"Picture" is a
duet
A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a sol ...
written by American music artists
Kid Rock
Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock (also known as Bobby Shazam), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. His style alternates between rock, hip hop, country, and metal. A self-taught musician ...
and
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released eleven studio albums, five compilations and three ...
, released on November 12, 2002, as the fourth single and ninth track from Kid Rock's 2001 album ''
Cocky''. The original recording on the album is performed by the song's writers. Rock re-recorded the song for radio with
alternative country
Alternative country, or alternative country rock (sometimes alt-country, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative), is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that differ significantly in style ...
singer
Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer (born June 21, 1972) is an American singer/songwriter. She signed with MCA Nashville in 1997 and made her debut on the U.S. Billboard Country Chart with the release of her debut single, “A Soft Place To Fall,” which she co-wr ...
because Atlantic was initially unable to get the rights from Crow's label to release the album version as a single.
[ When the Moorer version was released, some radio stations began playing the Crow version instead, leading '']Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...
'' to credit the song variously to Kid Rock featuring Sheryl Crow or Allison Moorer. The song was a commercial and critical success and was nominated for Vocal Event of The Year at the 2003 Country Music Association
The Country Music Association (CMA) was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre. The objectives of the organization are to guide and enha ...
awards.
Background
Kid Rock's label, Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most im ...
, was unable to obtain permission from Crow's label, A&M Records
A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...
, to release the original version as a single. Therefore, Atlantic Records decided to rework the song with country singer Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer (born June 21, 1972) is an American singer/songwriter. She signed with MCA Nashville in 1997 and made her debut on the U.S. Billboard Country Chart with the release of her debut single, “A Soft Place To Fall,” which she co-wr ...
(coincidentally signed to A&M's sister label Universal South Records
Show Dog Nashville is an American independent record label specializing in country music artists. It was founded in 2005 by singer Toby Keith. It was later merged with Universal South Records into Show Dog-Universal Music in December 2009 until ...
) instead. Moorer re-recorded Crow’s vocals for the commercial release.
Composition
The song is performed in the key of G major
G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor.
The G major scale is:
Notable com ...
in common time
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note val ...
with a tempo
In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
of 98 beats per minute. The verses of the song follow a chord progression of G–C–D–C–G, and the chorus follows an Em–G–D–C–G progression. The vocals span from G3 to B5.
Chart performance
Being the third Kid Rock single that entered ''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...
s Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
chart, "Picture" remains his highest-charting single in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, peaking at 4 in April 2003. The song also charted on the Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...
chart, peaking at No. 21. Until 2008's " All Summer Long", it also marked his only Top 40 country hit. The song is also Sheryl Crow's second-most successful single in the United States, after her 1994 hit " All I Wanna Do" which reached No. 2.
On the Hot Country Songs chart, the song was credited only to Kid Rock and Crow for 22 weeks. By then, the single had reached No. 33 on the charts. The following week, however, the song began to be credited to Kid Rock featuring Sheryl Crow or Allison Moorer. The song spent a total of 33 weeks on the country chart, reaching No. 21 in 2003.
As of September 2017, "Picture" sold 836,300 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan
Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...
.
Music video
Even though Crow's label did not release licensing permissions for the original version, Crow was featured in the music video singing instead of Moorer. The video takes place in a studio showing Rock and Crow recording the song, accompanied by clips of the duo hanging out in the winter time. During the guitar solo, Rock is seen wearing a cowboy hat and winter jacket while walking alone in a field covered in snow. The video also features a few uses of the monochrome
A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochr ...
effect, while most of the video is in color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
. It was directed by JB Carlin.
Notable live and recorded performances
Kid Rock performed "Picture" with LeAnn Rimes
Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She originally rose to success as a country music artist at age 13 with 1996's "Blue". She has since crossed over into pop, contemporary Chri ...
on his 2003 Christmas TV special, ''A Kid Rock Christmas''.
A live performance he had of the song with Gretchen Wilson
Gretchen Frances Wilson (born June 26, 1973) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She made her debut in March 2004 with the Grammy Award-winning single " Redneck Woman", a number-one hit on the '' Billboard'' country charts. The ...
was released as a track on his 2006 album ''Live Trucker
''Live Trucker'' is a live album by Kid Rock and the Twisted Brown Trucker band. It was released on February 28, 2006, via Top Dog/Atlantic Records. Most of the songs were recorded from August 26 through August 28, 2004 at DTE Energy Music Theatre ...
''.
He performed the song at a concert with Martina McBride
Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, born July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer-songwriter and record producer. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material.
McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and rel ...
for the 2009 TV special ''CMA Music Festival
The CMA Music Festival is a four-day music festival centered on country music, hosted each June by the Country Music Association (CMA) in Nashville, Tennessee. Beginning in 1972 under the name Fan Fair, the event now draws over 400 artists and c ...
: Country’s Night To Rock''.
Kid Rock has also sung the song live with female country singers Kellie Pickler
Kellie Dawn Pickler (born June 28, 1986) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and television personality. Pickler gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of ''American Idol'' and finished in sixth place. In 2006, she signed ...
, Miranda Lambert
Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country singer and guitarist. Born in Longview, Texas, she started out in early 2001 when she released her self-titled debut album independently. In 2003, she finished in third place o ...
and Jessie James
Jessica Rose James Decker (born April 12, 1988) is an American country pop singer. At age 15, after auditioning for and being rejected by most of the country labels in Nashville, Tennessee, Decker began working with Carla Wallace of Big Yello ...
.
When the song is performed live, the music pauses while Rock holds out the lyric “I was off to drink you away”, following the lyric “I was headed to church”.
Covers
Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold
Robin Noel Pecknold (born March 30, 1986) is an American singer-songwriter, who serves as the principal songwriter and vocalist for indie folk band Fleet Foxes, with whom he has recorded four studio albums. He is known for his distinct bariteno ...
covered the song with Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francis ...
in 2010 when the former opened for the latter.
Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts is an American country music band founded in 1999. The band members were Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background vocals). DeMarcus is LeVox's second cou ...
covered the song with Sheryl Crow on their joint 2014 tour.
Track listings
US CD single with Allison Moorer
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
External links
Video
at MTV.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Picture (Song)
2002 singles
American country music songs
Kid Rock songs
Sheryl Crow songs
Allison Moorer songs
Male–female vocal duets
Songs written by Kid Rock
1998 songs
Atlantic Records singles