Showing A1 just how it’s done, here is some authentic turn-of-the-century American jumbo-pop.
Can’t Fight the Moonlight, by LeAnn Rimes (her 1st and only #1)
1 week, from 19th – 26th November 2000
Can that become the standard term for this sort of huge chords, huge vocals, huge synths pop? Jumbo-pop. It’ll be my legacy. Though while Britney and Christina are obvious reference points for this record, LeAnn Rimes was first and foremost a country artist, and so this is jumbo-pop with a country twang. Which is cool.
But as with the Corrs’ Mutt Lange-produced ‘Breathless’, this makes me once again rue the fact that the Queen of late-nineties country pop, Shania Twain, never made top spot in the UK. Catchy as ‘Can’t Fight the Moonlight’ is, it is no ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’. Very few pop songs are…
I will say that this song does almost lose the run of itself from the middle-eight onwards, with synths that sound like a garbage crusher gone haywire. It gets very cluttered and rushed, as if on a deadline, where a few more seconds runtime could have allowed the song to breathe a bit. But the way Rimes launches herself into the key change is impressive, and allows her to show off her vocals towards the end. It was written by Diane Warren, and produced by movie mogul Jerry Bruckheimer, which perhaps explains its ginormous sound.
Bruckheimer was presumably involved because this comes from the soundtrack to his movie, ‘Coyote Ugly’. It’s a film that I remember being huge among my age group at the time, but that never gets mentioned anymore. (Its 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes might explain why…) Apparently LeAnn Rimes appears in the film as herself, while she also recorded ‘Can’t Fight the Moonlight’ for actress Piper Perabo – who played the main character – and so technically duets with herself at the end of the film. Which sounds enjoyably messy.
While this may be a bit cluttered, a bit too fast, a bit chaotic, it’s still undeniably huge and catchy. There’s something admirable about the sheer joie de vivre of so many of these recent number ones, even if not many are truly great records, which makes me miss a time when pop music came with a capital ‘P’!
Although this is LeAnn Rimes biggest hit by chart position, she is probably much better remembered for her ballad ‘How Do I Live’, which was the 6th highest-selling song of 1998 despite never rising above #7. She remains active, and seems to have moved more into Christian contemporary territory in her old age.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Old age, hah! 🙂 Just a youngster when you have a bus pass oops. I’m with you in That Don’t Impress Me Much, perfect pop, and Shania had a much better run of hits than LeAnn Rimes – who must be included in pop star names as complete sentences, along with Bill Withers and a select few others. I always found this one over-rated. I didnt see the film, Diane Warren had a way better song recorded by Pet Shop Boys in a couple of years or so, in Numb, and LeAnn was best in old-fashioned Patsy Cline-ish ballads like Blue to me. The glossy production on this one didn’t stop me getting annoyed by it quite quickly at the time, though it does seem pretty popular still these days amongst the teen generation of the time. It is, however, much less annoying than the dreary How Do I Live which I never got on with, sorry LeAnn fans!
Hahaha never noticed that complete sentence aspect to her name… Britney Spears, Ben Folds… (I may have just done a google search)
LeAnn Rimes is someone I’ve heard, but I’ve never really delved into her music. I know some of her hits. I know she was super young when she had her first big worldwide hit “How Do I Live” – she was 14 I think. Kinda crazy she was younger than Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera yet she predates them a few years as a popstar. Kinda reminds how Cliff Richard was the same age as John Lennon yet he was already an established hitmaker and star by the time The Beatles had their first pop success, or how Ritchie Valens was actually younger than John Lennon yet had his big break well before The Beatles were even a proper thing.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard this song. It sounds like a country pop song that was remixed by Max Martin. It sounds more pop than country. Only country thing about it is the slight twang in Rimes’ voice. Oh wait, I have heard this song once I got to the chorus. It was actually produced by Buggles/Yes-man Trevor Horn. I like the chorus of this song quite a bit but I find the verses pretty forgettable.
I also think LeAnn Rimes was not the most ideal choice for this song. She doesn’t do a bad job but I think someone like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera would’ve done a better job.
Another Diane Warren-written song huh? She seemed to work with everyone. I know Aerosmith had their biggest hit with her. I’m a big film fan and it’s a kinda a joke in the “film online circles” that Diane has tried so hard over the years to win an Oscar yet despite many nominations she still fails each time to secure the win. She’s desperate for one, and isn’t shy about wanting one either.
Interesting “Can’t Fight the Moonlight”, the US was actually one of it’s weaker markets in terms of chart success. It just missed the Top 10 there but it went Top 10 pretty much everywhere else and No. 1 in like 12-13 countries.
I also prefer Shania over most female country pop singers. Shania seems like she’s having a blast while making and performing her music, both in the studio and her live. I love Mutt Lange but he fumbled that one bad (not cool to cheat on your wife, but especially not cool to cheat on your wife with her best friend).
Yeah calling this ‘country’ is like calling anything Taylor Swift has released since 2012 ‘country’. Shania always kept more of a country twang to her stuff.
I vaguely remembered that she was fourteen when she broke through, but had to double check as in the How Do I Live video she could pass for forty. I think it’s the very mid-90s baggy suit that she’s wearing in the video…
She does have an incredible voice…I will give that to her. I’ve heard her on songs that I swear she could break glass lol…living where I do…I remember her more for her country stuff but it’s good she branched out.
It’s amazing that she was only 13 when she broke through!
Yes…she was super huge here as you can imagine. She does show off her voice more in country than pop…because it’s made for that.