The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 1!

by Jim Poulton

Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You

Dolly Parton has always been a consumate performer, but it may come as a surprise to some that she is also an accomplished songwriter. She wrote a remarkable number of hits, including Jolene, Nine to Five, All I Can Do, and of course, I Will Always Love You, our choice for the Number 1 Country Love Song of All Time.

Released in 1974 as a followup single to Jolene, I Will Always Love You reached #1 in both the U.S. and Canadian Country charts. Parton re-recorded the song in 1982 for the film version of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. That version also reached number one, marking the first time in history that the same song reached number one two times when recorded by the same artist. The song, however, wasn’t done yet.

Whitney Houston's 1992 version of the song was an instant phenomenon (it sold more than 600,000 copies in one week, breaking all records to date), and is one of fewer than thirty all-time singles to have sold 12 million (or more) copies worldwide. And in 1995, Parton recorded it again, in a duet with Vince Gill. This time the song peaked at number 15. In 2004, Country Music Television rated I Will Always Love You #1 of their 100 Greatest Country Love Songs.

We agree with CMT: I Will Always Love You is as close to a perfect Country Love Song as you can get.

Visit Parton's website here. Purchase I Will Always Love You on iTunes or Amazon MP3.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 2

by Jim Poulton

Patsy Cline - Crazy

Photo courtesy of AVClub

Possibly the best known of all of Cline’s hits, Crazy was written by Willie Nelson in 1961, while he was still a young musician. Prior to that time, Nelson had written some songs for other performers, but he still hadn’t recorded a breakout hit of his own. When Cline released her version, it followed on a string of her prior hits (especially I Fall To Pieces), and its success helped to launch Nelson as both a performer and songwriter. While Crazy only made it to #2 on the Country Singles chart in 1962, it also crossed over to the US Hot 100 list (#9) and the Adult Contemporary list (#2), making it her biggest pop hit. Crazy has since been recognized as one of the great Country love songs. It was named #85 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Cline originally disliked Crazy, claiming it was too difficult to sing. Her first demo of the song was a disaster, and she deliberated for several days about whether she would even complete it. When she came back into the studio, she recorded the vocal tracks we now know with no splices or dubs. Listening to this version, it’s difficult to imagine that Cline found the song difficult. Her smooth and easy approach to the melody is best heard in the length and strength of her sustains (listen, for example, to how long she holds the last ‘you'). As we’ve said before, Cline was a genius, and this song, maybe more than any other, proves it.

Here’s Willie Nelson’s original version. Notice the photograph on the album cover in the video – we’ve come to know a different Willie Nelson, haven’t we?

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 3

Wilie Nelson - Always On My Mind

Photo courtesy of Bob Jagendorf

Maybe it’s the wild life he’s lived, but there is a tone in Willie Nelson’s voice that makes him sound like a thousand year old soul who’s seen everything in the world and has the wisdom to show for it. His isn’t the strongest voice we’ve ever heard, and when he hits the higher notes his timbre gets too thin, but Nelson is one-of-a-kind in the way he interprets a song.

Always On My Mind was originally recorded by Brenda Lee, and subsequently recorded by an unlikely diversity of performers, including Elvis Presley, B.B. King and the Pet Shop Boys. The most successful version, by far, was Nelson's. When he recorded the song in 1982, it hit number one in Country Singles and number 2 on Adult Contemporary Tracks, making it one of the rare crossovers. Nelson's version was voted Single of the Year by the Country Music Association in 1982.

Here's Brenda Lee's version:

Visit Nelson's website here. Purchase Always On My Mind at iTunes and Amazon MP3.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 4

by Jim Poulton

Conway Twitty - Hello Darlin'

Photo courtesy of Last.fm.

Recorded in 1969, Conway Twitty’s Hello Darlin’ became one of the most recognizable standards of country music. Part of the reason: Twitty’s decision to begin the song with spoken words. As he was recording the song, Twitty initially tried to sing the opening line (‘Hello darlin’, nice to see you’), but found it wasn’t working. When he switched to speaking the line, and then coming in with the power of his classic country voice on the second line (‘It’s been a long time’), the result was a powerful hook that immediately draws the listener into the song’s story - a man runs into an old flame and bravely tries to claim he’s fine (‘How am I doin’? I’m doin’ all right, except I can’t sleep, I cry all night ‘til dawn’).

Twitty, in case you didn’t know, was one of the most successful artists of the 20^th century. He had more singles reach number one than Elvis, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles or Garth Brooks. His #1 singles total (55) has only recently been surpassed by George Strait.

Visit a website honoring Twitty (1933-1993) here.

Purchase Hello Darlin' from iTunes or Amazon MP3.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 5

by Jim Poulton

Tammy Wynette - Stand By Your Man

Photo courtesy of IDanceRecords.com

Stand By Your Man is an understated and uncluttered song, surprisingly short, offering straightforward advice about how to survive a relationship with a man. The song is sung as though from a meditation – especially at first, when the unembellished clarity of Wynette’s voice offers us a thoughtful woman musing on how she has made a sometimes difficult relationship work. As the song crescendos, though, Wynette’s voice shifts to a gear with a good deal more emotional torque, and we then hear the power she was capable of as she sings of loyalty and passion. The effect is of sudden acceleration - going from a contemplative standstill to a surge of high RPM emotion. In other words, the song goes from A to Zowie in a short 2 minutes. In our view, this is one of the main reasons the song was such a hit.

Wynette recorded Stand By Your Man in 1968. It reached the top of the charts in the US Country singles, the Canadian Country tracks, and the British, Irish and Dutch charts. Although the song has been controversial (it was derided by the feminist movement, for fairly obvious reasons), in recent years it has come to be accepted as a legitimate part of the country music oeuvre. In 2003, it was rated the number one song of the 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music by Country Music Television.

Purchase Stand By Your Man at ITunes or Amazon MP3.