Willie Nelson: Top 100 Songs

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Willie Nelson Top 100 Songs

Country singer/songwriter Willie Nelson was born on 4/29/1933 in Abbott, TX. He wrote hits for others before becoming a successful singer in his own right. He moved to Nashville in 1960 and moved back to Texas in 1970. He pioneered the “outlaw” country movement. He appeared in several movies including The Electric Horseman (1979), Honeysuckle Rose (1980), and Barbarosa (1982). Dave’s Music Database initially posted its ranking of the top 10 Willie Nelson songs on its Facebook page in response to a July 12, 2010, Paste magazine list of The 10 Best Willie Nelson Songs. It was updated and expanded to a top 80 list here in honor of Nelson’s 80th birthday (April 30, 2013). In 2023, it was expanded again – this time to a top 100 list – in honor of Nelson’s 90th birthday and the announcement that he would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This list includes songs written by Nelson but performed by others (noted in parentheses) and songs Nelson covered which have DMDB higher-ranked versions by other artists (*). For a complete list of this act’s DMDB honors, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry. Click here to see other acts’ best-of lists.

Awards:

Top 100 Songs Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards. Songs which hit #1 on various charts are noted. (Click for codes to charts.) DMDB Top 1%: 1. Crazy (recorded by Patsy Cline, written by Willie Nelson; 1961) 2. Always on My Mind (1982) #1 CW DMDB Top 2%: 3. On the Road Again (1980) #1 CW DMDB Top 5%: 4. Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys (with Waylon Jennings, 1978) #1 CW 5. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (1975) #1 CW 6. Good Hearted Woman (live with Waylon Jennings, 1975) #1 CW 7. Georgia on My Mind (1978) * #1 CW 8. To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before (with Julio Iglesias, 1984) #1 CW 9. Pretty Paper (written by Willie Nelson, performed by Roy Orbison, 1963) 10. Hello Walls (recorded by Faron Young, written by Willie Nelson; 1961) #1 CW 11. Pancho and Lefty (with Merle Haggard, 1983) * 12. Yesterday (2014) * DMDB Top 10%: 13. The Highwayman (with Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, & Kris Kristofferson, 1985) #1 CW 14. Blue Skies (1978) #1 CW * 15. All of Me (1978) * 16. My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1980) #1 CW DMDB Top 20%: 17. City of New Orleans (1984) * #1 CW 18. Just Breathe (2012) * 19. Heartbreak Hotel (with Leon Russell, 1979) * #1 CW 20. September Song (1978) * 21. America the Beautiful (2001) * 22. Mona Lisa (1981) * 23. Baby It’s Cold Outside (with Norah Jones, 2009) * 24. Fire and Rain (1975) * 25. Funny How Time Slips Away (written by Nelson, performed by Al Green with Lyle Lovett, 1994) 26. Help Me Make It Through the Night (1979) * 27. Without a Song (1983) * 28. Beer for My Horses (with Toby Keith, 2002) #1 CW Beyond the DMDB Top 20%: 29. Live Forever (with Lucinda Williams, 2022) 30. Whiskey River (live, 1978) 31. It Was a Very Good Year (with Ray Charles, 2004) * 32. Let It Be Me (1982) 33. If I Were a Carpenter (with Sheryl Crow, 2007) * 34. What a Wonderful World (1988) * 35. Night Life (written by Willie Nelson, recorded by Rusty Draper, 1963) 36. (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay (with Waylon Jennings, 1982) * 37. If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time (1976) * #1 CW 38. Pretty Paper (1963) 39. Crazy (1962) 40. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (1981) * 41. Remember Me (1975) 42. Just to Satisfy You (with Waylon Jennings, 1982) #1 CW 43. Night Life (1965) 44. Forgiving You Was Easy (1985) #1 CW 45. Funny How Time Slips Away (1962) 46. That Lucky Old Sun (with Kenny Chesney, 2008) * 47. Funny How Time Slips Away (written by Nelson, recorded by Jimmy Elledge, 1961) 48. Seven Spanish Angels (with Ray Charles, 1984) #1 CW 49. Night Life (written by Nelson, recorded by Ray Price, 1963) 50. Everything’s Beautiful in Its Own Way (with Dolly Parton, 1982) 51. Take It to the Limit (with Waylon Jennings, 1983) * 52. Pretty Paper (with Kenny Chesney, 2003) 53. Angels Flying Too Close to the Sun (1981) #1 CW 54. Twilight Time (1988) * 55. Hello Walls (1962) 56. Living in the Promiseland (1986) #1 CW 57. Funny How Time Slips Away (Danny Davis & the Nashville Brass with Willie Nelson, 1980) 58. Nothing I Can Do About It (1989) #1 CW 59. Uncloudy Day (1976) 60. Bloody Mary Morning (1974) 61. Faded Love (with Ray Price, 1980) * 62. Me and Paul (1972, re-recorded in 1985) 63. Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning (1982) 64. Half a Man (1963) 65. The Party’s Over (1967) 66. Good Times (1968) 67. Crazy Arms (1970) * 68. Heart of Gold (1986) * 69. On the Street Where You Live (2009) * 70. Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer) (1973) 71. Yesterday’s Wine (1971) 72. Touch Me (1962) 73. Willingly (with Shirley Collie, 1962) 74. Funny How Time Slips Away (written by Nelson, recorded by Billy Walker, 1961) 75. Reasons to Quit (with Merle Haggard, 1983) 76. If You Can Touch Her at All (with Waylon Jennings, 1978) 77. I’d Have to Be Crazy (1976) 78. Shotgun Willie (1973) 79. Midnight Rider (1979) * 80. Sweet Memories (1979) 81. She’s Not for You (1965) 82. The Last Letter (1963) 83. Why Do I Have to Choose (1983) 84. Little Old Fashioned Karma (1983) 85. You Took My Happy Away (1964) 86. If I Could Only Fly (with Merle Haggard, 1987) 87. I Love You a Thousand Ways (1977) 88. Something to Brag About (with Mary Kay Place, 1977) 89. Wabash Cannonball (with Hank Wilson, 1984) * 90. I Still Can’t Believe You’re Gone (1974) 91. You Ought to Hear Me Cry (1977) 92. I’m a Memory (1971) 93. One in a Row (1966) 94. Bring Me Sunshine (1968) 95. I Hope So (1969) 96. Blackjack County Chain (1967) 97. Graceland (with Paul Simon, 1993) * 98. Little Things (1968) 99. Once More with Feeling (1970) 100. I Just Can’t Let You Say Goodbye (1965) Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Willie Nelson Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists” First posted 4/30/2013; updated 5/6/2023.

