“How Do I Live”: Remembering the Grand Duel
Trisha Yearwood’s “How Do I Live” played on the radio in Nashville over the holidays, spurring recollections of the grand duel that ensued over the song. As it turns out, this week -- Jan. 6 to be precise -- marks one decade since it set a precedent in the Grammy Awards. When the nominations were announced, Yearwood’s version of “How Do I Live” rivaled LeAnn Rimes’ version for Best Country Performance by a Female, marking the first time two singers squared off in the same category with the same song.
Songwriter Diane Warren originally helped Rimes learn “How Do I Live” for the Con Air soundtrack. However, producers nixed that version and turned instead to Yearwood, whose experience allowed her to interpret some of the lines with more depth than Rimes, who before the release of the movie, was just 14. The two versions got sent to country radio on the same day and programmers chose Yearwood over Rimes. Frustrated by that turn of events, Rimes’ label, Curb Records, released her rendition to pop radio and it eventually set longevity records on the adult-contemporary charts.
Yearwood won the Grammy but Rimes went on to become a contemporary adult. Tanya Tucker, who had her own history as a successful teen, predicted Rimes would end up in a rebellious phase that could be tragic. Indeed, LeAnn publicly battled her father and Curb; weeks after the Grammy nomination, a Florida reporter who overheard her conversation at a restaurant referred to her as a “spoiled brat.” Still, she never became Lindsey Lohan or Britney Spears. Asked at an awards show in Las Vegas how much she had gambled since reaching legal age, she indicated that her money could be better spent. She’s been married for nearly six years, taken up songwriting, and instead of making gossip-column headlines, is now investigating older forms of music. Her Janis Joplin imitations were spotty at first and her phrasing in “How Do I Live” (when she sings it live, she’s been known to sing “Ow do high”) has been occasionally weird. But “Nothin’ Better to Do” and “Probably Wouldn’t Be This Way” demonstrate that she has grown into the same strata of interpretive maturity that Yearwood exemplified 10 years ago.
The concept of New Year’s celebrations is grounded in change, and Rimes’ gradual transition from a raw talent to a skilled pro is the kind of change that deserves emulation.
©2008 Country Music Television, Inc., a Viacom company. A division of
B. W. LaRoy says:
Ahhhh….memories of those of us who stood around the water cooler…mocking young LeAnn’s rendition and her pronunciation of the word…Live….as she sung “How do I LEAVE without you”. It was clearly a producer, or maybe even her Daddy’s mistake in letting her sing it thatta way. I am very impressed with the person and singer LeAnn has become, but sadly enough…no matter how much better she gets in her awesome talent…her child star status continues to smother out her adult person. Now…if she can just learn how to say NO to the people who produce video, insisting on impressing her bare nekked skin upon the eyes of the average and obsessed sinners of the world. Great Blog!
hotelmotel says:
Hey I like the Cleavage! And sinning is good stuff, too!
But LeAnn still needs to learn to enunciate. “Nothing Better to Do” is such a great song, but she sounds like she has marbles in her mouth.
B. W. LaRoy says:
Ms. Rimes, do you suppose hotelmotel has purchased your CD…or does he just like to watch?
hotelmotel says:
I don’t own her current cd but I do own two of her CDs.
nell says:
What happeded to Billy Currington? Is he going to come back? He is so good.
Country Singer/Songwriters Are Hot Investments — The 9513 says:
[...] over the song “How Do I Live”. It was the first time in history that two singers squared off in the same category with the same song at the Grammy [...]
Valerie says:
Trisha may have won the grammy but…. “How Do I Live,” made her a cross-over success, selling more than three million copies and spending an unprecedented 69 weeks on the U.S. Hot 100, a record that still remains unbroken.
The reason is simple! She is a great vocalist and truly talented. I doubt many in the music industry would argue that. Give Leann a song from any artist and she’ll sing it as well or even better the original artist. Not easy to do and most can’t.