Best Country Music Song of All Time

My daily driver doesn't have a CD player, Sirius radio, Bluetooth, or even power windows, air conditioning or seat belts...I digress.

So, luckily one the local radio stations (HANK FM) plays "country oldies" which I really like to listen to through my single speaker in the dash. From time to time they play my favorite country song ever which means that it has to be the best country song of all time, right?? He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones.

Can anyone convince me there’s one better?

I guess the so called experts call it that .. I like it, I like George

I like old country , I like stuff people call country .. but, hate new country , georgia florida line, Shay and bob or what ever // all that crap is horrible .

There are 1000's of good quality old country , hard to find a station that plays them anymore --demographics..

I do love the DAC "You never even called me by my name"! I was introduced to his music in high school by a friend who had a couple of his underground cassettes. Then saw Willie Nelson and him in concert at The Ocean Center in Daytona Beach. Never been a big fan of George Jones (sorry).

So difficult to name the greatest all time. Not a fan of his politics but when I started listening to Willie Nelson I didn't know anything about politics or Willie's and he is my all time favorite musician so I'd pick a Willie song. But Waylon, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams Jr. are so very close with one of their songs.

My passion is not the Country genre. Summer of 1975 when Glen Campbell came out with "Rhinestone Cowboy" proved to be the exception and is one of my lifetime favorites.

It would be hard to pick the best country song, too many great artists. I agree that the pop that is called country now sucks. My favorite DAC would be "If That Ain't Country".

DAC -'The Ride' would be a close second to 'He Stopped Loving her Today'.

Today's country isn't country. I'm not a big country fan but can appreciate and do enjoy some of the older stuff.

Today it's just twangy pop. No thanks.

Best song? I would say Country Boys Can Survive.

I'm not a big fan of the new country either. I quit listening to "new" country in the early 90's.

Some of my favorites are Conway Twitty, Lorretta Lynn, The Judds, Randy Travis.

I really like the "oldies" as well. Bobby Vinton, Everly Brothers, Connie Francis, Temptations, etc.

https://youtu.be/i85ob2DackI

Reportedly George Jones hated that song when first offered to him but his career was faltering at the time so he conceded.
He stated after the recording was cut that "Nobody will buy that morbid son of a b!tch".
but when it went gold he said "a four decade career was salvaged by a three minute song".

They're all gone now but remember ..

"If you had Johnny's Cash and Charley's Pride, you wouldn't have a Buck Owen"

My vote is for Elvira by the Oak Ridge Boys with an honorable mention going to Swingin' by John Anderson.

Greatest old country song? Too many to name, but I'm fine with the DAC song listed, provided we give credit to Steve Goodman for writing it.
Greatest new country song? Friends in Low Places. Hands down.
Greatest current-type country song? None, for the reasons ruderunner noted.

When I feel like listening to country, it ain't that ole sappy stuff. And I agree with everyone thus far...the new stuff ain't cuttin' it. Country rap and all...WHAT IS THAT!?!?! But just for this conversation I'll suggest a little Hank Jr.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDkyL9c0QdY&ab_channel=HankWilliams%2CJr.-Topic

The greatest country song is a toughie! I love some of the previously mentioned songs and artists, I'd add these favorites of mine -


- Kiss an Angel Good Morning - Charley Pride
- Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas - Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
- Good Ole Boys Like Me - Don Williams
- Hey Good Lookin. - Hank Williams
- Six Pack to Go - Hank Thompson
- She got the Goldmine and I got the Shaft - Jerry Reed
- Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn
- Old Dogs, Little Children, and Watermelon Wine - Tom T. Hall
- Harper Valley PTA - Jeannie C. Reilly (written by Tom T. Hall)
- Mama Tried - Merle Haggard
- Luckenbach TX - Waylon Jennings
- Ode to Billy Joe - Bobbie Gentry
- Walking the Floor Over You - Ernest Tubb
- Highway Patrol - Junior Brown
- Blue Yodel 9 - Jimmy Rodgers

Steve Goodman and John Prine.

Lot of great ones here!!!

I've never been a country music follower, but the one that always stands out in my mind: Tom T. Hall - "I Remember The Day Clayton Delaney Died."

So many very excellent songs, but I would have no argument if this one came out on top.

Tenesee Ernie Ford, 16 tons
Johnny Cash had one early song that I can not remember the name or most of the music and words now, I heard in 1956 or so. It was about a coal miner who was trap under ground and held up the roof while the pother miners escape. I really like that one also

Hi cab , Is song the Legend of John Henry's Hammer ? ronnie

Good Morning Cab , I think song is Big Bad John , by Jimmy Dean . about trapped miners . Ronnie

That wasn't Johnny Cash. It was Jimmy Dean, the sausage guy. The song is "Big Bad John."

