Come On Over is Shania Twain's third studio album that was released on November 4, 1997 on Mercury Records.
The album became the all-time best-selling country music album, best-selling studio album by a female act, and best selling album by a Canadian. It is also the 8th all-time best-selling album in the United States and the 16th best-selling album in the United Kingdom.
"Come On Over" was nominated for six awards at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, including "Album of the Year" and "Best Country Album."
Album Background[]
After releasing and promoting her breakthrough album, "The Woman In Me," her next album saw Shania Twain entirely collaborating with producer and then husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange on a variety of country pop numbers, mostly uptempo.
Given much more creative freedom than for its predecessor, 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 decided not to tour off "The Woman in Me" partly because she felt she needed more powerful music to do a powerful show.
She 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.
Even though Twain indicated her sonic preferences, she ultimately ceded all production to Lange. On the international version, Twain and Lange revisited tracks to strip them of country influences and increase the album's marketability beyond the US and Canada.
Tracklisting[]
- Man! I Feel Like A Woman! 3:53
- I'm Holdin' On To Love (To Save My Life) 3:30
- Love Gets Me Every Time 3:33
- Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You) 3:35
- From This Moment On 4:43
- Come On Over 2:55
- When 3:39
- Whatever You Do! Don't! 4:04
- If You Wanna Touch Her, Ask! 4:04
- You're Still The One 3:34
- Honey, I'm Home 3:39
- That Don't Impress Me Much 3:38
- Black Eyes, Blue Tears 3:39
- I Won't Leave You Lonely 4:13
- Rock This Country! 4:23
- You've Got A Way 3:24
Chart Performance[]
Shania Twain topped her own record with the release of "Come On Over", beating out her previous Diamond selling album, "The Woman in Me" as the best-selling country music album ever released and the best-selling studio album ever released by a female artist in any genre.
Debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 with a moderate 172,000 copies (3,000 units behind Mase's album, "Harlem World"), "Come On Over" showed its consistency when it moved another 170,000 copies in its second week (a 1.2% decrease) to stay at #2 again behind Barbra Streisand's album "Higher Ground."
On December 23, 1997, the RIAA certified the album Gold, Platinum and 2× platinum. It sold more than 100,000 units in each of 62 weeks.
During the Thanksgiving week of 1999, the "Come On Over: International Version" was released in conjunction to Shania's Thanksgiving CBS special, "Come On Over" that week earned the Billboard chart "Greatest Gainer" title, jumping 24-11 on the Billboard 200, a 246% increase in sales from a 57,000 the previous week to a 197,000 the week after.
The album's best sales week was its 110th week, during which it sold 355,000 units to settle at number ten (Christmas 1999). It stayed on the top 10 for 54 weeks, set a record for longest stay in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 of 112 weeks, and in top 40 for 127 consecutive weeks.
The album topped the Billboard Country album chart for a record 50 weeks, finishing second to Garth Brooks' album, "Sevens" in 1998, finishing first in 1999, and third in 2000 behind Dixie Chicks' "Fly" and Faith Hill's "Breathe". It was certified diamond by the RIAA on April 7, 1999. Despite its considerable sales, the album never reached the top of the Billboard 200.
"Come On Over" was the first album to reach both 14 million (in September 2001) and 15 million (in August 2004) in sales in the US since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales.
It ranks as the second best-selling album of the Nielsen SoundScan era in the US, with over 15.73 million copies sold by October 2017, behind its nearest rival, Metallica's 1991 self-titled album (16.1 million as of 2015); however, these figures do not include sales through such entities as BMG Music Club, where "Come on Over" has sold 1.99 million copies while Metallica has sold fewer than 298,000 copies.
The album topped the charts for 11 weeks in the United Kingdom. The album is one of the highest-selling albums ever in Australia, reaching 15 times platinum and spending 19 weeks at No. 1 and 165 weeks in the top 100 (or more than three years). It is still the best-selling album of the 1990s in Australia.
The album sat at the top spot of the Canadian country albums chart for over 110 weeks (more than two years). Worldwide, it sold 3.4 million copies in 1997, 8.9 million in 1998 and over 15.2 million copies in 1999, standing strong in 2000 selling another 6.4 million copies worldwide. Over 40 million copies of "Come On Over" have been sold across the world.
Critical Reception[]
"Come On Over" received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote in his review: "Shania sticks to what she does best, which is countrified mainstream pop. Purists will complain that there's little country here, and there really isn't. However, what is here is professionally crafted country-pop -- even the filler (which there is, unfortunately, too much of) sounds good -- which is delivered with conviction, if not style, by Shania, and that is enough to make it a thoroughly successful follow-up to one of the most successful country albums by a female in history."
Entertainment Weekly gave the album a "B+", praising it for successfully incorporating a substantial rock influence without losing its country sensibilities.