Marshall Crenshaw released the first version of "Some Hearts" on his 1989 album Good Evening. The album was Crenshaw's last for Warner Bros. Pessimistic about the album's fate, he sought outside songwriters; he recalled, "I didn’t want to write any songs for the album, because I had very little faith and I couldn't get myself to make that kind of commitment to the record. I decided to save my energy."[1]
Crenshaw recalled that performing a Warren song was "a little bit strange, but I was really charmed by it." The song features David Lindley on fiddle; Crenshaw stated, "We did sort of sabotage it, turned it into a hillbilly song." Crenshaw also made some changes to the lyrics, angering Warren:
I made a couple of changes in the lyrics, and she was really angry at me for doing it. I was on Diane Warren’s (bad) list. I figure you have a license to do that when you record a song.
In 2005, it was recorded by Carrie Underwood as the title track of her debut album, Some Hearts, and was the album's third single. It was only released to pop and adult contemporary radio in the United States in November 2005, around the same time that "Jesus, Take the Wheel" was released to country radio. "Some Hearts" peaked at number 12 on the BillboardAdult Contemporary chart and reached number 22 on the Adult Top 40 chart. The song had no accompanying music video and was not released to country radio. It has sold over 207,000 copies in US as of February 2010.[2]
Scott Shetler of Slant Magazine wrote in his review of the album that " Underwood is likely to become a fixture on the country charts for the next year with songs like the uptempo title track, a smash hit in the making that is equal parts Jo Dee Messina and SHeDAISY."[3]Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Underwood sounds equally convincing on such sentimental fare as "Jesus, Take the Wheel" as on the soaring pop "Some Hearts".[4]
