Genre Country | Length 3:28
3:37 (re-release) | |
B-side "I Finally Found Somebody" (1994 version only) Released April 19, 1994
July 23, 2001 (re-release) Label Capricorn (1994)
BNA (2001) Writer(s) Kenny Chesney
Stacey Slate
David Lowe | ||
"The Tin Man" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Kenny Chesney. It was the third single release from his 1994 debut album In My Wildest Dreams. Six years later, Chesney re-recorded the song for his first Greatest Hits album and released this recording in July 2001.
Contents
Content
"The Tin Man" is a ballad about a brokenhearted man who wishes that he were the Tin Woodman so that he "wouldn't have a heart" and thus not feel the emotions that he is feeling.
The song is in the key of E major with a main chord pattern of E-C♯m-A-B.
Critical reception
In a 1995 review, Phil Kloer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the song "one of the better pieces of writing to come out of Nashville this year or last." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said that the song was not "quite as shellacked with gloss" as Chesney's later ballads. Billboard's review praised Chesney's vocals while taking a negative view of the songwriting: "[H]e is hitting his stride as a singer, even if The Wizard of Oz references here are a little tired."
The original version later appeared on Chesney's first BNA Records album, All I Need to Know. In his review of this album, Erlewine wrote that the song "deftly reworks a cliché" and "captur[es] the blend of country instrumentation and anthemic pop that became his signature and made him a star."
Chesney re-recorded the song for his 2000 Greatest Hits album. This newly recorded version was the b-side to the album's first single, "I Lost It", before serving as the third release from it.
Music video
The music video for "The Tin Man" was for the 1994 version, directed by Tom Bevins. A video for the 2001 version was scheduled to be filmed in the afternoon of September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center in New York City, but was canceled because of equipment delays. The cancellation allowed Chesney and the video's filming crew to avoid the September 11 attacks.
Chart performance
The original recording of "The Tin Man" entered the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts dated for the week ending May 14, 1994, peaking at number 70 with a six-week run on the charts. The 2001 version first charted on the week ending July 28, 2001, spending twenty weeks on that chart and peaking at number 19. It also peaked at number 7 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100.