"Today" is a song written by

Brice Long Brice Long is an American country music singer-songwriter. Signed to Columbia Records in 2005, Long charted one single on the ''Billboard'' country chart that year: "Anywhere but Here", which was also released by Chris Cagle a year later. In add ...

and

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 Uni ...

, and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

Gary Allan Gary Allan Herzberg (born December 5, 1967) is an American country music singer. Signed to Decca Records in 1996, he made his country music debut with the release of his single "Her Man (song), Her Man", the lead-off to his gold album, gold-cer ...

. It was released in June 2009 as the first single from his 2010 album '' Get Off on the Pain''. The song reached number 18 on the U.S. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

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 along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart in early 2010.

Content

The song's narrator claims that he lost his lover and everything that he ever wanted "today" when he sees his former lover marrying another man: During the week of October 19, Allan talked about the single on

Jeff Foxworthy Jeffrey Marshall Foxworthy (born September 6, 1958) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and radio and television host. He is a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, with Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, and formerly Ron White. Known f ...

's ''Foxworthy Countdown'': "It’s one of those songs that you missed it with that girl, that’s the girl you always thought you should have (been) with and you let her slip through your fingers and now she is happy as hell and doesn’t think about you ever ��nd we’ve all got one of those girls in our past!"

Critical reception

Leeann Ward of Country Universe gave the song a C+ rating, and said in her review of the song: "With a moody piano to serve as the foundation for the swelling strings and over all dramatic angst, Allan sings of the pain of his former lover to another man", but added, "it is severely weakened by a disappointingly generic, overblown production." Engine 145 critic Juli Thanki gave the song a thumbs-up; while her review describes the production as "slick" and "boring", she also says, "Luckily Allan’s beautiful rasp rises above these shortcomings as he manages to simultaneously sound brokenhearted, regretful, and maybe just a little pissed off." Matt Bjorke of Roughstock also gave a favorable review, saying "it is nice to hear a smoldering ballad of regret from one of the best vocalists in modern country music", although he added that he did not consider the song's theme original.

Chart performance

"Today" debuted at number 52 on the U.S. ''Billboard''

chart on July 4, 2009, and peaked at number 18 in February 2010. It also debuted at number 6 on the U.S ''Billboard'' Bubbling Under

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

chart for the week for March 9, 2010.

References

{{Gary Allan 2009 singles Country ballads 2000s ballads Gary Allan songs Songs written by Tommy Lee James MCA Nashville Records singles Songs written by Brice Long Song recordings produced by Mark Wright (record producer) 2009 songs MCA Records singles