NASHVILLE--Shania Twain's long-awaited follow-up to 1995's multi-platinum-selling 'The Woman In Me' will roll out Nov. 4, and it's already being regarded as even more unclassifiable than her last album.

The 16 songs on 'Come On Over,' making for more than an hour of music, range far and wide over country and pop and, says Twain, simply reflect her concerns and interests during the period over the last two years when she and husband/producer Robert John 'Mutt' Lange recorded it.

One concern, widely felt by country radio programmers, was that there might not be much for country radio this time around. The album's first single, 'Love Gets Me Every Time,' assuaged those doubts with its release Sept. 23. It debuted at No. 29 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in its first week--the highest start ever for a female country artist and the fourth highest ever for any country performer. It vaulted to No. 15 the second week and to No. 11 this issue.

Dene Hallam, VP for programming at KKBQ Houston, says he had been very concerned about what might be forthcoming from country's most successful woman. 'I knew I was getting singles from two women superstars the same week,' says Hallam, 'from Wynonna Judd and Shania Twain, and I was frightened by the prospects of getting two rock singles. Now, I think it's ironic that the Shania single is much more country than Wynonna's. I'm flabbergasted by that. Shania's song is fabulous; it's very exciting, and it's great for the format.'

Mercury Records Nashville president Luke Lewis says that this is truly a project in which the music speaks for itself. 'Thankfully, there doesn't have to be a big marketing spin on it,' he says, adding that 'reaction to the first single has been better than I expected. And the great news is that consumers are already speaking, already reacting to the single.'

SoundScan country sales figures for 'Love Gets Me Every Time' are well over 33,000 units, putting Twain at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Country Singles Sales chart this issue, behind LeAnn Rimes' 'How Do I Live.' Counting pop sales, SoundScan shows total single sales at 45,000, and the song reaches No. 31 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Sales chart this issue, in its second week there.
Lewis says the label's hope was that the first single would run up the charts quickly enough so that a second single, 'Don't Be Stupid,' could be released around album street date and carry the project through the holidays.

'There's two years' worth of singles on this album,' says Mercury VP of promotion Larry Hughes. He says no special campaign was aimed at country radio. 'In a situation like this,' he notes, 'you don't need to hype it. The music literally speaks for itself.'

Lewis says that, obviously, a long-awaited Twain tour should boost sales throughout 1998. 'The big news is that she's going to tour,' he notes. 'Obviously, it worked without touring the last time out, but that's an added element now. Also, unlike with the last album, Shania has a strong management firm now, Jon Landau Management, and a full-time public relations firm in Shore Fire Media.'

Lewis says that one difference with working this album will be a label increase in advertising. 'Last time we sold a lot of records with eight hits,' he says, 'but indicators are that there are fewer people listening to country radio now. So, regardless of how successful we are on the radio, we're stepping up our efforts in terms of advertising and being a bit more aggressive with media buys in both print and broadcast throughout the life of the project.'

A song with Bryan White dueting with Twain, 'From This Moment On,' will likely be a 1998 summer single release, Lewis says. 'Our hope is that we might find a film,' he says. 'Not a soundtrack, but a film that it would work in and that we could tie in with.'

Mercury senior VP of sales John Grady cautions that 'it's not always easy following up an album as big as her last one. The good news is that they've provided us with an even better record than the last one. She's matured as a vocalist. This is without a doubt the best follow-up record I've heard and one of the most solid records I've ever sold. When you've got 16 cuts to work with, it's not hard to make a presentation. It's Christmas time, and everything's pointing to us being successful.'

Grady says his marketing plan will not be anything unusual. 'It's just covering the bases,' he says. 'Marketing didn't sell her last album; music did. When you get a record this good and you've sold 10 million the last time, it's just about getting back to your core. Mainly, you just need to let them know that it exists. Retail is very excited about it, and they need big records as much as we do. We'll be up against Celine Dion and everybody else, and this can compete as a pop album.'
As far as pop-sounding singles go, Hughes notes that such artists as Twain, Garth Brooks, and Wynonna have a great deal of leeway with country radio and audiences. 'You can be a little more left of center,' he says. 'When the public takes hold of an artist like this, it behooves radio to follow the public's demand.'
Lewis acknowledges that the album is multifaceted and that some of the cuts could likely encounter problems at country radio.

'I guess that question might be raised later on as to whether or not they (pop-sounding cuts) would work anywhere else and whether we're going to try that and what happens if we do and so on,' he says.

Twain says she's glad the album is done, and she's spending her time gearing up for a massive 1998 tour. Details of that tour remain to be worked out. She says she's putting a band together and working on lighting and sound and staging. She's also working on the tour bus herself. Bristling at past criticism suggesting that she was light on road experience, especially since she did not tour to support 'The Woman In Me'--she is quick to point out that she has toured extensively since she was a child performer in Canada.

'I've just never toured in a luxury bus,' she says. 'The reality is that I have toured very much. I was on the road in my parents' car playing clubs from a very early age. Then I was in a van with all the guys and the equipment. I toured all the way up to the end of my first album. In my opinion, I've paid my dues as far as touring is concerned. I was able to prove that you can sell records through radio and television just on the basis of the music. You don't have to have all the hoopla.
'Sometimes the industry underestimates the fans. There are only a few women who have sold what I have sold in North America. The other two are Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette, and the only one who achieved those sales without touring was me. They probably could have as well, because their albums were excellent. But, now I can add the touring element.'

Regarding the new album itself, she says, 'It's quite a long listen, and I think it takes a while, several listens, to really get the full picture of the whole album because there is so much information on it.'

The songs, she says, fully reflect her. 'It's definitely a personality record. I don't usually write literally about my life, but I have to say that I think that this album is pretty much the way I really think. It's definitely the way I perceive things.'
A window to the Twain soul, in short? 'Yeah,' she says. 'It is my perspective, my true perspective on things.'

She says that writing these songs began even during the recording of the last album and that the hardest decision was to finally find cutoff points for both albums. 'We narrowed it down as much as we could for this album,' she says, 'and we still wound up with 16 songs. It was hard to settle on these 16. Some of the songs are quilts of various song ideas. Mutt will have a guitar idea or something going, and I'll have something else going.

'He writes more from a producer's mind and can see the end result musically, whereas I think more conceptually, like, What is this song going to be about? . . . Do I want to be serious or light? A lot of these songs have quite a cheerful or comic surface to them, but they have a deeper thought behind them.'

She does, she says, write most of the lyrics. 'I write better lyrics now because of Mutt,' she says. 'He's always pushing me to come up with something better all the time. I influence him with the music because I pretty much dictate where I want to go melodically. He's really a master at arranging things. You can hear where the rhythm will change from a verse to a chorus or have a completely different feel in a bridge.'

Twain is booked by Creative Artists Agency. Twain's publishing is Loon Echo Inc./BMI. Lange's is Out of Pocket Productions Ltd., all rights controlled by Zomba Enterprises Inc. (ASCAP).