Best Country Songs of All Time
Honky-tonk, outlaw and Nashville classics — 25 essential country songs, each from an album worth owning.
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1JC
Folsom Prison Blues
Recorded live to a roar of inmates.
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2WN
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
Spare, haunting outlaw country.
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3DP
Jolene
A breathless plea built on one of country's best riffs.
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4MH
Mama Tried
Bakersfield country at its most direct.
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5LL
Coal Miner's Daughter
A plain-spoken autobiography in song.
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6GC
Wichita Lineman
A perfect Jimmy Webb melody, beautifully sung.
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7KR
The Gambler
Narrative country-pop everyone can sing.
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8MR
El Paso
A cinematic Western ballad.
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9TW
Stand by Your Man
A towering, much-debated country standard.
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10CH
Goodbye Earl
A dark comedy delivered with a grin.
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11KM
Rainbow
A tender piano hymn of reassurance.
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12GJ
He Stopped Loving Her Today
Often called the greatest country song ever.
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13HW
Your Cheatin' Heart
The defining Nashville lyric — grief and accusation in equal measure.
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14DP
I Will Always Love You
The version that pre-dates Whitney by fifteen years and is still better.
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15MH
Mama Tried
Three chords and the truth — the Bakersfield sound in miniature.
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16WN
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
The Fred Rose song, stripped to voice and guitar: devastating.
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17KK
Help Me Make It Through the Night
Country music's most honest lyric about loneliness.
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18LL
Coal Miner's Daughter
The autobiography in four minutes — proud, specific and inimitable.
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19EH
Boulder to Birmingham
The Gram Parsons elegy that established Harris as a singular artist.
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20GB
Friends in Low Places
The crowd-singalong that defined 90s country's ambition.
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21ST
Man! I Feel Like a Woman!
Country-pop at its most joyful and unapologetic.
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22SS
Turtles All the Way Down
Psychedelic country that made no compromises and found its audience anyway.
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23TC
Feathered Indians
Appalachian love song with the most cinematic imagery in new country.
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24CS
Tennessee Whiskey
The George Jones song redone with the most powerful voice in modern country.
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