Songfacts®:

• When Songfacts interviewed Colbie Caillat in 2012, she singled this out as the most difficult song she ever wrote. "'I Never Told You' was a long work in progress, said the Malibu-based singer-songwriter. "I started it by myself when I was on tour in Germany. Then two years later I played it for Jason Reeves and Kara DioGuardi when we were writing together in Hawaii for my album Breakthrough, and they helped me finish writing it that week. It's now one of my favorite songs!"
• The song finds Colbie with a lingering feeling of regret following a breakup, as she thinks about everything she never told her ex, like how deeply she cared for him. She says the song is about a real guy but hasn't named him.
• Kara DioGuardi had this to say in her book A Helluva High Note about co-writing the song in Hawaii during a January 2009 writers' retreat: "One morning I heard Colbie upstairs singing in her room, and it was so utterly breathtaking. Her voice is like warm honey. I was not familiar with the song, and asked her what it was. She said it was something she had started writing. She was singing the nucleus of what would become 'I Never Told You'. She was a bit shy about her creation, but Jason Reeves and I convinced her to sing it for us again. She asked us to finish the song with her. Then we all went for a swim. Writing had never felt more like paradise." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Dj Michaelangelo - Grand Rapids, Mi