"What I Really Meant to Say" is a country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 song written by Cyndi Thomson

Cyndi Thomson

Cyndi Thomson 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...

, Tommy Lee James

Tommy Lee James

Tommy Lee James is an American country music songwriter and record producer. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, he is originally from Roanoke, Virginia. He graduated from Northside High School then attended Radford University where he studied voice...

, and Chris Waters

Chris Waters

Christopher Waters Dunn is an American country music singer and songwriter, known professionally as Chris Waters. The brother of singer Holly Dunn, Waters has co-written singles for other artists, including Number Ones for Tim McGraw and Cyndi Thomson.-Biography:Christopher Waters Dunn was born in...

. It was released in March 2001 as Thomson's debut single, as well as the lead-off single to her debut album, My World

My World (Cyndi Thomson album)

My World is the debut album of American country music artist Cyndi Thomson. Released in July 2001 , it is also her only studio album to date. Its lead-off single, "What I Really Meant to Say", was a Number One single on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in late 2001...

. The song reached the top of the Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

) 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

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

 and mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, with cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 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.

Reception

Thom Jurek of Allmusic 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 #53 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of March 31, 2001.

Chart (2001)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	26

This song also was part of the Billboard's top 100 country songs of the 2000's, coming in at number 87.