“I Told You So”
Randy Travis
Written by Randy Travis
Radio & Records
#1 (2 weeks)
May 20 – May 27, 1988
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
June 11 – June 18, 1988
Alan Jackson already rubs elbows with Randy Travis down at the Country Music Hall of Fame. “I Told You So” showcases just how much of an influence Travis was for Jackson’s own legendary career.
There isn’t a forced rhyme or any consistent rhythm to “I Told You So.” Such things would get in the way of the confessional songwriting that prioritizes the expression of raw truth over the structure of the song. This is the key distinction that keeps Jackson’s uptempo songs from ever devolving into novelty (“We fogged up the windows in my old Chevy/I was willing but she wasn’t ready.”) and makes his ballads feel genuine and real (“If tomorrow I found one more chance to begin/I’d love you all over again.”)
“I Told You So” is as intelligent as something from Bob Dylan and emotionally naked as something from Hank Williams, delivered by a vocalist who can rightfully be mentioned in the same breath as George Jones and Merle Haggard. An entire romantic epic plays out solely in his imagination, as he struggles with the wide range of outcomes that ultimately justify his fear-driven state of indecision. It’s a portrait of a tortured mind that is frighteningly aware that their tortured state is entirely self-inflicted.
Is Randy Travis, for all of his accolades, actually underrated? I’m starting to wonder.
“I Told You So” gets an A.
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100 %. An all time classic. II want to point out the fantastic steel guitar work in the song. Like it’s singing with Randy in the chorus. It was the first song as a kid that made me take notice of that sound. I remember loving the sound and asking my mom what the instrument was. It was the first time I fell in love with steel guitar. I’ve never been the way since.
It’s becoming clear that for as much as I loved 1988 at the time, I didn’t give it enough credit for how great the country music scene was that year. This is my favorite (or at least tied) of Randy Travis’ ballads. I appreciate it even more learning here that he was the songwriter as he expertly channeled the range of outcomes so many of us have spitballed when considering making a play for an ex that we lost, and delivered it with the usual top-shelf vocals and production quality. I sympathize greatly with the narrator but also wonder if messed up as badly as he discredits himself for or if he’s dealing with an emotionally manipulative ex who he will ultimately regret making another play for if she does take him back. How is it possible that this masterpiece was his fourth single (!) from his “Always and Forever” album??!
I mostly shrug off Carrie Underwood as a bland and not particularly affable song interpreter, but I’ll give her credit for doing a solid cover of “I Told You So”. With that said, Randy did all the heavy lifting with the compelling arrangement of the original and gave Carrie a tremendous amount to work with. Anybody young enough to only remember Carrie’s version is being short-changed by never having heard Randy’s original.
Grade: A
“Is Randy Travis, for all of his accolades, actually underrated? I’m starting to wonder.”
This is an interesting question that I’ve never really considered. The conventional wisdom is that Travis peaked with Storms of Life, and it was all downhill from there. While I do think that’s generally true, I also believe it wildly undersells the caliber of the work that he continued to release into the early 90s and then intermittently thereafter.
By measuring the whole of his career against the benchmark of that one album, it’s easy to focus on the fact that he never again attained the same heights. But how fair is it, really, to hold anyone to such a high standard? “Not quite up to the level of Storms of Life” is still going to be superior to 98% of what’s ever hit the shelves, and a far sight better than what a whole lot of his contemporaries ever committed to record.
New Country magazine was basically my monthly bible in the nineties because they did really in-depth interviews with artists that laser focused on the music.
I remember theor spread on Randy Travis when he was launching the This is Me album. He spoke extensively about how the album every year/touring cycle made it very difficult to keep up the caliber of those first two albums, and it was complicated by the fact that suddenly everyone in town was looking for traditional material. (It’s probably related to why in 1994, a Randy Travis feature was only mentioned in text on a cover that featured Pam Tillis as the cover artist and a picture of Lorrie Morgan as the secondary feature, despite the Randy Travis and Rodney Crowell features being just as in depth.)
Here’s the money quote, which captures so much about the “hot new artist” obsession in Nashville at the time that had made the still young Travis seem like an afterthought:
“Well, it’s a little strange to have people call you a founding father or a legend when you’re only 34. But I’m real proud that people think so much of Storms. When I was signed, that was really the only kind of album I could have made, one that was that country. We did the best we could and it came together pretty easily. Back then, people weren’t recording the kind of material we were looking for. You should go looking for those kinds of hard country songs now. Everybody’s trying to find ‘em.”
Reimagine his career culminating with “Storms of Life” and it is much easier to appropriately value, contextualize, and appreciate his other albums, many of which are excellent in their own right, beginning with “Always & Forever.”
A genuine case can be made that his sophomore album is actually superior to his debut. The four number one hits from “Always & Forever” more clearly predict and established who Randy Travis will become as an artist, in ways the hits from “Storms of Life” do not.
“Storms of Life” was all about Travis doubling-down on a traditional style of country music and his once-in-a generation voice. “Always & Forever” better defined Travis as a person.
Travis’ emphasis on family and faith throughout the remainder of his career begins with “Always & Forever.”
Getting back to “I Told You So,” this single had people filling the station platform to get on the Travis train. I remember this single resonating differently with many of my classmates than his earlier hits. They were suddenly LISTENING to this new country music and embracing it as their own
Those earlier Travis songs still were looking back over their shoulder to the past. “Too Gone Too Long” and “I Told You So” felt contemporary and looked forward to what was coming down the tracks.
“I Told You So” is an absolutely, brilliant composition and and such a significant performance.
Hah!
Kevin, I distinctly remember unexpectedly coming across the Fall ’93 edition of “New Country Music” racked in the Hamline University bookstore in the student union building on Hewitt Avenue in St. Paul. I was so excited to add it to my pile of text books and piles of bound photocopied essays.
One of the features was “500 Best Country Albums.” Reba was on the cover.
Holy hell, I still remember tearing through that list when I got back to my dorm room in Sorin Hall.
The nineties was an absolute gold mine of quality country music magazines.
The nostalgia and love for this song I have is something I can’t put into words. It was a time in my life that the song resonated in ways I’m still feeling. I do like Carrie’s cover but the original is and remains the best. I do wonder if Randy Travis could be a little underrated, now you mention it. Storms Of Life is a justified classic but his early albums – and later, too – were of really great quality too.