In Concert: Willie Nelson

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Venue: Starlight Theater in Kansas City, MO

This was a make-up for the show originally scheduled in June. That show saw the first two acts – Robert Earl Keen and Dwight Yoakum – perform before a torrential downfall put the show on ice. Three months later, Nelson returned. The setlist was barely over an hour, although he crammed plenty of songs in that time, including many favorites.

Setlist *

* Note: Usually I’m pretty diligent about getting the setlist down, but I wasn’t this time. I think I got all the songs down, but I won’t stand by the accuracy of the order of them.

1. Whiskey River
2. Still Is Still Moving to Me
3. Beer for My Horses
4. On the Road Again
5. Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
6. Always on My Mind
7. Funny How Time Slips Away
8. Crazy
9. Night Life
10. Good Hearted Woman
11. It’s All Going to Pot
12. Me and Paul
13. If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time
14. Georgia on My Mind
15. Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
16. Move It on Over
17. Hey Good Lookin’
18. Still Not Dead
19. Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die
20. I’ll Fly Away

50 years ago: Patsy Cline charted with “Crazy”

Crazy Patsy Cline

Writer(s): Willie Nelson (see lyrics here) Recorded: August 21, 1961 First Charted: October 9, 1961 Peak: 9 US, 13 CB, 9 GR, 11 HR, 2 AC, 2 CW, 14 UK, 56 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 22.73 video, 61.28 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Before Willie Nelson became one of country music’s top singers, he broke into the industry as a songwriter after “having tried everything from encyclopedia selling to hawking vacuum cleaners door-to-door.” HL After Faron Young took Nelson’s “Hello Walls” to the top of the country charts, seemingly everyone in town wanted a Willie song. Patsy Cline was looking for a follow-up to “I Fall to Pieces” which had potential to cross over to the pop charts. AC She loved his song “Funny How Time Slips Away,” but Billy Walker, whose relationship with Nelson went back to their Texas days, AC got to it first. Cline was furious, but Willie and Billy thought her voice was perfect for another song Walker had demoed. AC When told the song title was “Crazy,” she shot back, “It sure is.” RS500 She was looking for the up-tempo fare she was more accustomed to singing. A slow-torch song was not what she had in mind. NPR Cline’s producer, Owen Bradley, was convinced of the song’s potential, believing it to be well suited to “her vocal talents and expressive style.” NPR She was on crutches when she recorded the song. She had a fractured hip and near-fatal head injuries HL after she and her brother were in a head-on collision SS that threw her through the car’s windshield. HL “With a lush arrangement and understated backing vocals” RS500 from the Jordanaires alongside the “slow-burn sex appeal” RS500 she infused in the lyrics, she made the song her own. She recorded the vocal in one take TC for her “best-remembered performance.” HL It was “a perfect vehicle to showcase [her] poignant, heartbreaking voice and superb musicianship.” NRR It “bears the marks of Nelson’s idiosyncratic personality – it’s pop and jazz and western and not quite pure country.” TC It became more than just Cline’s only top-10 pop hit and signature tune. Willie Nelson called it “the favorite of anything I ever wrote.” AC “The most enduringly popular ballad in country music history” SS is also the top jukebox single of all time. NPR It launched a new sound in country music called “countrypolitan” RS500 which gained popularity in the wake of rock and roll’s explosive success. NRR Sadly, Cline herself wouldn’t be around to see where country music was headed; she died in a plane crash in March 1963. Resources: AC Ace Collins (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs. New York, NY; The Berkley Publishing Group. Page 157. TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 668-9. HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Page 15. NPR National Public Radio (1999). “The Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century” NRR National Recording Registry RS500 Rolling Stone (12/04). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 95-7. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 48. Related Links: First posted 8/21/2011; last updated 4/14/2023.

