This sassy single was written by Shania Twain and her producer/husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange. It finds Shania singing about various guys who are full of themselves - for good reason. But despite their exceptional talents and attributes, they don't impress her. She's looking for a guy who will keep her "warm in the middle of the night."
Twain had seven #1 Country hits by the time this song was released, but it proved more popular to pop audiences, stalling at #8 on the Country chart but reaching #7 on the Hot 100. Much of this can be attributed to Mutt Lange's production, which retained only a hint of twang but filled the spectrum with lots of hooky background vocals. The subject matter also helped - women could relate to the guys she sings about no matter where they live.
Shania namechecks both Elvis and Brad Pitt in this song. Her selections held up well, as Elvis' legend has only grown with time, and Brad Pitt stood up as a male sex symbol. Tom Cruise would have been a shakier choice.
Shania Twain's reference to Brad Pitt was inspired by nude photos of the actor being published in Playgirl magazine.
OK, so you're Brad Pitt? That don't impress me much
Twain explained to Billboard magazine:
"I remember I had a girlfriend visiting me and it was near Christmas and we were baking cookies. I was writing this album and there was a scandal of [Pitt] and Gwyneth [Paltrow] where there was naked photos of him.
And this was like all the rage. I just thought, 'I don't know what all the fuss is about.' I'm like, 'Well that don't impress me much, I mean what is all the fuss. We see people naked every day.' That's really what I thought.
I wasn't picking on Brad Pitt. But that was just the association in that moment and things we make fusses about and whatever. Of course, it could have been any gorgeous guy."
Twain said about the writing of
Come On Over: "Sometimes we would literally go two or three days at a time where we'd sit by the fire and start writing in the morning, go for a walk later in the afternoon, go for a horseback ride or eat, then write, go to bed really late, get up early in the morning and start all over again." (Source:
Tommy's #1 Shania Twain Supersite).
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In retrospect, this song was peak Shania. The Come On Over album was released in November 1997, and six singles were issued before "That Don't Impress Me Much" came out in December 1998. Five more singles followed, saturating the airwaves throughout 1999. Shania fatigue set in, and her next album, Up!, didn't fare nearly as well when it was released in 2002. She never landed another Top 10 on the Hot 100.
This is Twain's third-biggest single on the Hot 100, following two other
Come On Over tracks: "
You're Still the One" (#2) and "
From This Moment On" (#4). It was her biggest hit in the UK, where it sold 763,000 copies, and also topped the singles charts in Belgium, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands.
Twain would sometimes change the Brad Pitt line to suit the occasion. When she performed at the People's Choice Awards in 2022, she sang, "OK, so you're Ryan Reynolds," as the actor, who was honored that night, looked on.