(If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here!

Album: The Woman in Me (1995)
Charted: 74
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song, Shania Twain lets a guy know that she's already heard any pick-up line he might try, so he shouldn't even bother. She's not the kind of girl for a casual fling; she's in it for love, and if he isn't, she's outta here. Some of the tiresome pick-up lines Shania mentions include:

    Are you new in town?
    Are you here alone?
    You could be a beauty queen
    What's your sign?
  • Twain was signed to Mercury Records around the same time as Toby Keith. Both released their debut albums in 1993; Keith's contained four Top 10 Country hits, including the #1 "Should've Been a Cowboy," but Twain got no higher than #55 on that chart with any of her singles. Her fortunes changed with her next album, The Woman In Me. Unlike her debut, it was filled with songs she wrote with her new producer, Mutt Lange, who was also her new husband - they got married at the end of 1993. Suddenly, Twain was a hit machine. Eight singles from the album landed on the Country chart, with four of them going to #1, including "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!" Toby Keith went on to become one of the top singer-songwriters in country music, but Twain became a cross-genre superstar. The Woman In Me went on to sell 12 million copies in America.
  • The exclamation point in the title is very Shania. It's punctuation that best represents her energy and attitude, and it shows up in a lot of her songs, most famously "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!," which uses two!
  • The parentheses at the beginning of the title "(If You're Not in It for Love)" are something Mutt Lange would sometimes use to wrangle his longer titles. His most famous song to do it is "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You," which he co-wrote and produced for Bryan Adams.

    As you've probably sussed out, Lange is rather versatile, working in many different genres. Before landing country hits with Twain, he worked with rockers like AC/DC and Def Leppard, and balladeers like Adams and Michael Bolton.
  • Steven Goldmann directed the video, which is one of the few Shania Twain videos that takes place entirely indoors. We see her performing the song with a band and various gal pals.

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