Come On Over

History

After releasing and promoting her breakthrough album The Woman in Me, 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. 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 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, Twain and Lange revisited tracks to strip them of country influences and increase the album's marketability beyond the US and Canada.

The album was a blockbuster success, becoming the biggest-selling studio album of all time by a female artist, the biggest-selling country music album ever, the biggest-selling album by a Canadian act and one of the biggest-selling albums in music history. Three different versions of the album were released, the original country version, released in 1997, and the revised pop and international versions released in 1998 and 1999 respectively. The album was also supported by an extensive world tour by Twain.

Commercial performance

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. It was, in fact, the best-selling album ever released by a female artist in any genre. Debuting at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with a moderate 172,000 copies (3,000 units behind Mase's Harlem World), the album showed its consistency when it moved another 170,000 copies in its second week (a 1.2% decrease) to stay at No. 2 again behind Barbra Streisand's Higher Ground. The RIAA certified Come on Over Gold, Platinum and 2× platinum on December 23, 1997. 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). The album 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. Come On Over topped the Billboard Country album chart for a record 50 weeks, finishing second to Garth Brooks' Sevens in 1998, finishing first in 1999, and third in 2000 behind Dixie Chicks' Fly and Faith Hill's Breathe. 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 15.6 million copies sold, behind its nearest rival, Metallica's 1991 self-titled album as of June 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 UK. 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 3 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 2 years). Worldwide the album 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 have been sold across the world.

Critical reception

The album received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. AllMusic praised the album for successfully breaking free of traditional country stereotypes (musical brevity, a blatant honkey-tonk image, etc.), while also praising Twain for crafting an album with just as much pop/rock appeal as country appeal. Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly praised the album for successfully incorporating a substantial rock influence without losing its country sensibilities.

The album was listed as #21 in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200.

Original version (1997)

All tracks written by Shania Twain and Robert John "Mutt" Lange.

International version (1998)

The International version was remixed for a more pop and world feel. The only song that stayed the same on both versions was "Rock This Country!". Some issues of this album adhere to the original track-listing and feature Bryan White on "From This Moment On", while others feature the track as a solo recording.

Revised international version (1999)

The album was later re-released after the success of "That Don't Impress Me Much". This 'revised version' included The Right Mix of "From This Moment On", the Notting Hill Remix for "You've Got a Way" and the (UK) Dance Remix for "That Don't Impress Me Much". In most countries this mix is titled the "Dance Mix Edit" but for the UK, Netherlands and Germany it was titled the "UK Dance Mix".

In Australia a special edition was released with 19 tracks and contained a special bonus Video CD which included three music videos and an interview.

In the US, this version of the album was released, titled simply as the "International Version", to coincide with both international success and the fact that the original version of the album had maintained heavy chart success throughout the past two years.

Tour editions

A limited edition tour edition was released in Australia and Asia which contains a bonus disc with bonus mixes and live tracks. Also included was a list of tour dates.

Australian version

Asian version

Personnel

Strings on "From This Moment On" arranged and performed by Carl Marsh and David Hamilton.
"Bow Bros." gang fiddles on tracks 1, 3, 4, 8, 11, 13, and 15 (of original version) performed by Rob Hajacos, Joe Spivey, Glen Duncan, and Aubrey Haynie.

Mixed by Mike Shipley (all tracks on original version; tracks 1-3, 5-7, 9, 11-12, 14 & 16 on international version), Olle Romo (tracks 4, 8, 10, 13 & 15 on international version) and Mutt Lange (track 13 on revised international version (uncredited); edited by Mike Shipley (uncredited))

Video release

In late 1999, the album's video counterpart, appropriately titled Come On Over: Video Collection, was released in VHS format. With the sole exceptions of "When" (1998), which was released exclusively to the United Kingdom, and "Rock This Country!", which at the time had not been filmed, the collection included all of Twain's music videos released in promotion for the album.