First I started working on the blog for best country songs of the 80s. Then I started working on the best country songs of the 90s. The plan I was going to highlight the best country songs from 2000-2010, and I still might, but I was less than excited about many of those songs. So I decided I would go back to the golden days of 70s country music and I was reminded how many great songs that decade had. Here's about 80 of them. The following songs come from my memory, iTunes, YouTube playlists, Ranker.com and a few other websites.
18) Dolly Parton "Here You Come Again":
19) Don Williams "It Must Be Love":
20) John Conlee "Rose Colored Glasses";
21) Mac Davis "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me":
22) Waylon Jennings "Luckenbach, Texas":
23) Anne Murray "You Needed Me":
24) John Denver "Annie's Song":
25) Ronnie Milsap "Pure Love":
26) Olivia Newton-John "Let Me Be There":
27) Dolly Parton "Coat of Many Colors":
28) Hank Williams Jr. "Family Tradition":
29) Ronnie Milsap "What A Difference You've Made In My Life":
This is an absolutely amazing song, I love Cal's voice. 30) Cal Smith "Country Bumpkin":
31) Kenny Rogers "You Decorated My Life":
32) Tammy Wynette "'Til I Can Make It On My Own":
33) Billie Jo Spears "Blanket On The Ground":
34) Tanya Tucker "Would You Lay With Me In A Field Of Stone":
35) George Jones and Tammy Wynette "Golden Rings":
36) Barbara Mandrell "Sleeping Single In A Double Bed":
First I started working on the blog for best country songs of the 80s. Then I started working on the best country songs of the 90s. The plan I was going to highlight the best country songs from 2000-2010, and I still might, but I was less than excited about many of those songs. So I decided I would go back to the golden days of 70s country music and I was reminded how many great songs that decade had. Here's about 80 of them. The following songs come from my memory, iTunes, YouTube playlists, Ranker.com and a few other websites.
1) John Denver "Take Me Home Country Roads":
2) The Charlie Daniels Bands "The Devil Went Down To Georgia":
3) Charlie Pride "Kiss An Angel Good Morning":
4) Kenny Rogers "The Gambler":
5) Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings "Good Hearted Woman":
6) Glen Campbell "Rhinestone Cowboy":
7) Dolly Parton "Jolene":
8) Tanya Tucker "Delta Dawn":
9) Lynn Anderson "I Beg Your Pardon, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden":
10) Charlie Rich "Behind Closed Doors":
11) Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys":
12) Crystal Gayle "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue":
13) Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man":
14) Vicki Lawrence "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia":
All genres in the 80s had great songs. I'm not the biggest fan of country music, but the 80s had some amazing country songs. These are the kinds of songs that even non country fans like.
It's impossible to hear this song too many times. I love everything about this song.
1) Keith Whitley "When You Say Nothing At All":
2) Alabama "Old Flame":
3) Ronnie Milsap "Smokey Mountain Rain":
4) Willie Nelson "Always On My Mind":
5) Eddie Rabbit "I Love A Rainy Night":
6) George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today":
7) Mel McDaniel "Louisiana Saturday Night":
8) George Strait "The Chair":
9) Alabama "You've Got The Touch":
10) The Oak Ridge Boys "Elvira":
11) Ronnie Milsap "I Wouldn't Have Missed It For The World":
Roger Waters rolls into Salt Lake on September 30th, 2020, he'll be on his This Is Not A Drill Tour. As of right now Salt Lake will be the second to last tour stop, the first tour stop is July 8th, 2020 in Pittsburgh. This tour will be In The Round. Yes, this will be a very political driven concert, no word on the setlist as of yet. However I expect many of the below songs will be on the new tour's setlist.
16) "Money":
17) "Us and Them":
18) "Smell The Roses":
19) "Brain Damage"/ 20 "Eclipse":
Encore:
21) "Wait For Her":
22) "Oceans Apart":
23) "Part of Me Died":
24) "Comfortably Numb":
Waters promises a new setlist different from the above setlist. May I suggest that he include some of the following songs?
25) "In The Flesh":
26) "Run Like Hell/Waiting For The Worms":
27) "Not Now John":
28) "Shine On You Crazy Diamond":
29) "Mother":
30) "Young Lust":
31) "Hey You":
Has there ever been a better song written about the destruction of war? Waters is perfectly qualified to write about this as he lost both his father and grandfather to war. He sings about specific details of his Dad's death in this song. 32) "When The Tigers Broke Free":
I started this blog on February 24th, 2020 and continued working on it on February 24th, 2023. I've added some songs since this blog was first published. If there are repeats I apologize.
