"The House That Built Me" is a song written by
Tom Douglas and
Allen Shamblin
Allen Shamblin is a country music songwriter who was born in Tennessee, and was brought up in Huffman, 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 ...
, and recorded by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
artist
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 ...
.
Blake Shelton
Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music singer and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single " Austin". The lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" spent five weeks at ...
was originally set to record the song, but when Lambert heard it, she emotionally reacted to the lyrics, and immediately wanted to record it for herself. It was released in March 2010 as the third single from her third studio album, ''
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
''. 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 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 sal ...
chart, and held its place at the top for four consecutive weeks. It is also Lambert's first single of her career that she did not have a hand in writing. Additionally, it was her second single to receive a platinum certification from the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
on January 31, 2011.
Lambert performed the song during the 2010
Academy of Country Music Awards
The Academy of Country Music Awards, also known as the ACM Awards, were first held in 1966, honoring the industry's accomplishments during the previous year. It was the first country music awards program held by a major organization. The academy ...
on April 18, 2010, and received a standing ovation. At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011, she won the Grammy for
Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Content
"The House That Built Me" is a country ballad in the key of
F major
F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor
F minor is a minor scale based on F, consis ...
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
er" because of all the memories that she had of growing up within its walls.
Allen Shamblin
Allen Shamblin is a country music songwriter who was born in Tennessee, and was brought up in Huffman, 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 ...
based the song on his experiences going back to the house in
Huffman, Texas
Huffman is an unincorporated community of northeastern Harris County, Texas within the Houston, Baytown metropolitan area.
Location
The Huffman community is centered on Farm to Market Roads 2100 and 1960, northeast of Downtown Houston in the ...
that he grew up in at least once a year.
Critical reception
The song received critical acclaim. 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
The Country Music Association Awards, also known as the CMA Awards or CMAs, are presented to country music artists and broadcasters to recognize outstanding achievement in the country music industry. The televised annual presentation ceremony f ...
. Blake Boldt of Engine 145 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 No. 1 on Engine 145's ''Best Country Songs of 2009''. 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. ''
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 advertise ...
'' and ''
Paste'' both ranked it number one on their lists of the 10 greatest Miranda Lambert songs. It was ranked No. 441 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time".
Commercial performance
"The House That Built Me" debuted at number 51 on the U.S. ''
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 advertise ...
''
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 sal ...
chart for the week of March 6, 2010. It also debuted at number 98 on the U.S. ''Billboard''
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 for the week of April 10, 2010, and at number 91 on the
Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...
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 reached its 2 million sales mark in the US by April 2014.
As of May 2016, the song has sold 2.267 million copies in the US.
Music video
The music video, which was directed by
Trey Fanjoy
Trey Fanjoy is an American music video director. Fanjoy has directed over 150 major label music videos. Her videos have appeared on CMT, VH1, GAC, The Nashville Network, CMT Canada, and MTV. She is the first woman to win the Country Music Asso ...
, 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 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 ...
he director
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
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."
In popular culture
Parodies
* American parody artist
Cledus T. Judd
James Barry Poole (born December 18, 1964) is an American country music artist who records under the name Cledus T. Judd. Known primarily for his parodies of popular country songs, he has been called the "Weird Al" Yankovic of country music, and ...
released a parody of the song under the title "The House That Broke Me" on his 2012 album, ''
Parodyziac!!''
Covers
* American
YouTuber
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influent ...
Chester See
Chester See (born Chester Lionel Watch April 20, 1983) is an American YouTuber, singer and actor. He is best known for his YouTube videos, which have garnered over 207 million views, as of September 2017. He appeared as Stacee Jaxx in ''Rock of ...
released a cover of "The House That Built Me" on his YouTube channel in 2015.
* American country artist
Tanya Tucker
Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958) is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. Over the succeeding decades, Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature int ...
recorded a cover of "The House That Built Me" for her album, ''
While I'm Livin'
''While I'm Livin is the twenty-fifth studio album by American country music singer Tanya Tucker. It was released on August 23, 2019, by Fantasy Records. The album was produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. It is Tucker's first album in ...
'', which was released on August 23, 2019. While Lambert's version is from the perspective of a child who grew up in the titular house, Tucker's version is sung from the perspective of a mother who watched her children grow up in the house.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
Certifications
Awards and nominations
"The House That Built Me" received three nominations at the
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 pri ...
. It won the
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
*In 1 ...
, giving Lambert her first Grammy win.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:House That Built Me
2009 songs
2010 singles
2019 singles
2010s ballads
Miranda Lambert songs
Tanya Tucker songs
Columbia Nashville Records singles
Country ballads
Music videos directed by Trey Fanjoy
Song recordings produced by Frank Liddell
Songs written by Allen Shamblin
Songs written by Tom Douglas (songwriter)