Steve Sullivan was one of my early fans on my Dave’s Music Database Facebook page. I was delighted when I found out he did the research behind one of my music bibles – Pop Memories 1890-1954, published by Record Research.
His post on May 31 ranks more than 1000 all-time country and bluegrass songs. He taps more than 50 sources, including Billboard’s country charts from 1939 through 2011, the Grammy Hall of Fame, the National Recording Registry, country music awards, National Public Radio, the works of multiple music authors, and nearly every issue of the Journal of Country Music from 1970 through 2006. I’ve posted the top 100 songs from that list, but the links for all four parts of the list are posted below. Dave’s Music Database has done a list of the top 100 country songs of all time as well. You can check it out here.
Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.
1. Patsy Cline “Crazy” (1961)
2. Tammy Wynette “Stand by Your Man” (1968)
3. George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980)
4. Johnny Cash “I Walk the Line” (1956)
5. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys “New San Antonio Rose” (1944)
6. Kitty Wells “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” (1952)
7. Hank Williams “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (1949)
8. Roy Acuff “Wabash Cannonball” (1947)
9. Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues” (1956)
10. Patsy Cline “I Fall to Pieces (1961)”
11. The Carter Family “Wildwood Flower” (1928)
12. Jimmie Rodgers “Blue Yodel (T for Texas)” (1928)
13. Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1946)
14. Loretta Lynn “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1970)
15. Ray Price “Crazy Arms” (1956)
16. Hank Williams “Your Cheatin’ Heart” (1953)
17. Hank Snow “I’m Movin’ On” (1950)
18. Marty Robbins “El Paso” (1959)
19. Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (1950)
20. The Carter Family “Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)” (1935)
21. Tennessee Ernie Ford “Sixteen Tons” (1955)
22. Merle Haggard “Mama Tried” (1968)
23. Ernest Tubb “Walking the Floor Over You” (1941)
24. Roger Miller “King of the Road” (1965)
25. Sons of the Pioneers “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” (1934)
26. Hank Williams “Lovesick Blues” (1949)
27. Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire” (1963)
28. Dolly Parton “Coat of Many Colors” (1971)
29. Jimmie Davis “You Are My Sunshine” (1941)
30. Jim Reeves “He’ll Have to Go” (1960)
31. Willie Nelson “Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain” (1975)
32. Hank Thompson “The Wild Side of Life” (1952)
33. Gene Autry “Back in the Saddle Again” (1939)
34. Johnny Horton “The Battle of New Orleans” (1959)
35. Fiddlin’ John Carson “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” (1923)
36. Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys “Mule Skinner Blues” (1940)
37. Patsy Montana “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” (1935)
38. Bobbie Gentry “Ode to Billie Joe” (1967)
39. Sammi Smith “Help Me Make It Through the Night” (1971)
40. Willie Nelson “Always on My Mind” (1982)
41. George Jones “She Thinks I Still Care” (1962)
42. The Stanley Brothers “Rank Strangers” (1960)
43. Hank Williams “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” (1952)
44. Charlie Rich “Behind Closed Doors” (1973)
45. Al Dexter “Pistol Packin’ Mama” (1943)
46. Eck Robertson “Sallie Gooden” (1922)
47. Sons of the Pioneers “Cool Water” (1941)
48. Faron Young “Hello Walls” (1961)
49. Hank Williams “Hey Good Lookin’” (1951)
50. Dolly Parton “I Will Always Love You” (1974)
51. Roy Acuff “The Great Speckled Bird” (1936)
52. Vernon Dalhart “The Prisoner’s Song” (1925)
53. Glen Campbell “Wichita Lineman” (1968)
54. Charlie Daniels Band “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (1979)
55. Ted Daffan “Born to Lose” (1943)
56. Red Foley “There’ll Be Peace in the Valley” (1951)
57. Conway Twitty “Hello Darlin’” (1970)
58. Glen Campbell “Gentle on My Mind” (1967)
59. Ray Price “For the Good Times” (1970)
60. Webb Pierce “There Stands the Glass” (1953)
61. Glen Campbell “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” (1967)
62. Lefty Frizzell “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time” (1950)
63. Eddy Arnold “Bouquet of Roses” (1948)
64. Garth Brooks “The Dance” (1990)
65. Garth Brooks “Friends in Low Places” (1990)
67. Eddy Arnold “Make the World Go Away” (1965)
68. Lee Ann Womack with Sons of the Desert “I Hope You Dance” (2000)
69. Carl Perkins “Blue Suede Shoes” (1956)
70. Ray Charles “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (1962)
71. The Everly Brothers “Bye Bye Love” (1957)
72. Hank Snow “I Don’t Hurt Anymore” (1954)
73. Randy Travis “Forever and Ever, Amen” (1987)
74. Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” (1978)
75. Eddy Arnold “The Cattle Call” (1944/1955)
76. Vernon Dalhart “The Wreck of the Old ‘97” (1924)
77. Patti Page “Tennessee Waltz” (1950)
78. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys “Steel Guitar Rag” (1936)
79. Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs “Earl’s Breakdown” (1951)
80. Webb Pierce “Slowly” (1954)
81. Hank Williams “Cold, Cold Heart” (1951)
82. Emmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers “Lovesick Blues” (1928)
83. Gid Tanner & Skillet Lickers “Soldier’s Joy” (1929)
84. Elton Britt “There’s a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere” (1943)
85. Roy Rogers & Dale Evans “Happy Trails” (1952)
86. George Jones “The Grand Tour” (1974)
87. Willie Nelson “On the Road Again” (1980)
88. Gene Autry “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949)
89. Ray Price “City Lights” (1958)
90. Jimmie Rodgers “In the Jailhouse Now” (1928)
91. The Carter Family “Keep on the Sunny Side” (1928)
92. The Delmore Brothers “Blues Stay Away from Me” (1949)
93. Buck Owens “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” (1965)
94. Charlie Poole “Don’t Let Your Deal Do Down Blues” (1925)
95. The Flying Burrito Brothers “Sin City” (1969)
96. Jimmie Rodgers “Waiting for a Train” (1928)
97. Elvis Presley “Don’t Be Cruel” (1956)
98. Tex Williams “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” (1947)
99. Merle Travis “Dark As a Dungeon” (1946)
100. Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land” (1944)
Resources and Related Links:
Steve Sullivan Song Lists:
First posted 6/1/2012; last revised 12/16/2022.
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