18) Tina Turner "I Can't Stand The Rain":
19) Peter Gabriel "Red Rain":
20) Jackyl "When Will It Rain":
21) The Weather Girls "It's Raining Men":
22) Madonna "Rain":
23) Big Dismal "Rainy Day":
24) The Carpenters "Rainy Days and Mondays":
25) Brook Benton "Rainy Night In Georgia":
Fake band, amazing song. 26) Milli Vanilli "Blame It On The Rain":
Are those supposed to be Teletubbies. 27) Garbage "Only Happy When It Rains":
1) Glenn Medeoris "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You":
It was Hooverphonic's "2 Wicky" that inspired this blog. But since that song was on a blog I finished and republished yesterday I don't want to have it on this blog. Instead I'm going with their
2)"Mad About You", this is an incredibly bizarre video:
This is their song for the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest 3) Hooverphonic "Release Me":
4) Tony Orlando & Dawn "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Around The Old Oak Tree":
5) Scott McKenzie "San Francisco":
6) Terry Jacks "Seasons In The Sun":
7) Donovan "Mellow Yellow":
8) Mazzy Star "Fade Into You":
9) Duran Duran "Come Undone":
10) Aretha Franklin "I Say A Little Prayer":
11) James Bay "Let It Go":
12) Acid House Kings "Your Heart Is A Stone":
13) Coldplay "Viva La Vida";
14) Sinead O'Connor "Nothing Compares 2U":
15) Dan Hill "Sometimes When We Touch":
Many people sing this song, but by far this is the best version.
16) Keith Whitley "When You Say Nothing At All":
Roger Waters rolls into Salt Lake on September 30th, 2020, he'll be on his This Is Not A Drill Tour. As of right now Salt Lake will be the second to last tour stop, the first tour stop is July 8th, 2020 in Pittsburgh. This tour will be In The Round. Yes, this will be a very political driven concert, no word on the setlist as of yet. However I expect many of the below songs will be on the new tour's setlist.
Set 1:
"Speak To Me" (with snippet of "When We Were Young)":
1) "Breathe":
2) "One of These Days":
3) "Time":
4) "Breathe" (Reprise):
5) "The Great Gig In the Sky":
6) "Welcome to the Machine":
7) "Deja Vu":
8) "The Last Refugee":
9) "Picture That":
10) "Wish You Were Here":
11) "The Happiest Days of Our Lives": 12) "Another Brick In the Wall" Part 2:
While I do love Sheriff's "When I'm With You", it IS NOT a rock ballad!! Neither is Chicago's "Hard To Say I'm Sorry". Ultimately Journey may have some songs qualify, but "Open Arms" isn't one of those songs.
This song is so good that it's ranked at both #100 and #77 on the above website.
Cheap Trick "The Flame":
While I do love Sheriff's "When I'm With You", it IS NOT a rock ballad!! Neither is Chicago's "Hard To Say I'm Sorry". Ultimately Journey may have some songs qualify, but "Open Arms" isn't one of those songs.
Boston
"Amanda":
"Can'tcha Say (You Believe In Me)/ Still In Love":
While I do love Sheriff's "When I'm With You", it IS NOT a rock ballad!! Neither is Chicago's "Hard To Say I'm Sorry". Ultimately Journey may have some songs qualify, but "Open Arms" isn't one of those songs.
1) AC/DC "Safe In New York City":
2) Aerosmith "Amazing":
3) "Angel":
4) "Crazy":
5) "Cryin'":
This is one damn weird video. 6) "Pink":
7) "What It Takes":
8) Alias "More Than Words Can Say":
9) April Wine "Just Between You and Me":
10) Bon Jovi "Always":
11) "Bed of Roses":
12) "I'll Be There For You":
Okay definitely not a ballad, but it's still a great song. 13) "I'd Die For You":
14) "Lay Your Hands On Me":
15) "Never Say Goodbye":
16) "This Ain't A Love Song":
Definitely a Top 100 all-time song. 17) "Wanted Dead or Alive":
What do the following musicians have in common? Rod Stewart, Hall and Oates, Prince, Michael Jackson, April Wine, Crystal Gayle, Charlie Dore, Gary Numan, Dr. Hook, Blondie, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Chuck Mangione, Isaac Hayes and ZZ Top? What could all of these musicians have in common? First off they've all been around for awhile, in fact a few of these people have died. R.I.P Prince, Michael Jackson and any others that might have died.
What don't they have in common, some of these musicians are legendary and some of them are forgotten one hit wonders, see Charlie Dore. There's Kenny Nolan on this chart and I've never heard of him, which for the amount of music I listen to means he's pretty obscure. His song "Us And Love (We Go Together)" is so obscure it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. I wasn't aware that there are things that don't have their own Wikipedia pages. However he wasn't a no hit wonder, he had "I Like Dreamin'" go to #3 in 1976.
