The Tin Man (Kenny Chesney song)

"The Tin Man" is a ballad about a brokenhearted man who wishes that he were the Tin Woodman so that he "wouldn't have a heart" and thus not feel the emotions that he is feeling.

The song is set in the key of E major with a main chord pattern of E-C♯m-A-B.[2]

In a 1995 review, Phil Kloer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the song "one of the better pieces of writing to come out of Nashville this year or last."[3] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said that the song was not "quite as shellacked with gloss" as Chesney's later ballads.[4] Billboard's review praised Chesney's vocals while taking a negative view of the songwriting: "[H]e is hitting his stride as a singer, even if The Wizard of Oz references here are a little tired."[5]

The original version later appeared on Chesney's first BNA Records album, All I Need to Know. In his review of this album, Erlewine wrote that the song "deftly reworks a cliché" and "captur[es] the blend of country instrumentation and anthemic pop that became his signature and made him a star."[6]

Chesney re-recorded the song for his 2000 Greatest Hits album.[1] This newly recorded version was the b-side to the album's first single, "I Lost It", before serving as the third release from it in 2001.[1]

The music video for "The Tin Man" was directed by Tom Bevins, and premiered on CMT on April 23, 1994, when CMT named it a "Hot Shot". A video for the 2001 re-recording was to have been directed by Trey Fanjoy; this video would have been shot on September 11, 2001 in front of the World Trade Center, but label executives canceled the shoot only a few days prior after determining that the song did not need a video.[7]

The original recording of "The Tin Man" entered the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts dated for the week ending May 14, 1994, peaking at number 70 with a six-week run on the charts.[1] The 2001 version first charted on the week ending July 28, 2001, spending twenty weeks on that chart and peaking at number 19.[1] It also peaked at number 7 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100.[1]