Overview
"That Don't Impress Me Much" is a song co-written and recorded by Canadian singer Shania Twain. It was released in December 1998 as the sixth country single, and seventh single overall, from her third studio album, Come On Over (1997). It was third to pop and fourth to international markets. The song was written by Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Twain, and was originally released to North American country radio stations in late 1998. It became her third biggest single on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains one of Twain's biggest hits worldwide. "That Don't Impress Me Much" has appeared in all of Twain's tours (Come On Over, Up!, Rock This Country, Now and Queen of Me). The country version was performed on the Come on Over Tour and the dance version on the Up! Tour. "That Don't Impress Me Much" was named Foreign Hit of the Year at the 2000 Danish Grammy Awards. A dance-pop remix of the song was used as the official song of the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Background
Twain wrote the song on or near Christmas Day. In 2017, during a listening party for her fifth studio album Now, Twain revealed the reason behind using Brad Pitt's name instead of other suitable male celebrities saying that after she heard about the scandal between Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow and the subsequent leaking of Pitt's naked photo in Playgirl magazine, she was left unimpressed by all the fuss as she found it was normal to see naked people.
Content
The song describes three self-absorbed suitors with whom Twain, as the title implies, is not impressed: a know-it-all ("Okay, so you're a rocket scientist"), a man obsessed with his looks ("Okay, so you're Brad Pitt"), and another obsessed with his car ("Okay, so you've got a car"). Twain states that brains, looks, and the car "won't keep [her] warm in the middle of the night" and seeks a man with "the touch" that can do so.
Critical reception
After the single's 1998 country release, Billboard magazine wrote that "it doesn't sound remotely country" and criticized the simplistic lyrics, but praised the melody's "quirky appeal, Twain's delivery," and Robert John "Mutt" Lange's "skillful production." After the single's 1999 pop release, in a separate review, the magazine said that the single "could possibly solidify Twain's status as the decade's crossover queen," though they criticized Lange's use of "dated-sounding instrumental elements to 'pop' it up."
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).