"What I Really Meant to Say" is a debut song written by

Cyndi Thomson Cyndi Thomson (born October 19, 1976) is an American country music artist. Thomson wrote songs with songwriter Tommy Lee James and in 2000, she signed with Capitol Records Nashville as a recording artist. She released her first album, '' My Wor ...

Tommy Lee James Tommy Lee James is an American country music songwriter and record producer with Still Working Music Group. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, he is originally from Roanoke, Virginia. He graduated from Northside High School then attended Radford Un ...

and

Chris Waters Christopher Waters Dunn, known professionally as Chris Waters is an American singer and songwriter, record producer, and culinary writer. He is the brother of country singer Holly Dunn. Dunn has written and produced many of his sister's singles, ...

. It was released in March 2001 as Thomson's debut single, as well as the lead-off single from her debut album '' My World''. The song reached the top of the

Hot Country Singles & Tracks Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

(now

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

) chart, giving Thomson her only Number One single on that chart. It also made her the third country music artist that year to reach Number One with a debut single.

Content

The song is a mid-tempo mostly accompanied by

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

and

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, with

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

and

penny whistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

runs. The narrator is a female who runs into a former lover, and he asks her how she is. She tells him that she is "just fine", and then tells him that she really meant to say that she was still in love with him. In the second verse, the male lover walks away from the female, and she is hurt. She tries to fight back tears, as she watches her lover.

Music video

The music video was directed by Brent Hedgecock and premiered in early 2001.

Critical reception

Thom Jurek of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the song a favorable review. He stated that "the single is clearly meant to put the album in hands and minds of country music radio station programmers.

Chart performance

"What I Really Meant to Say" debuted at number 53 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 31, 2001. This song also was part of the Billboard's top 100 country songs of the 2000s, coming in at number 87.

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2001 debut singles 2001 songs Cyndi Thomson songs Songs written by Tommy Lee James Songs written by Chris Waters Songs written by Cyndi Thomson Song recordings produced by Paul Worley Capitol Records Nashville singles