that I love The

9:21

only one I need, I'm

9:23

still the one I kiss

9:26

Goodnight Mutt

9:32

wanted to add the sensuality to the intro

9:34

of the song You know,

9:36

he wanted to milk the romance

9:38

And I never

9:41

enjoyed that part, I'm almost like, oh, this

9:43

is so corny Do you

9:45

mind if we listen to it? It makes me laugh even

9:47

thinking about listening to it When

9:50

I first saw you, I saw love

9:56

I'm in there and I'm just given a bunch of

9:58

different takes You touched

10:00

me. I would have liked to listen

10:02

to the outtakes because I'm sure I was laughing between

10:04

some of them thinking, oh my God, I'm really,

10:07

you know, pouring it on here. And

10:10

after all this time, you're

10:12

still the one I love.

10:16

John Hobbs is on the organ.

10:30

The steel guitar, I would say

10:32

most particularly, was in the

10:35

control room a very wow moment. It was

10:38

a very, that's

10:40

magic. Bruce

10:46

Bouton was the steel guitar player on You're

10:48

Still the One and he

10:50

was just the perfect stylist on

10:52

that instrument for this song. This

10:55

is an instrument that works in waves. It's

10:58

waves and attack, waves and

11:00

attack. Mutt

11:02

is also writing that performance

11:04

in the mix to

11:07

exaggerate the swells because

11:09

he wants the instrument to disappear and then come

11:11

back and then disappear and come back. It's

11:19

a haunting instrument. It

11:23

makes you reflect from a distance. You're

11:28

still the one I want to. The

11:32

one I belong to.

11:35

You're still the one I want. It

11:43

ends very alone with just my

11:45

voice. So there's no more beat than

11:48

that, which I think is very appropriate. Just

11:53

the way I sing it. I'm

11:57

so glad we made it. Look

12:00

how far we've come, my

12:03

baby. You're

12:08

still the one who's gone through its

12:11

own evolution and meaning

12:13

and purpose. When

12:16

I wrote the song, I wrote it from

12:19

my perspective about my relationship

12:21

and about feeling

12:23

so good and satisfied that we made

12:25

it. When

12:28

we got divorced, I

12:30

knew I couldn't go on stage without doing this song

12:32

because it had become one of my biggest songs. And

12:36

it was very hard. I was choking

12:38

down the tears. It made me very sad to

12:40

sing it. But

12:44

forcing myself through that

12:46

wall, through that, oh, I

12:48

can't believe I have to sing the song again because it's

12:51

not true anymore. And, you know, I was

12:53

kind of in this emotional space with it

12:56

because I'm looking at the people and they're going, well,

12:58

she's singing about something that's no longer true. I didn't

13:00

know if that would make everybody sad. How would you

13:02

feel about that? But I

13:05

soon realized that it wasn't about me. People

13:09

had adopted the song as their song.

13:12

They weren't thinking Shania doesn't mean

13:14

the song anymore. They

13:17

were thinking, this is my song. This

13:20

is our song. This

13:23

is my wedding song. This is our

13:25

anniversary song. And then

13:27

I started celebrating that myself. Like,

13:30

wow, this song has

13:32

way surpassed why I wrote

13:35

it. It's so

13:37

much more than that. It's not about

13:39

me. And I like all of that.

13:41

I like all my own attachment to

13:43

the reason I wrote it. And

13:46

of course, and all the years that we were together, I

13:48

meant it. I

13:50

was singing it for myself more

13:52

than anything. And then

13:54

all of a sudden I was singing it for everybody else. Coming

14:03

up, you'll hear how all these ideas and

14:05

elements came together in the final song. And

14:09

now, here's You're Still the One by

14:11

Shania Twain, in its entirety. Whatever

14:19

it's all you, I

14:23

saw the

14:26

first time you touched me. I

14:30

felt love. And

14:33

after all this time, you're

14:36

still the one I love. You,

14:43

looks like we made it. Looking

14:47

from the sky, we made it.

14:50

We might have took a long

14:52

way. You,

14:55

we guess I found it.

14:58

They said, I said,

15:00

they'll never make it.

15:03

But we'll get it, and

15:06

I found it. We'll

15:11

feel together, still

15:13

going slow. You're

15:19

still the one I love. You're

15:23

still the one

15:26

I love. You're

15:29

still the

15:35

one I

15:37

love. You're

15:43

still the one I

15:45

love. You're still the

15:47

one I love. You're still the

15:50

one I love. You're

15:52

still the one I love. You're

15:55

still the one I love. They

16:03

said, I said,

16:06

they'll never make it But

16:08

just look at

16:11

us holding on We'll

16:15

see it together till

16:18

the wind comes Ooh,

16:24

ooh,

16:32

ooh Ooh,

16:38

ooh, ooh

17:01

Ooh, ooh,

17:03

ooh Ooh,

17:25

ooh, ooh,

17:28

ooh To

17:46

learn more, visit songexploder.net You

17:49

can find links to buy or stream You're Still the

17:51

One And you can watch the music video Shania

17:54

Twain will be in residency in Las Vegas

17:56

starting in May 2024 And

17:59

you can get tickets for that on... our website,

18:01

Shania twain.com. This

18:04

episode was produced by Craig Ely,

18:06

Theo Balcom, Kathleen Smith, Mary Dolan,

18:08

and myself. The episode

18:11

artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made

18:13

the shows theme music and logo. Song

18:16

the Exploder is a proud member

18:18

of Radiotopia from PRX, a network

18:20

of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned

18:22

podcasts. You can learn more

18:24

about all our shows at radiotopia.fm. You

18:28

can follow me on social media at

18:30

RishiHirway, and you can follow the show

18:32

at SongExploder. You can

18:34

also get a SongExploder

18:36

t-shirt at songexploder.net/shirt. I'm

18:38

Rishi K. Shirway. Thanks for

18:41

listening. Radiotopia

18:44

from PRX. If

18:52

you're looking for something new to listen to, check

18:55

out the new episode from my Radiotopia and

18:57

my colleagues, The Kitchen Sisters, and it's hosted by

18:59

the great Frances McDormand. It's

19:01

an hour-long deep dive into little-known

19:03

stories of visionary women architects, folks

19:06

like Julia Morgan, who's the first

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accredited female architect in California. She

19:10

made Hearst Castle, and

19:12

Natalie DeBlois, who helped imagine some of

19:14

the first glass skyscrapers on Park Avenue.

19:17

These are women who changed the skyline and

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shaped the built environment that surrounds us today.

19:22

Listen to The Kitchen Sisters present

19:24

everywhere you find podcasts and at

19:27

kitchensisters.org.