| The Tin Man | |
| Cover: | Kennychesney331123.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Kenny Chesney |
| Album: | In My Wildest Dreams (1994) All I Need to Know (1995) Greatest Hits (2000) |
| B-Side: | "I Finally Found Somebody" (1994 version only)[1] |
| Released: | April 19, 1994 July 23, 2001 (re-release) |
| Genre: | Country |
| Length: | 3:28 3:37 (re-release) |
| Label: | Capricorn (1994) BNA (2001) |
| Producer: | Barry Beckett (1994) Kenny Chesney, Buddy Cannon and Norro Wilson (2001) |
| Prev Title: | Whatever It Takes |
| Prev Year: | 1993 |
| Next Title: | Somebody's Callin' |
| Next Year: | 1994 |
"The Tin Man" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Kenny Chesney. It was the second single released from his 1994 debut album In My Wildest Dreams. Six years later, Chesney re-recorded the song for his first Greatest Hits compilation album and released this recording in July 2001 as the album's third single.
"The Tin Man" is a ballad about a brokenhearted man who wishes that he were the Tin Woodman so that he "wouldn't have a heart" and thus not feel the emotions that he is feeling.
The song is set in the key of E major with a main chord pattern of E-Cm-A-B.[2]
In a 1995 review, Phil Kloer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the song "one of the better pieces of writing to come out of Nashville this year or last."[3] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said that the song was not "quite as shellacked with gloss" as Chesney's later ballads.[4] Billboards review praised Chesney's vocals while taking a negative view of the songwriting: "[H]e is hitting his stride as a singer, even if The Wizard of Oz references here are a little tired."[5]
The original version later appeared on Chesney's first BNA Records album, All I Need to Know. In his review of this album, Erlewine wrote that the song "deftly reworks a cliché" and "captur[es] the blend of country instrumentation and anthemic pop that became his signature and made him a star."[6]
Chesney re-recorded the song for his 2000 Greatest Hits album.[1] This newly recorded version was the b-side to the album's first single, "I Lost It", before serving as the third release from it in 2001.[1]
The music video for "The Tin Man" was directed by Tom Bevins, and premiered on CMT on April 23, 1994, when CMT named it a "Hot Shot". A video for the 2001 re-recording was to have been directed by Trey Fanjoy; this video would have been shot on September 11, 2001 in front of the World Trade Center, but label executives canceled the shoot only a few days prior after determining that the song did not need a video.[7]
The original recording of "The Tin Man" entered the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts dated for the week ending May 14, 1994, peaking at number 70 with a six-week run on the charts.[1] The 2001 version first charted on the week ending July 28, 2001, spending twenty weeks on that chart and peaking at number 19.[1] It also peaked at number 7 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100.[1]