On This Day in 1985, Randy Travis Released His Debut Single “On the Other Hand” for the First Time

On this day (July 29) in 1985, Randy Travis released his debut single “On the Other Hand” for the first time. More than a near-perfect example of the country music tradition of cheating songs, it would go on to be a landmark single for Travis.

Travis released his first two singles in 1978 under his legal name Randy Traywick. The first of the two, “She’s My Woman” peaked at No. 91 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The second, “I’ll Take Any Willing Woman” failed to chart. Seven years later, he returned with a new name, a recording contract with Warner Bros. Nashville, and his debut album Storms of Life. “On the Other Hand” was the first single from that album.

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Written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz, Travis first released “On the Other Hand” in July 1985. The song peaked at No. 67 on the Billboard country chart. Then, in December, he released “1982” as the second single from Storms of Life. It peaked at No. 6. As a result, the label decided to re-issue “On the Other Hand” as the third single from the album.

Randy Travis Scores a Hit with “On the Other Hand”

Warner Bros. released “On the Other Hand” again in April 1986. The second time around, the song went to No. 1, giving Travis his first chart-topper. He would go on to launch 14 more singles to the top of the country chart over the course of his career.

“On the Other Hand” stands out among those No. 1 hits because it helped introduce Randy Travis to the world after Randy Traywick’s career failed to launch nearly a decade earlier.

Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz were working on a song called “Greedy Heart” when they stumbled into writing “On the Other Hand,” according to Songfacts. “It was the idea that when you have one woman, you shouldn’t be looking for another one,” Overstreet said. “I was hoping we could write a song that would say we had the strength to say no,” he added.

“We kind of bantered some lines back and forth and Don said, ‘But on the other hand’ and I said ‘There’s a golden band.’ From that point, we looked at each other and kind of got that glitter in our eyes, and finished it real quick,” he recalled.

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