For almost the last two months, July 5th through August 30th, country music blog Country Universe has been running its 400 greatest singles of the 90's, releasing the songs in groups of 25 every 4 or 5 days. Four of their writers compiled the list. It was stated at the beginning that the list reflects the personal tastes of the writers. They did a great job. But in any such subjective endeavor, a lot of very good songs are bound to be overlooked, especially since the 90's were practically a golden age of country music. The writers here lean more to traditional than pop country. It was an interesting list in that it included songs that were huge hits and some that failed to chart. The goal was to include the best singles of the 90's, not necessarily the most successful. Some of the songs included I had never heard before. I certainly don't claim that I could have done any better. I do know that my list would be very different since my leanings are toward pop country.
The most entries on the CU list were garnered by Alan Jackson with 16 and George Strait with 15 songs. I'm pretty sure that my counts if not perfectly accurate are no more than 1 off. Garth Brooks & Mary Chapin Carpenter had 13, Vince Gill and Pam Tillis 11, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire and Travis Tritt 10, Clay Walker, Shania Twain, and Clint Black 9, Tim McGraw and Toby Keith 8, Kathy Mattea, Wynonna and Mark Chesnutt 7, Diamond Rio, Faith Hill, Dwight Yoakum and Tanya Tucker 6, Lee Roy Parnell, Randy Travis, Alison Krauss, Lorrie Morgan, Brooks & Dunn, John Anderson, Sawyer Brown and John Michael Montgomery 5. Suzy Bogguss, Steve Warriner, Dixie Chicks, Alabama, Deanna Carter, Tracy Lawrence and Marty Stuart all had 4. The remainder had 3 or fewer entries. Low numbers may just be because the artist's career was primarily before or after the 90's. Some artists had not that many entries but all were in the top half of the list, like Dwight Yoakum and John Anderson.
While the 4 CU writers gave a comment for each song, I'm just going to mention the name of the song with an occasional remark. To comment on the approximately 150 songs I would include to be combined with about 250 of the CU selections to come up with my top 400 singles of the 90's is just too much work for one old man. Obviously, if I'm adding 150, I also have to remove 150 of CU's selections to produce such a list. I'm not going to do that because again it's too much work and my goal is not to discredit their selections. Rather, it is to point out artists who I feel deserved to be included or better represented. Some outstanding artists of the 90's got minimal consideration and in some cases none at all. Admittedly, hindsight is easy and CU performed the difficult job of ranking 400 songs. But if I made a 90's list and omitted the King or Queen or AJ, traditionalists would be all over me. Sometimes I agreed with the CU writers on the song but I would have rated it much higher or lower. Two prime examples would be Trisha Yearwood's "On a Bus to St. Cloud" which they had at 289, and Ty Herndon's "What Mattered Most" at 371. They would probably be somewhere in the top 50 for me. What I don't know is the songs that the CU writers considered but rejected. Remember. Only singles from the 90's can be considered. Some of the songs that failed to make CU's cut follow.
The first group includes artists who had more than one song on the Country Universe list. You'll see that some were very well represented. It's just that in some cases I would have chosen other songs. The number of songs that made CU's list follows the name of the artist, followed by songs that I would add. To find the songs on CU's list, you'll have to check it out on their website. It's definitely worth looking at for the comments and in most cases, there's a link so you can listen to the song.
Suzy Bogguss (4) - "Letting Go", "Drive South", "Heartache", "Just Like the Weather", "Souvenirs", "Somebody to Love", "Nobody Loves, Nobody Gets Hurt" and "Goodnight". "Letting Go" is practically Suzy's signature song which any parent who has sent a daughter or son off to college can relate to.
Collin Raye (3) "On the Verge", "Not That Different", "If I Were You", "One Boy, One Girl", "I Think About You", "I Can Still Feel You", "Someone You Used to Know", "Anyone Else" and "My Kind of Girl".
Hal Ketchum (3) "Sure Love", "Tonight We Just Might Fall in Love Again", "Stay Forever", "I Know Where Love Lives", "Hearts Are Gonna Roll", "Veil of Tears" and "I Saw the Light". Some of Hal's best songs of the 90's were not singles. Check out "I Miss My Mary" and "Daddy's Oldsmobile".
Kathy Mattea (7) "She Came From Fort Worth", "A Few Good Things Remain", "Asking Us to Dance" and "455 Rocket".
Trisha Yearwood (10) "You Can Sleep While I Drive", "I Wanna Go Too Far", "The Woman Before Me", "Down On My Knees" and "That's What I Like About You".
Garth Brooks (13) "One Night a Day", "Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old" and "Not Counting You".
Terri Clark (2) "Better Things to Do" and "Emotional Girl".
Diamond Rio (6) "In a Week or Two", "Love a Little Stronger", "Bubba Hyde", "Walkin' Away", "How Your Love Makes Me Feel", "Imagine That" (not the Patsy Cline song written by Justin Tubb) and "I Know How the River Feels".
