I Told You So: The Ultimate Hits of Randy Travis

Context

Following his Grammy-nominated, high charting, studio album Around the Bend, which marked a return to mainstream country music, Travis released I Told You So concurrently with his compilation of Gospel music, Three Wooden Crosses:The Inspirational Hits of Randy Travis. I Told You So continued Travis' reachieved chart success, peaking at number 3 on country album charts and number 16 on U.S. charts during its debut week.

A week prior to the album's release, Travis appeared on American Idol with country singer Carrie Underwood to sing a duet of the title track, "I Told You So." The pair had previously released the duet to radio, which peaked at Number one on Canadian charts, number two on U.S. Country charts and reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. Four days prior to the release, Travis appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to perform the album's single "Turn It Around" as well as his signature song, "Forever and Ever, Amen." "Turn It Around" was previously featured on Around the Bend.

Content

"I Told You So" is made up of songs recorded by Travis from 1985 to 2009, including ten different album cuts from Travis' seventeen studio albums. Two other songs are also included, one of which was never released, and another, which was released only for EP. "Turn It Around" was released as the album's single but was also featured on Around the Bend.

Love's Alive and Well

"Love's Alive and Well" was previously featured on Travis' 2005 EP Four Walls along with "Three Wooden Crosses", "Four Walls" and "Not Your Cross To Bear." The cover art for the EP is the same as "I Told You So" except for the album title, which is found going left to right rather than up and down.

The song describes situations that the vocalist believes proves that "Love's [still] Alive and Well." Mentioned, is the opening of a store door by a white boy for an elderly black woman, and a homeless man who puts money in a collection plate at church.

Turn It Around

"Turn It Around" was released to radio stations on March 12, 2009. Like the two previous releases from Around the Bend, the song received very little airplay. It is up-tempo with guitar instrumentals and a rhythmatic solo guitar opening. In the song, the vocalist pleads for a woman to come back after a fight. The chorus goes as follows:

"It's safe to say I've underestimated how strong you are, apparently girl you got what it takes to break my heart, you're everything I need I know, right now I want to hold you close, but all that I can do is pray that you'll come home..."

The song is a call for a woman to "turn it around" and head back home, presumably in her car. The speaker continues with the song's title by stating that in regards to his "life" he'll "turn it around" to benefit the other.

You Ain't Right

"You Ain't Right" is the last track and the latest song recorded by Travis to be featured on the album. The song begins with an electric guitar solo. In the song, the singer describes different anti-social behaviors of people and comments that whomever he is referring to, "ain't right." For example, he sings:

"If you're thirty without a job, and you're still living with your mom, you ain't right..."

Each statement is followed by an electric guitar note. It also refers to religious elements, citing the collection plate at a Christian church. The chorus concludes:

"Lord knows you're not alone, we're all a little wrong, but you ain't right"

Reception

Allmusic gave the album a favorable review, arguing that the essential tracks were the songs from Travis' album Storms of Life including "Diggin' Up Bones", "1982", "On the Other Hand" and "No Place Like Home", all of which with the exception of "1982" were written or co-written by singer-songwriter Paul Overstreet. "Whisper My Name", Travis' final American Number one of the 1990s, was also mentioned in the review. Allmusic lauded the new traditional approach of Travis, which it cites as making "him still seem relevant and current even after all these years."

Roughstock.com also wrote a favorable review of the album. It assessed the two new tracks of the album, "Love's Alive and Well" and "You Ain't Right" as probable "future singles." The writer criticized Warner Bros. Records' decision to leave off Travis' major hit "Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart", and was dismayed by the absence of songs during Travis' tenor with DreamWorks. However, the reviewer concludes that the album "is still a great introduction into one of the most influential Country singers of the last 30 years and he, not George Strait or Garth Brooks, was the first multi-platinum Country star. So it's fair to say that without Randy Travis we'd not have Country music as we now know it, an equally popular music format."

Disc one

1. "Diggin' Up Bones" (Al Gore, Paul Overstreet, Nat Stuckey) - 3:01
2. "Forever and Ever, Amen" (Overstreet, Don Schlitz) - 3:33
3. "I Told You So" (Randy Travis) - 3:40
4. "He Walked on Water" (Allen Shamblin) - 3:25
5. "Promises" (John Lindley, Randy Travis) - 4:00
6. "Three Wooden Crosses" (Kim Williams, Doug Johnson) - 3:21
7. "Deeper Than the Holler" (Overstreet, Schlitz) - 3:40
8. "On the Other Hand" (Overstreet, Schlitz) - 3:07
9. "Too Gone Too Long" (Gene Pistilli) - 2:27
10. "We're Strangers Again" (Merle Haggard, Leona Williams) - 2:48
11. duet with Tammy Wynette
12. "Look Heart, No Hands" (Trey Bruce, Russell Smith) - 3:10
13. "1982" (Buddy Blackmon, Vip Vipperman) - 2:58
14. "Better Class of Losers" (Alan Jackson, Travis) - 2:41
15. "I Won't Need You Anymore (Always and Forever)" (Max D. Barnes, Troy Seals) - 3:11
16. "Faith in You" (Tom Douglas, Joe Henry, Matt Rollings) - 3:46
17. "Love's Alive and Well" (Steve Jones, John Scott Sherrill) - 3:18
18. previously released under the Four Walls EP

Disc two

1. "Honky Tonk Moon" (Dennis O'Rourke) - 2:50
2. "Would I" (Mark Winchester) - 2:25
3. "It's Just a Matter of Time" (Brook Benton, Belford Hendricks, Clyde Otis) - 3:57
4. "Forever Together" (Jackson, Travis) - 3:05
5. "No Place Like Home" (Overstreet) - 4:07
6. "A Few Ole Country Boys" (Seals, Mentor Williams) - 3:39
7. duet with George Jones
8. "Is It Still Over?" (Ken Bell, Larry Henley) - 3:12
9. "Whisper My Name" (Bruce) - 3:08
10. "Before You Kill Us All" (Barnes, Keith Follesé) - 3:20
11. "Heroes and Friends" (Schlitz, Travis) - 3:13
12. "This Is Me" (Thom McHugh, Tom Shapiro) - 3:25
13. "King of the Road" (Roger Miller) - 3:49
14. "The Box" (Buck A. Moore, Travis) - 3:22
15. "Are We in Trouble Now" (Mark Knopfler) - 4:21
16. "Turn It Around" (Noah Gordon, Matt Kennon) - 3:00
17. "You Ain't Right" (Kelley Lovelace, Phil O'Donnell, Tim Owens) - 3:30
18. previously unreleased