Top 40 Singles of 2008: LeAnn Rimes - "What I Cannot Change" (#4)

After 13 years in the music business, LeAnn Rimes has matured into an international superstar on the basis of great songs.  But perhaps no song she's recorded has quite matched this single, which radio promptly ignored earlier this year.

Around for 13 years, since she sang “Blue” in 1996, LeAnn Rimes has certainly enjoyed a long and prosperous career with nearly 40 million albums sold worldwide.  As she has grown up, LeAnn has moved from precocious teen to mature adult with complete control over the direction of her career.  Despite excursions into the realm of pop music, LeAnn has never strayed too far from her country roots and with 2005’s “This Woman,” LeAnn has completely returned to country with much success.  After that’s album’s three popular singles, LeAnn returned in 2007 with “Family,” a record which found her co-writing every track (except for the duets with Bon Jovi and Reba tacked onto the end).
 
One of the album’s greatest tracks is “What I Cannot Change” and while the soft and tender ballad didn’t garner LeAnn the big chart hit that it should have done, the song is nonetheless one of 2008’s greatest singles.  The song’s verses discuss LeAnn coming to terms with who she is and where she comes from while the choruses basically rewrite the Serenity Prayer.  It’s a mature single from a mature album by a mature artist.  While many in radio may still see LeAnn as that cute teenager, she’s far from that and if you compare her to other teen stars from over the years, she’s downright normal. 

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