The House That Built Me
Encyclopedia
"The House That Built Me" is a song written by Tom Douglas
and Allen Shamblin
, and recorded by American country
artist Miranda Lambert
. It was released in March 2010 as the third single from her third studio album, Revolution
. It is the fastest-rising single of her career, reaching the Top 20 in its eighth week. For the chart week of June 12, 2010, the song became Lambert's first Number One hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs
chart, and held its place at the top for four consecutive weeks. Additionally, it was her second single to receive a platinum certification from the RIAA on January 31, 2011.
Lambert performed the song during the 2010 Academy of Country Music Awards on April 18, 2010, and received a standing ovation. At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011, she won a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "The House That Built Me."
driven primarily by acoustic guitar with steel guitar fills. The song's female narrator describes returning, as an adult, to the house that she grew up in, and asking the person who now lives in the house if she could step inside and take a look around. She refers to it as "the house that built [her]," because of all the memories that she had of growing up within its walls. It is also Miranda's first single of her career that she did not have a hand in writing.
Allen Shamblin
based the song of his experience of going back to the house in Huffman, Texas
that he grew up in at least once a year.
"The House That Built Me" was ranked #1 on The 9513's Best Country Songs of 2009 and won the award for Song of the Year in their second annual country music awards. The song received nominations in three categories (Single of the Year, Song of the Year, and Music Video of the Year) at the 2010 CMA Awards.
, premiered on CMT
on April 8, 2010. In the video, Lambert's tour bus pulls up to her childhood home, and she walks up to the front door to ask if she could come in. Inside the house, she wanders through the various rooms, while documentary flashbacks of her family and herself as a child in a house that looks nearly identical to the one in the video, are mixed in. Throughout the video, Lambert is shown performing with her acoustic guitar, seated on the floor in one of the bedrooms. Some of the footage used for the flashbacks consists of Lambert's own home videos. The video was filmed at a house just outside of Nashville.
Lambert told The Boot that the concept of the video was clear: "This was one of those videos that needed to be really obvious ... [The director] found a house that looked a lot like the house I grew up in. There's no drama in the video. It just is what it is. It represents the song in such a great way."
Hot Country Songs
chart for the week of March 6, 2010. It also debuted at number 98 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of April 10, 2010 and at number 91 on the Canadian Hot 100
chart for the week of May 1, 2010; overall, it has become her most successful single on both of these charts. It is Lambert's fastest-rising single to date, and for the chart week of June 12, 2010, the song became her first number-one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
. It won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance
, giving Lambert her first Grammy win.
Tom Douglas (songwriter)
Thomas Stevenson "Tom" Douglas is an American country music songwriter. Active since the early 1990s, he has written Top Ten hits for John Michael Montgomery, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Collin Raye and others....
and Allen Shamblin
Allen Shamblin
Allen Shamblin is a country music songwriter who was born in Tennessee, and was brought up in Texas.After graduating from Sam Houston State University he worked in Austin as a real estate appraiser. In 1987, he quit his job and moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a song writer. He supported...
, and recorded by American country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
artist Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert
Miranda Lambert is an American country music artist who gained fame as a finalist on the 2003 season of Nashville Star, where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records. Lambert made her debut with the release of "Me and Charlie Talking", the first single from her 2005 debut...
. It was released in March 2010 as the third single from her third studio album, Revolution
Revolution (Miranda Lambert album)
Upon its release, Revolution received general acclaim from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 85, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".Rolling Stone magazine...
. It is the fastest-rising single of her career, reaching the Top 20 in its eighth week. For the chart week of June 12, 2010, the song became Lambert's first Number One hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
chart, and held its place at the top for four consecutive weeks. Additionally, it was her second single to receive a platinum certification from the RIAA on January 31, 2011.
Lambert performed the song during the 2010 Academy of Country Music Awards on April 18, 2010, and received a standing ovation. At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011, she won a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "The House That Built Me."
Content
"The House That Built Me" is a country ballad inthe key of F majorF major
F major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat . It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years...
driven primarily by acoustic guitar with steel guitar fills. The song's female narrator describes returning, as an adult, to the house that she grew up in, and asking the person who now lives in the house if she could step inside and take a look around. She refers to it as "the house that built [her]," because of all the memories that she had of growing up within its walls. It is also Miranda's first single of her career that she did not have a hand in writing.