I had no idea John Prine helped to write it. He and Steve Goodman are 2 of the great songwriters in modern American music.

For some modern but not crappy pop country style music look up Tyler Childers, Sturgil Simpson(voice sounds like Waylong Jennings to me), The Steel Drivers etc.

Some good choices mentioned. A few for. Me:

Rolling’ Mills (Of Middletown) Tom T. Hall
Country Boy Can Survive Hank Jr.
I saw the Light Hank Sr.
Uneasy Rider CDB
Long Haired Country Boy CDB
That’s What Made Milwaukee Famous Jerry Lee Lewis
Another Place, Another Time Jerry Lee Lewis
Black Magic Gun To. Rush

Ray price had some great songs

Johnny Paycheck

Bobby Bare

Johhny Cash never really did it for me but, had a few good songs ..

anything by Patsy Cline.

mammas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys was written by a legendary guy too IMO; Ed Bruce. Super smooooth voice. Also sang "My First Taste of Texas" Good song. And The Last Cowboy Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKeDcF1v_Y4

This is the list of the top 100 country songs CMT put out around 2003 if I recall. A lot of good ones on here and no new crap.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaS4iOF2OXVLqdX88ff4kbKJxlz9k7Ew1

I remember watching a made for TV concert CMT put together to play the top 10 songs on the list--it was awesome. Ray Charles played a live cover of Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors" (less than a year before his death) that gave you goosebumps.

She could sing the phone book , and I'd listen

anything by Marty Robbins.





Yes, and Loretta Lynn, and Johnny Horton.

Dwight Yoakum is the only standout in the "new" country music. The rest of it rots your brain and routinely rips off Top 40 and Rock songs. They add some twang and some Simpleton will buy it.

awesome song! I love this live version on the Johnny Cash show...that dude had swagger for days.

Waylon live!

Big Bad John. That's on my IPhone list of music.

Yeah - Marty Robbins was GREAT!!!!!

I agree Marty Robbins was great, as was Ray Price and I loved Bobby Bare too. And Patsy Cline had a ring to her voice that was special! I also think Freddy Fender was special. He could really sing.

John Anderson's "Would you catch a falling star",and "An old chunk of coal" were always on my list. He's a good ole boy from right here in Central Florida.

When Taylor Swift entered country music I wanted to vomit. The last generation of great country singers was late 80's with Clint Black, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson and others.

I agree, put Travis Tritt in that group too. Alan Jackson and George Strait sang about it with "murder on music row", pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Oh yeah, I forgot Travis Tritt and I have George Strait Greatest Hits. And yes he sure did hit the nail on the head!

when I drank a lot I listen to the county muzic that I heard growing up with my Mom bartending while I stood on a 55 gallon barrel watching through the window seeing all the drinking/dancing/fighting/whoring going on till closing time. circa 1971-72 rednecks white socks & blue ribbon beer come to mind? & 'the girls all get prettier at closing time was another good one. and who ever it was that sang Mary Lavoe

Lefty Frizzell
Ray Price
Willie Nelson
Hank SR & JR
CASH
Conway Twitty
Charlie Rich
Web Pierce
Tom T Hall Clayton Delany was my favorite
Hank Snow
little Jimmy Dickins
pasty Cline-walkin after midnight
Loreta Lynn
Buck Owens
Roy Clark and the whole HEE HAW Gang every week on TV for decades
Merl Haggard
Johnny paycheck

then I would be good and drunk ready for bed but then I would turn on some Bluegrass and get the shotgun out and shootout the lights. starting off with some sallygoodin then on to some mule skinner blues, Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Jimmy Rodgers blue yodel 1 thru 9 then do the curly shuffle on the dirt floor and pass out for the night.

I just remembered "You're the reason God made Oklahoma". David Frizzell and Shelley West. Love that one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWVdKv4-CEg

They stopped making good country music in late 80's mid 90's IMO. Leann Rimes had a shot in the beginning but blew it by following the others. They all sound the same to me. Give me the REAL Country Music

Yeah, I miss them both. Here is the story from John. He explains the genesis of the song early in the video and how Steve finished it near the end of the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxKgj7w3tBU

Don't forget Sammy Kershaw - She's the queen of my double wide trailer.

great tune!

The Paul Harvey Rest of the Story for that song done by Bobby Bare.

Written by Guy Clark who was one of the finest writers ever.

Let Him Roll https://g.co/kgs/CSKaDG

Kevin

There are a few bands out there doing a good job as of late, but they ain't "daddy's country" and you're not going to hear it on your local radio. To name a few:

Whiskey Myers
Tyler Childers
Cody Jinks
Uncle Lucious
Chris Stapleton

This one isn't the greatest of all time but it always makes me smile and really captures what its like to live out in the sticks.

