"You Were Mine" | ||||
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Single by Dixie Chicks | ||||
from the album Wide Open Spaces | ||||
Released | December 7, 1998 | |||
Recorded | August 1997 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 3:37 | |||
Label | Monument | |||
Songwriter(s) |
Emily Erwin Martie Seidel |
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Producer(s) |
Blake Chancey Paul Worley |
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Dixie Chicks singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"You Were Mine" at CMT.com |
"You Were Mine" is a song recorded by American country music group Dixie Chicks. It was released in December 1998 as the fourth single from the album Wide Open Spaces. The song hit number one on the U.S. Country singles chart, spending two weeks there in March 1999. It also placed 34th on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop singles chart, and reached third place on Canada's country music chart.
The song was written in 1995 by two of the founders of the original Dixie Chicks band, the Erwin sisters, who were not strangers to writing music and performing (they are now known as Martie Maguire and Emily Robison). Robison wrote most of the song, and Maguire supplied the bridge. It is a very autobiographical song, about the breakup of Robison's and Maguire's parents and their subsequent divorce. In one interview, when asked about it, Robison said that their parents generally "sweep it under the rug", saying, "They know it's about them, but [whispers] we never talk about it. [laughs] They don't want to bring it up because they're still weird around each other. My dad doesn't want to think it's about him, because it doesn't make him look very good, and my mom thinks she's moved on."
"You Were Mine" was a key factor in the events that brought the Dixie Chicks from near total obscurity to massive commercial success. Based on a recommendation from session musician and producer Lloyd Maines, in the summer of 1995 the Erwin sisters invited Maines' daughter Natalie Maines, to return to her home in Lubbock, Texas to sing the lead vocal on a demo recording of the song, rather than using the Chicks' actual lead vocalist Laura Lynch to sing the part. At the time, the sisters told the other supporting musicians that this was only because Lynch was unavailable due to being out of town on a personal matter. In reality, the recording convinced both Natalie Maines that she would be comfortable singing a more pop and country rock focused format of country material (as opposed to their past purer bluegrass focus), and at the same time, confirmed what both sisters had suspected; that Maines had a powerful versatile voice that could complement their instrumental prowess. It led the sisters to remove Lynch and replace her with Maines.