From the Jukebox: Shania Twain- “Forever and For Always”, 2003

Shania Twain- “Forever and For Always”, 2003

Label: Mercury

Songwriters: Shania Twain and Mutt Lange

Producer: Mutt Lange

When Shania Twain’s career exploded into the country music stratosphere in the mid 1990s, it did so on the backs of cheeky anthems like “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” and “Any Man of Mine”, which served as precursors to gigantic pop crossovers and career records like “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”. However, it was a back-to-back pair of romantic ballads–“You’re Still the One” and “From This Moment On”–that turned Twain and her third album, Come On Over, into an international phenomenon in 1998, which was somewhat of a surprise given that none of the ballads released from The Woman In Me were able to match the chart success of their up-tempo companions at the time. The success of this pair of singles firmly established Twain as a multi-faceted hitmaker, who was just as capable of delivering a killer ballad as she was an infectious bop, not to mention that they forever etched her place in the lexicon of legendary and essential wedding songs.

And look, as a self-professed Twain stan, there’s no denying my affinity for both “Still the One” and “Moment”. With that said, it’s “Forever and For Always” that I’ll eternally regard as the legend’s greatest hit ballad, not to mention one of the pinnacle performances from her epic vault of hits. Released as the third single from Up! in the spring of 2003, this record strips away all of the pop and AC gloss that permeated its aforementioned counterparts, replacing it with a shimmering yet understated production that’s grounded by warm steel guitar work, a gorgeously twangy element that, unlike “You’re Still the One”, was mostly maintained on the song’s pop remix.

This rich texture sets the stage for what is arguably the greatest vocal performance of her career, demonstrating the varied layers of her unique range unlike any track before it. Her signature low tones are in their gorgeous glory on the verses, before giving way to the sweet and wistful highs she reaches on the choruses. Though there’s no discrediting the vocal skill she always possessed, Shania was well aware that she was never a vocalist in the range of the glory-note powerhouses that dominated the female pop and country scenes of her heyday. Like Emmylou Harris or Tanya Tucker before her, she was always as much of a vocal stylist as a technically pure singer, and “Forever” is a tremendous example of this fact. Her singing gives the song and its story an organic, evocative quality, not to mention a timeless staying power and relevance, that it simply wouldn’t have achieved if it had tried to be your standard millennium-era power ballad.

Further adding to the song’s special sauce during its chart run were the classic duet performances Twain delivered of the hit with bluegrass heroes Alison Krauss & Union Station, first on the 2003 CMT Flameworthy Awards, and then later as part of their collaborative special, Up! Close and Personal (which is just begging for a vinyl release at some point). Twain and Krauss’ surprise union unveiled a beautiful chemistry between the two vastly different singers, and reasserted the former’s rootsy street cred at a time while she was still sitting high atop the international pop mountain. The single’s accompanying music video is likewise a gem in its own right, telling a classic three-part country love story through the passage of life’s various stages, resulting in one of the great clips from the dying days of the music video era.

When all was told, “Forever and For Always” became a certifiable cross-genre smash in the summer of 2003, gracing the country top five, the pop top twenty, and residing for multiple weeks atop the adult contemporary survey. It became the definitive hit of her colossal Up! era, and while a handful of top ten singles would follow through 2005, this is her last great triumph during the peak run of her career. It also stands as her last great vocal achievement, before unfortunate circumstances robbed her of her original singing voice, and forced her into hiding for the better part of a decade. With that said, the natural and intimate nature of the song still resides today in a sweet spot of her raspy, modern-day voice. This was evidenced marvelously during her Let’s Go Vegas residency and last year’s Queen of Me tour, when the song returned to her set-list for the first time since its original chart run. As someone who caught her splashy roadshow last spring, I can confirm it remains a delight to see her sing it live, with her delivery as rich and resonant as ever.

In the two decades since its initial release, “Forever and For Always” has dutifully lived up to its name, proving to be one of the most enduring career moments in one of the truly iconic music catalogs of the past three decades.