CMT's 100 Greatest Country Songs

[pwdennis]

CMTs Top 100 Songs List - performers in ( )

A bad list but not as bad a list as I might have expected from the CMT generation of viewers.Too many recent chart successes

1. "Stand by Your Man" (Tammy Wynette)
2. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (George Jones)
3. "Crazy" (Patsy Cline)
4. "Ring of Fire" (Johnny Cash)
5. "Your Cheatin’ Heart" (Hank Williams)
6. "Friends in Low Places" (Garth Brooks)
7. "I Fall to Pieces" (Patsy Cline)
8. "Galveston" (Glen Campbell)
9. "Behind Closed Doors" (Charlie Rich)
10. "Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" (Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings)
11. "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (Bill Monroe/ELvis Presley/Hank Locklin)
12. "Amarillo by Morning" (George Strait)
13. "Coal Miner’s Daughter" (Loretta Lynn)
14. "The Dance" (Garth Brooks)
15. "Forever and Ever, Amen" (Randy Travis)
16. "I Will Always Love You" (Dolly Parton)
17. "Hello Darlin’" (Conway Twitty)
18. "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (John Denver)
19. "Hey, Good Lookin’" (Hank Williams)
20. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (many artists)
21. "Okie From Muskogee" (Merle Haggard)
22. "Wide Open Spaces" (Dixie Chicks)
23. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" (Hank Williams/Willie Nelson)
24. "The Chair" (George Strait)
25. "Folsom Prison Blues" (Johnny Cash)
26. "The Gambler" (Bobby Bare/Kenny Rogers)
27. "Fancy" (Bobbie Gentry/Reba McIntyre)
28. "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" (Alna Jackson)
29. "I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry" (Hank Williams/B.J. Thomas)
30. "I Hope You Dance" (Leeanne Womack)
31. "I Walk the Line" (Johnny Cash)
32. "Rhinestone Cowboy" (Glen Campbell)
33. "Always on My Mind" (Brenda Lee/Willie Nelson)
34. "Harper Valley P.T.A." (Jeannie C. Riley)
35. "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" (Tammy Wynettte)
36. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (A.P., Sara & Maybelle Carter)
37. "King of the Road" (Roger Miller/Randy Travis)
38. "Breathe" (Faith Hill)
39. "Make the World Go Away" (Ray Price/Eddy Arnold)
40. "Hello Walls" (Faron Young)
41. "Sweet Dreams" (Don Gibson/Patsy Cline/Reba McIntyre)
42. "El Paso" (Marty Robbins)
43. "Delta Dawn" (Tanya Tucker)
44. "When I Call Your Name" (Vince Gill)
45. "Guitars, Cadillacs" (Dwight Yoakum)
46. "Desperado" (Johnnie Rodriguez/Linda Ronstadt)
47. "Don’t Come Home A'Drinkin’ (Loretta Lynn)
48. "Boot Scootin’ Boogie" (Brooks & Dunn)
49. "I Can’t Stop Loving You" (Kitty Wells/Don Gibson/Ray Charles/Conway Twitty)
50. "Independence Day" (Martina McBride)
51. "It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" (Kitty Wells)
52. "On the Other Hand" (Randy Travis)
53. "Walking the Floor Over You" (Ernest Tubb)
54. "Coat of Many Colors" (Dolly Parton)
55. "Act Naturally" (Buck Owens)
56. "Mama He’s Crazy" (The Judds)
57. "If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time" (Lefty Frizzell/Willie Nelson)
58. "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" (Charley Pride)
59. "Family Tradition" (Hank Williams, Jr.)
60. "Go Rest High on That Mountain" (Vince Gill)
61. "Lovesick Blues" (Hank Williams/Stonewall Jackson/Charley Pride)
62. "Don’t Rock the Jukebox" (Alan Jackson)
63. "Tennessee Waltz" (Roy Acuff/Pee-Wee King/Patti Page/LacyJ. Dalton)
64. "When You Say Nothing at All" (Keith Whitley/Allison Krauss)
65. "God Bless the U.S.A." (Lee Greenwood)
66. "Green, Green Grass of Home" (Johnny Darrell/Porter Wagoner/Tom Jones)
67. "It’s Your Love" (Faith Hill & Tim McGraw)
68. "There Stands the Glass" (Webb Pierce)
69. "Devil Went Down to Georgia" (Charlie Daniels)
70. "Chiseled in Stone" (Vern Gosdin)
71. "Don’t Toss Us Away" (Patty Lovelace)
72. "Boy Named Sue" (Johnny Cash)
73. "You Are My Sunshine" (Governor Jimmie Davis/Gene Autry)
74. "Flowers on the Wall" (The Statler Brothers/Eric Heatherly)
75. "Strawberry Wine" (Deanna Carter)
76. "Good Hearted Woman" (Waylon Jennings/ Waylon & Willie)
77. "You’re Still the One" (Shania Twain)
78. "My Home’s in Alabama" (Alabama)
79. "Is There Life Out There?" (Reba McIntyre)
80. "She’s in Love With the Boy" (Trisha Yearwood)
81. "Smoky Mountain Rain" (Ronnie Milsap)
82. "Should’ve Been a Cowboy" (Toby Keith)
83. "Rose Garden" (Lynn Anderson)
84. "Please Remember Me" (Rodney Crowell/Tim McGraw)
85. "Blue" (Kenny Roberts/Leeanne Rimes)
86. "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" (Jack Green / Freddy Fender)
87. "Passionate Kisses" Mary Chapin Carpenter)
88. "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" (Lulu Belle & Scotty Inman/Jim Reeves)
89. "Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)" (Travis Tritt)
90. "He’ll Have to Go" (Jim Reeves)
91. "Seven Year Ache" (Roseann Cash)
92. "Sunday Morning Coming Down" (Johnny Cash)
93. "Take This Job and Shove It" (Johnny Paycheck)
94. "Something in Red" (Lorrie Morgan)
95. "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" (Flatt & Scruggs)
96. "I’d Be Better Off in a Pine Box" (Doug Stonje)
97. "Amazed" (Lonestar)
98. "Faded Love" (Bob Wills/Patsy Cline/Tompall & The Glaser Brothers)
99. "Back in the Saddle Again" (Gene Autry)
100. "Killin’ Time" (Clint Black)

