what are the greatest country music songs of all time?

I hardly think that was acountry song. You are tlaking about that hair metal ballad song, right? It kicked major monkey ass.

 

Keith Whitley was definitly country..

 

'Stand By Your Man' tops list of 100 greatest country songs

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — George and Tammy are there. So are Johnny and Hank, and Waylon and Willie.

But a ranking of the top 100 songs in country music history is bound to contain a few surprises, and the new one by Country Music Television is no exception.

Is Tammy Wynette's 1968 classic "Stand by Your Man" truly the best country song of all time? Should Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" rank that high (No. 6)? Is the Eagles' "Desperado" really a country song? And where's Merle Haggard's "The Fightin' Side of Me"?

"Everyone has personal favorites that didn't make the list," said Kaye Zusmann, CMT's vice president of program development and production. "Everyone will look and say, 'How can that not make it on there?'"

The list was revealed in a Wednesday concert on the eve of Nashville's annual Fan Fair country music festival. The two-hour concert will be broadcast on CMT at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday. It'll be preceded by a four-hour documentary about the songs.

The process began last summer when CMT asked music critics, historians and journalists to identify the genre's greatest songs. They came up with 600 titles.

That list went to voting members of the Country Music Association, which consists of songwriters, musicians, singers and other industry insiders, who whittled it down to 100 songs and ranked them.

The criteria was loose. Statistics such as weeks on the chart or total sales didn't matter, Zusmann said, only the "emotional, visceral connection people have to a song."

That figured heavily in the top choice, "Stand by Your Man," Wynette's plea to women to forgive their wayward men.

"It's the prototypical country song," Zusmann said. "It has everything."

George Jones, Wynette's husband from 1969 to '75 and duet partner, said Tuesday that "Stand by Your Man" touched both men and women, especially with the Vietnam War pulling couples apart.

"When you're away from home, it enters your mind, you know," he said. "You hope she's not fooling around, and you're missing home."

Jones, who has the No. 2 song on the list with "He Stopped Loving Her Today," said Wynette's signature song "belongs where it is."

Co-written by Wynette and producer Billy Sherrill, it was a hit on country and pop radio as the feminist movement was taking off in the late '60s, and Wynette took some heat for it.

The song resurfaced in 1992 when then presidential candidate Bill Clinton and wife, Hillary, appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes" shortly after Gennifer Flowers alleged she had an affair with Clinton.

"I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette," Mrs. Clinton said.

Wynette demanded an apology, saying Mrs. Clinton had "offended every true country music fan and every person who has made it on their own with no one to take them to a White House."

Mrs. Clinton said she didn't mean to hurt Wynette's feelings, and Wynette later performed at a Clinton fund-raiser. When the singer died in 1998, the Clintons issued a statement calling her a legend.

Rounding out the CMT top 10, in order, after Wynette and Jones: Patsy Cline's "Crazy," Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart," Brooks' "Friends in Low Places," Cline's "I Fall to Pieces," Glen Campbell's "Galveston," Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors," and Waylon Jennings' and Willie Nelson's "Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys."

Ray Charles, who performs "Behind Closed Doors" at the concert and has the No. 49 song with "I Can't Stop Loving You," said the beauty of a great country song it its simplicity.

"It's very plain, very simple music," Charles said Tuesday. "It's just for the average guy. You don't have to be a scholar or you don't have to be in the elite class or nothing like that. You just have to listen to the music and listen to the lyrics and the lyrics tell everything."

 

my first taste of Texas was a belle from Southern Bell...

 

Outside of THE DUKES OF HAZARD Theme (late, great Waylon Jennings) and THE SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT Theme (Jerry Reed) I'm not much of a country fan (though stuff from Johnny Cash or Hank Williams Jr. will make me stop for a few seconds . . )

 

from the CMT web site

Give it all the love you can, as "Stand By Your Man" tops CMT’s 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music. The ranked list was announced Wednesday (June 4) during an all-star concert highlighted by Martina McBride’s powerhouse version of Tammy Wynette’s country standard.

In between performances of the Top 12 classics, the remaining 88 songs were periodically revealed on gigantic screens hanging over the stage of the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. The six-hour documentary and concert special debuts on Sunday (June 8) at 4 p.m. ET/PT.

If only in song, Wynette and George Jones were together again, as Jones’ heartbreaker "He Stopped Loving Her Today" ranked No. 2. Jones himself delivered the ballad after enjoying the first part of the show from the front row.

“Crazy,” a front-runner for the top slot, arrived at No. 3. Any female vocalist in Nashville -- famous or not -- would have been happy to sing the Patsy Cline hit, but the honor fell to American Idol finalist Kimberley Locke. A technical glitch forced Locke to sing it twice, and it’s surprising that nobody tugged at a camera cord just to hear her perform the Willie Nelson composition again. Controlled and poised, Locke stole the show. But one question lingered: Ruben who?

If those are mariachi horns you're hearing, then it must be "Ring of Fire," smoldering at No. 4. Marty Stuart surely played it hundreds of times on the road with Johnny Cash, but he and his new band, the Fabulous Superlatives, turned in a sizzling performance. Trace Adkins also offered a strong reading of Hank Williams’ "Your Cheatin' Heart," at No. 5.

When Chris Cagle talks about how Garth Brooks has influenced his career, you can believe every word. By the time he strolled through the audience and into the rafters during "Friends in Low Places," it wouldn’t have surprised anybody if he clipped himself to a wire and glided back to center stage with a maniacal look on his face.

LeAnn Rimes, who hosted the show with Brad Paisley, crooned "I Fall to Pieces," the second Cline classic in the Top 12, and the fourth overall. (“Sweet Dreams” and “Faded Love” also made the Top 100.) One notch behind at No. 8, Glen Campbell himself revisited the fear of a Vietnam solider in “Galveston,” with musical leader Steve Wariner grinning on guitar and harmonizing to the poignant lyrics.

The piano rarely get its due when considering the history of country music, but nobody could ever sing “Behind Closed Doors” without it. And if you’re tinkling the ivories on that Charlie Rich classic, at No. 9, you gotta have some soul too. Ray Charles fit the bill, and his interpretation was certainly a highlight of the night.

In an unusual pairing, Deana Carter and Sara Evans united on "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," at No. 10. (Their recorded version is slated to appear on an upcoming Waylon Jennings tribute album.) Although "Blue Moon of Kentucky" is considered more of a bluegrass staple, Vince Gill proudly sang the No. 11 song and noted that he was pleased to see the Bill Monroe classic ranked high in 100 Greatest.

Kenny Chesney got his start within a block of the arena, singing for tips in a rundown country bar where "Amarillo By Morning" was almost certainly requested once or twice. His rendition didn’t stray far from George Strait’s original, but he still presented it with conviction.

Taking a break from the countdown, Wariner and Paisley also dabbled in a few other songs in the Top 100 as No. 1 approached. And those songs -- "King of the Road," "Act Naturally," "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" -- appeared to be just as beloved, judging from the crowd’s happy applause.

The concert will air during the final two hours of the special, and will re-air later in June.

 

You just have to listen to the music and listen to the lyrics and the lyrics tell everything."

:xyzthumbs

 

Ivory Joe Hunter's " Since I Lost My Baby"...

 

i don't feel like reading this whole thread. i always liked 'coat of many colors'.
i grew up listening to the old stuff like loretta lynn, jonny paycheck, willie nelson, dolly big boobs , kenny rogers, hank williams, and dang soso many more (sp? for them all). even chris christopherson (again sp?) sounded great to me.

i am dead tired, night all.

 

"All My Rowdy Friends" won't be over until Sept. when we put a pig in the ground and have beer on ice...