"A Little Too Late" is a song co-written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Toby Keith Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961), known professionally as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. He released his first four studio albums—1993's '' Toby Keith'', 1994's '' Boomtown'', 19 ...

that reached the Top 5 on the '' Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart. It was released in April 2006 as the second single from his CD ''

White Trash with Money ''White Trash with Money'' is the tenth studio album by American country music artist Toby Keith. It was released on April 11, 2006 by Show Dog Nashville. This was Keith's first album for the label after DreamWorks Records went out of business. The ...

''. Keith wrote the song with his frequent collaborator,

Scotty Emerick Walter Scott Emerick (born July 11, 1973, in Hollywood, Florida) is an American country music artist, known primarily for his work with Toby Keith. In addition to penning several of Keith's singles, Emerick has also written for Sawyer Brown, ...

, and

Dean Dillon Dean Dillon (born Larry Dean Flynn; March 26, 1955) is an American country musician and songwriter. Between 1982 and 1993, he recorded six studio albums on various labels, and charted several singles on the '' Billboard'' country charts. Since 1 ...

Content

The song is a moderate up-tempo mostly accompanied by

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

s. The song's lyrics show a male addressing a former female lover, telling her that the couple is through.

Music video

A music video for "A Little Too Late," which was directed by

Michael Salomon Michael Salomon (born in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, United States) is an American music video/film director, who has directed many music videos, including many of Toby Keith's music videos. He directed the video for Metallica's " One", which was ...

, and premiered on CMT and

Great American Country Great American Family is an American cable television network. Owned by Great American Media, it broadcasts family-oriented general entertainment programming, including television series and made-for-TV movies. It was originally established in ...

on May 11, 2006. At the beginning of the music video, Keith appeared at the doorway of a basement stairwell with a

shovel A shovel is a tool used for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore. Most shovels are hand tools consisting of a broad blade fixed to a medium-length handle. Shovel blades are usually made o ...

, announces that he's home, and begins playing a

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

of the single. He then approaches his ex-girlfriend (

Krista Allen Krista Allen (born April 5, 1971) is an American actress, model and stand-up comic. She is best known for her work in the television series '' Days of Our Lives'', '' Baywatch Hawaii'', and the erotic TV series '' Emmanuelle in Space''. Allen a ...

), who has been tied to a chair in the basement. After mocking her, Keith puts the

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

in a

water trough A water trough (British terminology), or track pan (American terminology) is a device to enable a steam locomotive to replenish its water supply while in motion. It consists of a long trough filled with water, lying between the rails. When a ste ...

by removing a tarp over a pallet of

bricks A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

. Keith builds a

brick wall Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by si ...

for the intent of sealing his girlfriend inside and leaving her; indeed, the woman's fear and apprehension grows, as Keith finished building his brick wall. Keith places the last brick after the song finishes. Keith continues to mock his girlfriend after the brick wall is completed. However, when Keith turns to leave, he realizes what he had failed to notice before, he was actually standing on the wrong side of the wall, and accidentally bricked himself inside. Suddenly, the young woman bumps the vinyl record, causing the single to scratch, and frees herself by walking out of the basement; Keith apologizes to her by meekly calling for help. Keith does not wear a cowboy hat in the video, but rather a

baseball cap A baseball cap is a type of soft hat with a rounded crown and a stiff bill projecting in front. The front of the hat typically displays a design or a logo (historically, usually only a sports team, namely a baseball team, or names of relevant c ...

Chart performance

This song debuted at number 45 on the Hot Country Songs chart on the chart dated April 29, 2006. Many radio stations added this song in its first official week of airplay, boosting the song to number 30 the next week. The song finally peaked at number 2 in early August, where it held for two weeks, after remaining at number 4 for four weeks.

Year-end charts

References

External links

Lyrics at CMT.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Too Late, A 2006 singles 2006 songs Toby Keith songs Songs written by Dean Dillon Songs written by Scotty Emerick Songs written by Toby Keith Show Dog-Universal Music singles Music videos directed by Michael Salomon