The common link among all of these songs is that they were all on Billboard's Hot 100 List on February 23, 1980. Truly the music 40 years ago was much better than it is now, I love all the diversity on this chart. And many of these songs were played on the same radio station, ah those were the days.
Although this is a perfectly good song, it only peaked at #46. It didn't even make the Top 40?
100) Rod Stewart featuring Amy Belle. And I don't know the name of the person that did that sax solo, but she's amazing. "I Don't Wanna Talk About It":
This song only reached #18, that's a tragedy. 99) Hall and Oates "Wait For Me":
This song only peaked at #86, however this was pretty typical for that times. Harder edge rock songs didn't really break into the top part of the charts until Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel The Noize" went all the way to #5 in 1983. Now unless you're related to a member of April Wine or are an old fart like myself you probably haven't ever heard of April Wine. But they had at least three other very good songs which didn't receive the love they should have from the Billboard charts.
97) April Wine "I Like To Rock":
April Wine's biggest hit reached only #21, that song was the rock ballad "Just Between You and Me". It seems nearly every rock band had a ballad and there were some pretty amazing rock ballads, in fact that gives me a blog idea. Another great April Wine song, "Sign of The Gypsy Queen", reached 57. It's not on this specific Hot 100 but "Roller" soared all the way to #34 in 1979:
This song soared to #4 and was on the charts for 17 weeks. However I didn't know this song until I actually listened to it. Then I remembered it and this is one of the many great songs of Stevie Wonder. I love Stevie Wonder, one of the best vocalists and lyricists ever.
93) Stevie Wonder "Send One Your Love":
So-called New Wave didn't get much respect either, about the same as harder edge rock. Although this song was able to make it to #14. That peak position is not worthy of this amazing song.
91) The Pretenders "Brass In Pocket (Special)":
This song only reached #51, how is that even possible. This is one of the best songs about radio ever and has some of the greatest lyrics. I give you 11:36 of this deserved classic.
I don't know how to explain it, but there's just something so powerful about a great sad song. These are some of the best. I find that a lot of songs that has the word "sad" in the title aren't that sad.
17) James Taylor "Fire and Rain":
18) Travis Tritt "Help Me Hold On":
19) The Dixie Chicks "You Were Mine":
20) Reba McEntire "The Greatest Man I Never Knew":
21) Alabama "Angels Among Us":
22) Reba McEntire "One Promise Too Late":
Sadly this isn't the real version. 23) Don Henley "The End Of The Innocence":
24) Bonnie Raitt "I Can't Make You Love Me":
25) Elaine Paige "Memory":
26) Bruce Hornsby and the Range "The Way It Is":
27) My Chemical Romance "I Don't Love You Anymore":
28) The Goo Goo Dolls "Iris";
29) Carole King "Tapestry";
One of the saddest songs of all-time. 30) Peter, Paul and Mary "Puff The Magic Dragon":
31) Chantal "Leaving On A Jet Plane":
32) Fergie "Big Girls Don't Cry":
33) Randy VanWarmer "Just When I Needed You The Most":
I don't know how to explain it, but there's just something so powerful about a great sad song. These are some of the best. I find that a lot of songs that has the word "sad" in the title aren't that sad.
1) The Platters "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes":
2) Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here":
3) Gary Jules "Mad World":
4) Don McLean "American Pie":
This song is so heartbreakingly beautiful and Martina's eyes are so beautiful.
5) Martina McBride "Concrete Angel":
I selected my favorite songs from Ranker's Top 70s One Hit Wonders. Technically not all of these songs are from One Hit Wonder bands. Some of these bands have more than one hit and have more than several good songs.
86) Jean Knight "Mr. Big Stuff":
87) Eddie Holman "Hey There Lonely Girl":
88) First Choice "Armed and Extremely Dangerous":
89) The Tremelos "Yellow River":
90) Mountain "Mississippi Queen":
91) Sammi Smith "Help Me Make It Through The Night":
92) Crabby Appleton "Go Back":
93) Chi Coltrane "Thunder and Lightning":
94) Albert Hammond "It Never Rains In Southern California":
95) Ten Years After "I'd Love To Change The World":
96) Starbuck "Moonlight Feels Right":
97) Mary McGregor "Torn Between Two Lovers":
98) Sanford and Townsend "Smoke From A Distant Fire":
Obviously he had many hits with Bread, but he was nowhere as successful as a solo act.
99) David Gates "Goodbye Girl":
