Oh-oh-oh, go totally crazy
Forget I’m a lady
Men’s shirts, short skirts
Oh-oh-oh, really go wild, yeah
Doin’ it in style
Oh-oh-oh, get in the action
Feel the attraction
Color my hair, do what I dare
Above is the chorus of arguably Shania Twain’s most recognised song and one of the most popular girl-power anthems. Extraordinarily Man! I Feel Like A Woman was the 8th single released from her third album Come on Over.
When I hear today’s track and it doesn’t matter where I have the good fortune to hear it, I am compelled to sing this Chorus LOUD because I find it so infectious to the senses. And I never knew until copying these lyrics just now, that I had been singing the wrong words all along. There are too many instances to mention, but one stand-out is: I always sang ‘Comb my hair, do it again‘ in place of ‘Color my hair, do what I dare‘. That’s crazy, but this a crazy song! And the video is a humdinger.
Shania Twain is no stranger to this blog having featured here 3 times already. I will admit I had a bit of crush on the Canadian singer-songwriter back in the day. Man! I Feel Like A Woman comes from her third record Come on Over and it seemed to mark the occasion where she waded into ‘Pop star’ territory away from her Country roots such as Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is (Anymore) which happens to be my ‘Desert Island’ Shania song. I wrote in that article the following:
‘It really is a privilege to hear this calibre of music and if someone like Shania upsets the country ‘puritan’ apple cart by going commercial afterwards, I don’t really care because anyone who can pull this off deserves to do whatever the hell they want to do‘.
The rest of this article contain extracts from the Wikipedia article below:
Commercially, the song was a huge hit, reaching the top 10 in six countries, while reaching the top 20 in Canada and number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was even more successful on the Hot Country Songs chart, reaching the top five and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for 1,000,000 digital downloads. The song also won a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 2000.
The accompanying music video for “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” was released on March 3, 1999, and it pays homage to Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” music video, featuring Twain dancing with buffed and blank-eyed male models. It was the opener on both the Come On Over and Up! tours, as well as Twain’s headline on the Super Bowl XXXVII Halftime show, and as the closer on the rest of her tours.
[Intro]
Let’s go, girls
Come on
[Verse 1]
I’m goin’ out tonight
I’m feelin’ alright
Gonna let it all hang out
Wanna make some noise
Really raise my voice
Yeah, I wanna scream and shout
[Verse 2]
Ah, no inhibitions
Make no conditions
Get a little outta line
I ain’t gonna act
Politically correct
I only wanna have a good time
[Pre-Chorus]
The best thing about being a woman
Is the prerogative to have a little fun and
[Chorus]
Oh-oh-oh, go totally crazy
Forget I’m a lady
Men’s shirts, short skirts
Oh-oh-oh, really go wild, yeah
Doin’ it in style
Oh-oh-oh, get in the action
Feel the attraction
Color my hair, do what I dare
Oh-oh-oh, I wanna be free, yeah
To feel the way I feel
Man, I feel like a woman
[Post-Chorus]
Hoo
[Verse 3]
The girls need a break
Tonight, we’re gonna take
The chance to get out on the town
We don’t need romance
We only wanna dance
We’re gonna let our hair hang down
The title and thus the lyric of the song were based on Shania Twain’s experience while working at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario to provide for her brothers and sisters after their parents died in a car crash. Twain recalls seeing drag performers working at the resort and credits them as the source of her inspiration. In 1994, while composing songs for what would become her second studio album The Woman in Me, Lange (her then husband) played to Twain a riff he had been working on and Twain sang lyrics for what would become “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”. Speaking of the writing of the song, she stated “There was no time to waste on ideas that wouldn’t make the album, but something like [the song] was just there. I was inspired right off the bat with that one, for example, by a riff Mutt had going, and the lyrics and phrasing just came out of the blue.”
References:
1. Man! I Feel Like a Woman! – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
It’s a pretty catchy song, that’s for sure. I still remember very well when it came out. I think I liked it better at the time than I do now. While based on Wikipedia’s chart it looks like Shania Twain still is reasonably successful, “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” is her most recent song I recall hearing on the radio.
I was probably one of those who thought Shania had sold-out to Pop stardom etc when this came out. But this song has always stood the test of time for me and even grown in my musical appreciation. I’ve heard some of her other songs post ‘Man!’, but I prefer the music from her first 3 albums. Thanks for chiming in as always Christian. You have a good day.
A joyously catchy song for sure, and the video’s marvelous!
‘Joyously catchy’ is a superlative description of this song. Thanks Jeff.