Trivia / Randy Travis

• Chart Displacement: His longest-lasting #1 hit was "Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart" in 1990, which is seldom thought of as one of his more famous songs (at least in comparison to the likes of "On the Other Hand" or "Forever and Ever, Amen"). This is somewhat justified as "Hard Rock" was his first #1 after the Hot Country Songs charts began to use the Nielsen SoundScan system (which electronically tracks each spin from a station on the Billboard panel), thus leading to far more accurate charts than were possible under the previous system of radio stations submitting playlists individually — although the tendency for the fandom to forget that Randy even released singles in the '90s to begin with doesn't help matters...
• Corpsing:
  • Travis cracks up during the line "Or would you simply laugh at me and say" in "I Told You So". As the song is from the point of view of a former lover, it fits the mood.
  • Happens in his duet song "T.I.M.E" featuring Josh Turner. Josh ad-libbed his final line from "women spell love T.I.M.E." to "women spell love Josh and Randy", causing Travis to chuckle. He manages to recover to deliver his final line, though.
• Creator Breakdown: Following his divorce, Randy seems to have come unraveled. In August 2012, he was arrested for DWI… and happened to be naked in the car at the time. He also threatened the police officer. Whether related or not, he also suffered a stroke in late 2013.
• Follow-Up Failure: "Pray for the Fish", the followup to "Three Wooden Crosses", failed to make top 40.
• Hitless Hit Album: Around the Bend peaked at #3 on US Top Country Albums but none of its singles charted.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: "Young Guns", the B-side to "Honky Tonk Moon", has not been re-released in any form.
• Non-Singing Voice: Provided one for the character Mr. Hyunh in the Hey Arnold! episode "Mr. Hyunh Goes Country".
• Production Posse: Most of his early hits, most notably "Forever and Ever, Amen", were written by Paul Overstreet. He has also had Kyle Lehning as producer on all but three albums (Wind in the Wire had Steve Gibson, while his first two DreamWorks Records albums were done by Byron Gallimore and James Stroud instead) and the "It's Just a Matter of Time" cover (done by Richard Perry since it was originally intended for a multi-artist album).
• Sleeper Hit: "Three Wooden Crosses" was this, unexpectedly sneaking its way to #1 during a time when Randy had almost fully shifted to gospel. It also peaked at #31 on the Hot 100, becoming Travis' first solo Top 40 hit.
• Technology Marches On:
  • In the music video for "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", Santa checks his list on a late 80s-era Apple Macintosh computer.
  • One line of "Better Class Of Losers" references paying bills on home computers. This practice was extremely rare in 1991 since it was only done by the high-class city dwellers the song criticizes. Today, people of all classes use computers and even smaller devices to pay bills.
• Throw It In!: Travis recorded "It's Just a Matter of Time" for a covers album called Rock, Rhythm & Blues and chose to release it as a single from No Holdin' Back because he liked how it sounded.
• What Could Have Been: Travis' first hit, "1982", was originally titled "1962". It was changed because Travis didn't feel comfortable singing about a lost love at the age of two.

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