Jerry Jeff Walker - Pickup Truck Song

Wow John Anderson is so young in that picture. Keith Whitley was very good too! I also liked his “I’m no stranger to the rain”

watch that one if for nothing else to look at the lady .. wow, wow and more wow ^^^^^^

You gotta love Jerry Jeff (RIP). I saw him in person several times. Always a good show.

Steve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QUSQJQml40

I've been listening to the Amazon Music "Texas Country" station lately that plays Flatland Cavalry, Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, etc. MUCH better than any of the Top 40 country radio that I can't stand.

I can go with a lot of what's been mentioned already for old stuff, and I'd add (for content and a good hook) 2 Lee Ann Womack songs:

I May Hate Myself In The Morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS35hISn7x0

Twenty Years and Two Husbands Ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0vQ5qt3JbI

I've Done Enough Dying Today

Larry Gatlin

Unrelated, but related. has anyone checked out tales from the tour buss: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7212136/.

Very entertaining, and a good look from the "other side". Worth checking out. Which they would do a new season, the first one was country, the next was funk (not as good but worth the watch); I'd like to see a series on 80's metal, sure there are some good stories there...

You could add I Hope You Dance, Last Call, A Little Past Little Rock and I'll Think of a Reason Later to that list.

https://youtu.be/RV-Z1YwaOiw

https://youtu.be/9oCdAvyAsAo

https://youtu.be/8PAEQvoVfO0

https://youtu.be/MNdmOusK_VE

Kevin

Really is incredible how many GREAT country songs there are (from the past)!

I also like several Larry Gatlin (and the Gatlin Brothers) songs.

There used to be so much talent in Country Music. Now te talent is gone and the Country Music is gone with it.

Yes and I believe it's obvious why. The quality of the music came from their hearts. Their experiences of hard work and heartache and life's tough roads and how they overcame.

Now it's commercialized and the singers for the most part come don't know anything about the tough life.

Bo Duke had a lot of hit songs in the 80's

Charlie Daniels - Devil Went Down To Georgia

The list is never ending:

Merle Haggard "(today) I started loving you again" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ6GPk3JWFA which is kind of funny because it's a big hit for him and George Jones had big it with "He STOPPED loving her today"

Marshall Tucker Band "Can't you see" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-48Za7VZR_c

Charlie Daniels is one of my favorites, I do like southern rock mixed with country.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ74BwEwOJY

I just saw this thread,. I got plenty of singers I like, here is one of em for modern singers.....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XE9lhjfbCJo

I read a few people here mentioned A.J. Here's what he has to say about the new "country" crap..... do ya blame em?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l7EeW-QkGPQ

Yes, if we start talking Southern Rock then it's a whole new game

CDB Uneasy Rider, Devil Went Down to Georgia, Long Haired country Boy
Blackfoot Train, Train, Highway Song, Spendin' Cabbage
Molly Hatchet Gator Country, Flirtin' with Disaster, Fall of the Peacemakers
Skynyrd: Mississippi Kid, Ballad of Curtis Loew, Simple Man, Tuesday's Gone, What's your Name etc etc etc.
ALLMAN Bros One Way Out, Whipping Post, Melissa etc.
Marshall Tucker: Can't you See, Heard it in a Love song
Outlaws Green grass and High Tide.
The list goes on.

Choctaw Bingo by Ray Wylie Hubbard and Up Against The Wall Redneck Mothers also a classic from RWH. I listen to a lot of good music on Outlaw Country Sirius radio. I like Hank III he does some interesting stuff like Must Have Been The Pills and the song about D Ray White, Mississippi Mud, Six Pack Of Beer.
Favorite Prine song is Angel From Montgomery covered by Bonnie Raitt always chokes me up. Seen Junior Brown a few times and that guy is an awesome picker and slide player on his "Guitsteel" contraption.
All the other "standards" mentioned already always get the volume knob turned up

Gus

What, no Clint Black ?

Or, The Highwayman, The Highwaymen ?

Or, Amarillo by Morning ?

Good calls fourgear. Hard not to love Ray Wylie Hubbard, John Prine, and Junior Brown. Don't forget Jerry Jeff Walker also.

Mark Chesnutt has a decent cover of Heard it in a Love Song. Steel guitar instead flute.

https://youtu.be/OdfYUSqjHiE

Kevin

The singers that came out in the '80s, Clint Black, George Straight, Ricky Van Shelton, Alan Jackson, Garth, and some others were the last true County singers. There are some talented singers now, but what they do is anything but true Country.

The correct answer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zhDJZipPV0

My favorite ray willey song





Choctaw bingon was wrote by James McMurtry ( son of Larry who wrote Lonesome Dove )

Well, technically that's not country music--it's western swing.

But now I'm splitting hairs....

My two favorites are Hank Sr. So lonesome I could cry.
The voice matched the song and it was simply great.