Shenandoah (2) "Ghost in This House", "Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart", a duet with Alison Krauss, "Moon Over Georgia" and "If Bubba Can Dance". Former lead singer Marty Raybon has a new cd out called "Full Circle".
Mary Chapin Carpenter (13) "Not Too Much to Ask", a duet with Joe Diffie, "Shut Up and Kiss Me", "Let Me Into Your Heart", "I Take My Chances". MCC was well represented but I preferred these songs to some that CU selected.
Billy Dean (3) "Only Here For a Little While", "I'm Not Built That Way", "If There Hadn't "Been You", "Only The Wind" and "You Don't Count the Cost".
Dixie Chicks (4) "There's Your Trouble", "I Can Love You Better" and "Ready To Run".
Wynonna (7) "My Strongest Weakness", "Tell Me Why", "Only Love", "To Be Loved by You", "Heaven Help My Heart" and "When Love Starts Talking".
Martina McBride (10) - "Love's The Only House" and "Valentine", featuring Jim Brickman.
Doug Stone (3) "In a Different Light", "A Jukebox With a Country Song", "Little Houses" and "Too Busy Being in Love".
Brooks & Dunn (5) "She Used to Be Mine", "How Long Gone", "Husbands & Wives", "He's Got You", "A Man This Lonely" and "She's Not the Cheatin' Kind".
Travis Tritt (10) "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" and "Ten Feet Tall and Bullet Proof".
Tracy Lawrence (4) "Is That a Tear" and "How a Cowgirl Says Goodbye".
Alabama (4) "Jukebox In My Mind", "Forever's As Far As I'll Go", "Give Me One More Shot" and "In Pictures".
Lorrie Morgan (5) "What Part of No" and "Maybe Not Tonight", a duet with Sammy Kershaw.
Lee Roy Parnell (5) "Love Without Mercy"
Sammy Kershaw (2) "Third Rate Romance".
Joe Diffie (2) "If the Devil Danced in Empty Pockets".
Tim McGraw (8) "She Can't Be Really Gone".
The following artists all had only 1 entry:
Lisa Brokop - "One of Those Nights", "Who Needs You", "West of Crazy", "How Do I Let Go", "What's Not to Love", "Ain't Enough Roses" and "Cool Summer Nights". A Canadian singer, she's just not that well known in the states.
Ty Herndon - "Heart Half Empty", "Living in a Moment", "Loved Too Much", "Steam", "A Man Holding On to a Woman Letting Go" and "It Must Be Love".
Lari White - "That's How You Know When You're in Love", "What a Woman Wants", "Lead Me Not" and "Helping Me Get Over You", a duet with Travis Tritt.
Wade Hayes - "I'm Still Dancing With You", "On a Good Night" and "Old Enough to Know Better"
Mavericks - "O What a Thrill", "There Goes My Heart", "All That Heaven Will Allow" and "Here Comes My Baby".
Paul Brandt - "I Do".
Paul Overstreet - "Heroes" - great paean to parents.
Restless Heart - "When She Cries"
Radney Foster - "Just Call Me Lonesome"
Gary Allan - "Her Man"
Brad Paisley - "He Didn't Have To Be"
Mindy McCready - "Ten Thousand Angels"
The following artists got shut out of CU's top 400:
Lonestar - "Tequila Talking", "No News", "When Cowboys Didn't Dance", "You Walked In", "Everything's Changed", "Amazed", "Smile" and "Say When".
Michael Peterson - "From Here to Eternity", "Drink, Swear, Steal & Lie", "Too Good to Be True", "When the Bartender Cries" and "Somethin' 'Bout a Sunday".
John Berry - "Your Love Amazes Me", "What's In It For Me", "She's Taken a Shine", "Change My Mind", "I Will If You Will", "Standing On the Edge of Goodbye" and "I Think About It All the Time".
Gene Watson - "At Last" and "You Can't Take It With You When You Go". Best version of "At Last" I've ever heard.
Kevin Sharp - "She's Sure Taking It Well" and "Nobody Knows". Cancer survivor Kevin is a spokesperson for the Make-a Wish foundation.
Big House - "Cold Outside" and "You Ain't Lonely Yet". Monty Byrom sang lead for this Bakersfield, CA band whose music has been referred to as "soul" country.
Bryan White - "I'm Not Supposed to Love You Anymore", "That's Another Song", "Rebecca Lynn", "So Much For Pretending" and "Someone Else's Star".
Jeff Carson - "Not On Your Love".
Little Texas - "What Might Have Been", "Amy's Back in Austin", "God Blessed Texas".
Larry Stewart - "Rockin' the Rock". Larry, former lead singer of Restless Heart, is currently touring with Richie McDonald and Randy Owen as "The Front Men" tour.
Ricochet - "Daddy's Money".
Yankee Grey - "All Things Considered". Loved "Another 9 Minutes" too but it was released in 2000. The band didn't last long after lead singer Tim Hunt had to leave due to vocal problems.
Rhett Akins - "That Ain't My Truck".
Wilkinsons - "26 cents".
It's been great listening to these songs again as well as the songs ranked in the CU top 400. Did we miss any of your favorites?
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