"Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" is a song written by Earl Bud Lee and John Wiggins. It was originally 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

Joe Nichols Joseph Edward Nichols (born November 26, 1976) is an American country music artist. Between 1996 and 2001, he held recording contracts with the Intersound and Giant labels. In 2002, he signed with Universal South Records, now known as Show Dog-U ...

on his 2007 album '' Real Things''. Country music artist

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 ...

recorded the song for his EP '' All About Tonight'', from which it was released as a single in September 2010. His version reached number one on the US ''

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 in March 2011.

Content

The song is a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

in which the narrator wants to know the characteristics his lover's hiding from him (e.g. "Do you paint your toes 'cause you bite your nails?").

Music video

The Blake Shelton music video premiered on October 1, 2010 during CMT's Big New Music Weekend. It was voted GAC's No. 1 video of 2010.

Critical reception

Matt Bjorke of Roughstock gave the song a four-out-of-five-star rating, calling it a "list song," but the lyrics "an emotion in which anyone who has been in love will certainly relate to."

Jim Malec Jim Malec is an American journalist and pop music critic known for writing about country music. Malec attended State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, where he worked as an editor for the college's student newspaper and was involved in a cen ...

of American Twang gave the song a thumbs-up review, calling it an "intimate rumination on the mystery of a beautiful, graceful woman." Karlie Justus of ''Engine 145'' gave the song a thumbs-up. She thought that Blake Shelton's performance was "flatter" than Joe Nichols's, but said that the lyrics were "grounded and honest." Gary Graff of ''

'' also described the song positively, saying that it "mixes humor and pathos with a sweet melody and a wry attitude."

Chart performance

"Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" debuted at number fifty-one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs for the week of September 18, 2010. It became Shelton's eighth number one single on the country chart dated March 5, 2011. It has sold 1,098,000 copies in the United States as of June 2013.

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{Blake Shelton singles 2007 songs 2010 singles Country ballads 2010s ballads Joe Nichols songs Blake Shelton songs Song recordings produced by Scott Hendricks Music videos directed by Trey Fanjoy Show Dog-Universal Music singles Reprise Records singles