"Picture" is a

duet A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...

written by American music artists

Kid Rock Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock, is an American musician, singer, rapper, and songwriter. After establishing himself in the Music of Detroit#Hip-hop, Detroit hip-hop scene, he broke through into m ...

and

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress. She is noted for her Optimism, optimistic and Idealism, idealistic subject matter, and incorporation of genres including Rock music, rock, Po ...

, 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 (commonly abbreviated to alt-country; also known as alternative country rock, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative) is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that diffe ...

singer

Allison Moorer Allison Moorer (born June 21, 1972) is an American Country music, country 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 F ...

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 advertis ...

'' 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) is an American trade association with the stated aim of promoting and developing country music throughout the world. Founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee, it originally consisted of 233 members and was the f ...

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 the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

, was unable to obtain permission from Crow's label,

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

, to release the original version as a single. Therefore, Atlantic Records decided to rework the song with country singer

(coincidentally signed to A&M's sister label Universal South Records) instead. Moorer re-recorded Crow’s vocals for the radio release. Even though Atlantic Records was unable to obtain rights to release Crow's version as a single, mainstream, rock/alternative, and some country radio stations disregarded this and played the original version featuring Crow, while other country music radio stations played the radio edit featuring Allison Moorer instead. Because of this, ''Billboard'' credited the song on the charts as Kid Rock featuring Sheryl Crow or Allison Moorer. Each version of the song features a different guitar solo.

Composition

The song is performed in the key of

G major G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...

common time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...

with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

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 G₂ to D₅.

Chart performance

Being the third Kid Rock single that entered ''

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the 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), o ...

chart, "Picture" remains his highest-charting single in the United States, peaking at 4 in April 2003. The song also charted on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks 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 Singles & Tracks chart, the song was credited only to Kid Rock and Crow for 22 weeks. By then, the single had reached No. 33 on the chart. 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 Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellige ...

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, mon ...

effect, while most of the video is in

color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...

. It was directed by JB Carlin.

Live 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 the age of 13 and has since crossed over into pop, contemporary Christian, and o ...

on his 2003 Christmas TV special, ''A Kid Rock Christmas''. A live performance he had of the song with Gretchen Wilson was released as a track on his 2006 album '' Live Trucker''. He performed the song at a concert with

Martina McBride Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material. McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and relocated to Nashville, T ...

for the 2009 TV special '' CMA Music Festival: 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, actress 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 to ...

Miranda Lambert Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country music, country singer. 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 ...

and Jessie James. When the song is performed live, the music pauses while Kid Rock holds out the lyric "I was off to drink you away", following the lyric "I was headed to church".

Track listings

US CD single with Allison Moorer # "Picture" (radio edit) – 4:13 # "Picture" (long version edit) – 4:59 # "Picture" (long version) – 4:59 US CD single with Sheryl Crow # "Picture" (radio edit 1) – 4:14 # "Picture" (radio edit 2) – 4:09 # "Picture" (album edit) – 4:14 # "Picture" (album version) – 4:58

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 2001 songs Atlantic Records singles Lava Records singles