[sweaver]

Oh, don't fuss pw, there's a lot of classics on there, especially at the top of the list. It's not the same list I would make, but it's a start.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by sweaver
Oh, don't fuss pw, there's a lot of classics on there, especially at the top of the list. It's not the same list I would make, but it's a start.

True enough - I would have picked about 60 of the same songs but how could they leave off "New San Antonio Rose" and "I'm Movin' On" ???

The two biggest hits in the history of the genre according to Billboard Magazine are Eddy Arnold's "I'll Hold You In My Heart (Until I Can Hold You In My Arms)" and Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On" each with 21 weeks at #1 (Emmylou Harris took the latter song back to #1 during the 1980s)

Since 1960 or thereabouts (when the name of the chart was changed from Country & Western to Country) the biggest record is "Walk On By" by Leroy Van Dyke (which is not the same song as the wimpy Dionne Warwick hit of the late 60s)

Just as an FYI - there have been a number of polls and surveys such as this taken - from 1961-1985 most (virtually all) of them picked "El Paso" as the greatest country song ever. Starting about 1986 the polls sometimes picked "He Stopped Loving Her Today"at #1 with "El Paso" still in the top 5. Seeing "El Paso" at #42 is a bit of a shock

[Craig S.]

Originally posted by pwdennis
Just as an FYI - there have been a number of polls and surveys such as this taken - from 1961-1985 most (virtually all) of them picked "El Paso" as the greatest country song ever. Starting about 1986 the polls sometimes picked "He Stopped Loving Her Today"at #1 with "El Paso" still in the top 5. Seeing "El Paso" at #42 is a bit of a shock

It's a crime to have "El Paso" come in behind Faith Hill with "Breathe" - a country classic losing out to a song that I feel is more pop than country. Like you said, though, the list was done by CMT viewers, most of whom probably grew up listening only to the contemporary stuff. And as much as I think "Friends in Low Places" is a catchy song, I hardly believe it's the 6th-best.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

No "Streets of Bakersfield"?!

[rcartman28]

I don't it would matter how the list looks, anybody is going to disagree with at least some of the selections. For what I know about "country music", there seems to be quite a few "classics" on the list, but the list looks to be partial to contemporary songs. I agree that "El Paso" is a lot lower than it should be on there--I certainly wouldn't argue against it being the top country song ever. I am sure that my wife would have had "Friends In Low Places" in the top five, though.

[OaktownTribeFan]

The list needs to include Campbell's By the Time I Get to Phoenix and Wichita Lineman. Those are two absolute classics.