Patsy Cline I fall to pieces.
Her voice sounds clearer and better than any one of this generations talentless hacks who have to remix their voices to hide their lack of talent. Event he best can't compare.

Both died before I was born but they were great.

I agree what is sold for country today is just a bunch of hip hop/pop/rap rejects and failures pretending they have talent.

Thank you all for giving me some nostalgic music to listen to.

A Country Classic

great song, but when it came out it was run so fa into the ground it came out in China. Shame the radio doesn't play more of CDB's other greats.

I heard the Irish singer Daniel O’Donnell say that he was next going to sing his sister Kathleen’s favorite song:
“Second Fiddle”.

I was so impressed with O’Donnell’s version of the song that I googled the songwriter and was a little stunned to read that it was Buck Owens’ first song to break into the radio charts in 1959. I thought I had heard every Buck Owens song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCCuQc9Ml08

I also learned that as a little boy Alvis Edgar Owens Jr was never called that, but that the family had a stubborn donkey they called “Buck”.

Dont rock the jukebox
Alan Jackson

https://youtu.be/u2V4UUjYBsA

Most definitely!

we need rain here

Kevin

I Think My Dog's a Democrat

George and Tammy "Golden Ring"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9KniULwvjE

George and Tammy

"hold On"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVcSib3xKgM

This is #1 >>>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-68YTyqTlc&list=PLJH-qDDJGVTbmQ620SiWjqegk2t1rEaNr

This is #2 >>>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtzoUu7w-YM

Never been a fan of country music but now that I live in Tennessee, about 1/2 hour from the Birthplace of Country Music, finding anything else on the radio is kind of like fighting The Borg. Resistance is futile. Maybe it will grow on me. Probably not. I just leave the radio on the local Conservative talk radio station.

I would say your first is arguably number one country song alltime. Number two I cannot go along with. I don't even think it's country. And especially not with guys like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Hank Jr. and Waylon Jennings.

I would say ray Stevens is more folk maybe? & it reminds me that I get him and Jim Stafford mixed up as they have a similar style of song writing IMHO. I sure dig Jim on wild wood weed, spiders & snakes, swamp witch Hattie though and IIRC Ray did the Mississippi Squirrel Revival ?

and then Jerry Clower comes to mind...LOL! Marcel Ledbetter then the guy who sing Ricky Tidwell's l momma is gonna play football is that Tim Wilson?


back to country I love RWH and snake farm. country blues, and Choctaw Bingo that one is a must hear.

and another great counrty legand with the Texmex crowd was ol Freddy Fender with Rancho El Grande, silver wings, before the next tear drop falls, after the fire is gone, ect..

At one time Nashville had some great rock stations. WKDF 103 was one of them, if the conditions were right we could listen here in W. KY.

Anything from merle , especially his early work .. best of the best

https://youtu.be/zWm5WErkffQ

https://youtu.be/kmZrJhC4KbQ

Bigdad, The Bottle Let Me Down deserves to be on the list!

Yes Freddy Fender!!! I listed him a couple pages back. You know he join the USMC when he was 16!

The Ray Stevens song I put in as a joke. I first heard that song as a kid in the back seat of my mom's station wagon in the early 70's. Thought it was the funniest song ever!

That is a good one I had not heard.
Thanks for posting “No Country Music for Old Men”
which a good twist on a riveting movie.

That’s was my choice before I opened the thread.
Close second is EL Paso, by Marty Robbins.

I really like Marty Robbins as well. Good choice!!

I love John Conlee and I don't Remember Loving You is a great song.

Wow John Anderson got old. Love that guy since I was in high school. True country guy. And Bellamy Brothers are good too. First song of their's I remember hearing was "If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me"?

I know several people that lost their jobs at that tire plant.

How many people can resist singing along when
“Redneck Girl”
comes on?

Wow 15 pages of the the single best country song ever?!

IMO it's got to be from one of these below because they are true COUNTRY down to the soul and legends and never crossed that line.

Willie Nelson
Merle Haggard
Waylon Jennings
Johnny Cash
Bobby Bare
Hank Williams or Hank Jr
Tom T. Hall
John Anderson
Travis Tritt
Alan Jackson

This

So that we have something to look forward to,
let us hope that some down on their luck human being
in order to get through a really bad day of a bad year
will start writing tonight
on a greasy napkin held against the steering wheel of their old Ram pickup
to the rhythm of rain on the windshield
what will turn out to be
the best country music song of all time....

Suggested on page 1 by bigdad

Years ago several of my buddies and I got fired off one night and wrote a country song. The title was “I love you but I want to break your nose”. None of us play music or sing well for that matter, but we had a lot of fun!

I always hear this song back when I was young, it was my grandpa's favorite country song.

This one, just brings a tear to your eye it's so good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_zS_uiPWxs