The Top 50 Songs of 2006

Dave’s Music Database: Top 50 Songs of 2006

These are the top 50 songs for the year based on their overall performance in Dave’s Music Database, which is determined by combining chart data, sales figures, streaming, video views, and aggregates from year-end lists and charts. Check out “Top Songs and Albums of the Year” lists here. DMDB Top 1%: Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” Justin Timberlake “Sexyback” One Republic with Timbaland “Apologize” Shakira & Wyclef Jean “Hips Don’t Lie” Beyoncé “Irreplaceable” Amy Winehouse “Rehab” Fergie “Big Girls Don’t Cry (Personal)” Snow Patrol “Chasing Cars” Nelly Furtado & Timbaland “Promiscuous” DMDB Top 2%: Red Hot Chili Peppers “Dani California” Nelly Furtado “Say It Right” Hinder “Lips of an Angel” Justin Timberlake with T.I. “My Love” DMDB Top 5%: Chamillionaire with Krayzie Bone “Ridin’” Rihanna “S.O.S. (Rescue Me)” The Raconteurs “Steady As She Goes” The Dixie Chicks “Not Ready to Make Nice” John Mayer “Waiting on the World to Change” My Chemical Romance “Welcome to the Black Parade” Red Hot Chili Peppers “Snow (Hey Oh)” Justin Timberlake “What Goes Around…Comes Around” The Killers “When You Were Young” T.I. “What You Know” My Chemical Romance “Teenagers” Gwen Stefani with Akon “The Sweet Escape” Breaking Benjamin “The Diary of Jane” Christina Aguilera “Ain’t No Other Man” Akon with Eminem “Smack That” Fergie with Ludacris “Glamorous” The Swell Season (Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová) “Falling Slowly” Daughtry “It’s Not Over” Ludacris with Pharrell Williams “Money Maker” Pussycat Dolls with Snoop Dogg “Buttons” Fall Out Boy “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” Jack Johnson “Upside Down” Lily Allen “Smile” Pink “U + Ur Hand” Akon with Snoop Dogg “I Wanna Love You” Taylor Swift “Teardrops on My Guitar” Cassie “Me & U” Daughtry “Home” Corinne Bailey Rae “Put Your Records On” Yung Joc with Nitti “It’s Goin’ Down” Three Days Grace “Never Too Late” Fergie “London Bridge” Pink “Who Knew” Gym Class Heroes with Patrick Stump “Cupid’s Chokehold/Breakfast in America” Rihanna “Unfaithful” Rascal Flatts “What Hurts the Most” The Killers “Read My Mind” Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Top Songs and Albums by Year lists Dave’s Music Database: Songs of the Decade lists First posted 1/4/2024.

 

Gnarls Barkley charts with “Crazy”

Crazy Gnarls Barkley

Writer(s): Brian Burton, Thomas Callaway, Gianfranco Reverberi, Gian Piero Reverberi (see lyrics here) Released: March 13, 2006 First Charted: April 29, 2006 Peak: 2 US, 6 RR, 7 AC, 13 A40, 16 AA, 53 RB, 7 MR, 19 UK, 2 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 1.2 UK, 5.96 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.6 radio, 347.26 video, 744.17 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: When Goodie Mob rapper and soulman Cee-Lo Green teamed with noted producer Danger Mouse (Gorillaz’ Demon Days and his own Jay-Z/Beatles mash-up The Grey Album), the average radio listener would stare blankly if quizzed on songs associated with either of the pair. With a name that played on Hall of Fame basketball star Charles Barkley, the duo were seemingly carefree about whether or not achieved success. Thus the success of “Crazy” was based not on the band’s image or personality, but the strength of the unique and catchy song – “the audio equivalent of a hippie rainbow.” BX It featured “an impassioned vocal, an old-fashioned bassline,” MN and a “thoroughly authentic retro sound and indelibly genius melody…It’s chord progression and melody is a songwriter’s joy.” WX The duo “packed a career’s worth of genius…into three minutes” RS’09 “and just enough oddness to stand out on the radio dial.” MN The song emerged from a discussion between the duo about how artists aren’t taken seriously unless they’re insane. Green used the conversation as a springboard for the song’s lyrics and paired it with a strings sample Danger Mouse took from a spaghetti Western score by Ennio Morricone. “Crazy” was the first song to top the British charts on the strength of downloads alone. It became the best-selling single of 2006 and, by the end of the next year, was the most downloaded song ever in the U.K. SFThe music video fit the insanity theme, done in the style of the famous psychiatric Roschach test in which patients are evaluated on their responses to inkblot patterns. SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Gnarls Barkley DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Cee-Lo Green BX TheBoomBox.com (11/24/09). “Best Songs of the 2000’s” MN McNutt Against the Music (personal blog). “McNutt Against the Decade…The Singles” RS’09 Rolling Stone (12/9/09). “Songs of the Decade” SF Songfacts WX Walrus Comix (12/28/09). “WC’s Top 100 Songs of the Last Decade” Last updated 10/23/2022.