Allen Shamblin
Allen Shamblin
Allen Shamblin is a country music songwriter who was born in Tennessee, and was brought up in Texas.After graduating from Sam Houston State University he worked in Austin as a real estate appraiser. In 1987, he quit his job and moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a song writer. He supported...
based the song of his experience of going back to the house in Huffman, Texas
Huffman, Texas
Huffman is an unincorporated area of northeastern Harris County, Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area.-Location:The area is centered on Farm Roads 2100 and 1960, thirty miles northeast of Downtown Houston in the piney woods of southeastern Texas. Neva Williams, a...
that he grew up in at least once a year.
Reception
Matt Bjorke described the song favorably in his review of Revolution, referring it as "one of the absolute best songs on the record." He notes that while it could've been "a bombastic, overdone song," Lambert and her producers kept it "earthy and just downright beautiful." Bjorke later reviewed the single itself, describing it as a "song that plays on the country cliché of nostalgia without ever feeling cliché" and concluded that it stands a good chance of nomination in the 2010 CMA Awards. Blake Boldt of The 9513 gave the song a thumbs up, favoring Lambert's preference in "organic storytelling instead of contrived commercial jingles." He described the song itself as "a gorgeous piece of melancholy country without getting squishy or sentimental" and called it an "early favorite for single of the year." Dan Milliken of Country Universe gave the song an A rating, describing it favorably as "the best on the album" and a standout for radio, because of "its grace and intelligence, not because it happens to be more disposably catchy than the others surrounding it.""The House That Built Me" was ranked #1 on The 9513's Best Country Songs of 2009 and won the award for Song of the Year in their second annual country music awards. The song received nominations in three categories (Single of the Year, Song of the Year, and Music Video of the Year) at the 2010 CMA Awards.
Music video
The music video, which was directed by Trey FanjoyTrey Fanjoy
Trey Fanjoy is a country music and pop music video director. Fanjoy has directed over 150 major label music videos. Her videos have appeared on CMT, VH-1, GAC, The Nashville Network, CMT Canada, and MTV.-Music videos:...
, premiered on CMT
Country Music Television
Country Music Television, or CMT, is an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, game shows, and reality programs...
on April 8, 2010. In the video, Lambert's tour bus pulls up to her childhood home, and she walks up to the front door to ask if she could come in. Inside the house, she wanders through the various rooms, while documentary flashbacks of her family and herself as a child in a house that looks nearly identical to the one in the video, are mixed in. Throughout the video, Lambert is shown performing with her acoustic guitar, seated on the floor in one of the bedrooms. Some of the footage used for the flashbacks consists of Lambert's own home videos. The video was filmed at a house just outside of Nashville.
Lambert told The Boot that the concept of the video was clear: "This was one of those videos that needed to be really obvious ... [The director] found a house that looked a lot like the house I grew up in. There's no drama in the video. It just is what it is. It represents the song in such a great way."
Chart performance
"The House That Built Me" debuted at number 51 on the U.S. BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
chart for the week of March 6, 2010. It also debuted at number 98 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of April 10, 2010 and at number 91 on the Canadian Hot 100
Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007...
chart for the week of May 1, 2010; overall, it has become her most successful single on both of these charts. It is Lambert's fastest-rising single to date, and for the chart week of June 12, 2010, the song became her first number-one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| End of year chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 91 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs | 11 |
Awards and nominations
"The House That Built Me" received three nominations at the 53rd Grammy Awards53rd Grammy Awards
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...
. It won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance was first awarded in 1965, to Dottie West. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1965 to 1967 the award was known as Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female...
, giving Lambert her first Grammy win.
| Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 44th CMA Awards | Song of the Year | |
| Single of the Year | ||
| Music Video of the Year | ||
| 53rd Grammy Awards 53rd Grammy Awards The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were... |
Song of the Year Grammy Award for Song of the Year The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year... |
|
| Best Country Song Grammy Award for Best Country Song The Grammy Award for Best Country Song has been awarded since 1965. The award is given to the writer of the song.There have been several minor changes to the name of the award:... |
||
| Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance was first awarded in 1965, to Dottie West. The award has had several minor name changes:*From 1965 to 1967 the award was known as Best Country & Western Vocal Performance - Female... |
||
| 46th ACM Awards | Song of the Year | |
| Single Record of the Year | ||
| Video of the Year | ||