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Here are my personal top 100 favorite country songs. Note: year of release is when song was first released, whether it be as a single or part of an album. Links on songs will take you to a DMDB page dedicated to that song.
To qualify as a country song, the song had to reach the Billboard country chart, rank on the DMDB list of the top 200 country songs, or be by an artist who achieved one or both of those feats. I excluded Christmas songs and a lot of the crossover hits of the 1950s which were also successful on the pop and R&B charts.
Click here to see other Dave’s Faves song lists.
1. Lyle Lovett “Step Inside This House” (1998)
2. Eagles “Seven Bridges Road” (live, 1980)
3. Kenny Rogers “Coward of the County” (1979)
4. Eagles “Desperado” (1973)
5. Willie Nelson with Lukas Nelson “Just Breathe” (2012)
6. Alan Jackson “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning” (2001)
7. Johnny Cash “Hurt” (2002)
8. Alabama “Mountain Music” (1982)
9. Kenny Rogers “The Gambler” (1978)
10. Eagles “Take It Easy” (1972)
11. Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land” (1944)
12. Sturgill Simpson “In Bloom” (2016)
13. Charlie Daniels Band “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (1979)
14. Sturgill Simpson “The Promise” (2014)
15. Hank Williams “Your Cheatin’ Heart” (1953)
16. Lyle Lovett “Nobody Knows Me” (1989)
17. Patsy Cline “Crazy” (1961)
18. Tammy Wynette “Stand by Your Man” (1968)
19. Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire” (1963)
20. Dolly Parton “9 to 5” (1980)
21. John Denver “Rocky Mountain High” (1972)
22. John Denver “Sunshine on My Shoulders” (1971)
23. Johnny Cash “I Walk the Line” (1956)
24. Lyle Lovett “Friend of the Devil” (1991)
25. Kenny Rogers “Lady” (1980)
26. Waylon Jennings “Just the Good Ol’ Boys (Theme from The Dukes of Hazzard)” (1980)
27. Lyle Lovett “Pontiac” (1988)
28. Willie Nelson “On the Road Again” (1980)
29. John Denver “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (1971)
30. Johnny Paycheck “Take This Job and Shove It” (1977)
31. Eagles “Lyin’ Eyes” (1975)
32. Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson “Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” (1978)
33. John Denver “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” (1974)
34. Willie Nelson “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” (1980)
35. Jimmie Davis “You Are My Sunshine” (1940)
36. Lyle Lovett “She’s Hot to Go” (1988)
37. Olivia Newton-John “I Honestly Love You” (1974)
38. Roger Miller “King of the Road” (1965)
39. Lyle Lovett “She’s No Lady” (1988)
40. Kacey Musgraves “Follow Your Arrow” (2013)
41. Lyle Lovett “12th of June” (2022)
42. Lil Nas X with Billy Ray Cyrus “Old Town Road” (2018)
43. Willie Nelson “Live Forever” (2022)
44. Dolly Parton “Jolene” (1973)
45. Dixie Chicks “Travelin’ Soldier” (2002)
46. Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues” (live, 1968)
47. Flatt & Scruggs “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” (1962)
48. Lee Ann Womack with Sons of the Desert “I Hope You Dance” (2000)
49. Garth Brooks “Friends in Low Places” (1990)
50. Eagles “Tequila Sunrise” (1973)
51. The Dirt Band with Linda Ronstadt “An American Dream” (1979)
52. Glen Campbell “Rhinestone Cowboy” (1975)
53. George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980)
54. George Strait “Love Without End, Amen” (1990)
55. Jimmy Dean “Big Bad John” (1961)
56. Hank Snow “I’m Movin’ On” (1950)
57. Glen Campbell “Wichita Lineman” (1968)
58. Pure Prairie League “Falling in and Out of Love” / “Amie” (1975)
59. The Highwaymen (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, & Kris Kristofferson) “The Highwayman” (1985)
60. Patti Page “Tennessee Waltz” (1950)
61. Marty Robbins “El Paso” (1959)
62. Kenny Rogers “Lucille” (1977)
63. Eddie Rabbitt “I Love a Rainy Night” (1980)
64. Mac Davis “It’s Hard to Be Humble” (1980)
65. Alabama “Love in the First Degree” (1981)
66. Ray Charles “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (1962)
67. Olivia Newton-John “Hopelessly Devoted to You” (1978)
68. Mary Chapin Carpenter “It Don’t Bring You” (1989)
69. Merle Haggard “Okie from Muskogee” (1969)
70. Tim McGraw “Live Like You Were Dying” (2004)
71. Alabama “Take Me Down” (1982)
72. Johnny Cash “A Boy Named Sue” (live, 1969)
73. Juice Newton “Queen of Hearts’ (1981)
74. Kenny Rogers & the First Edition “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” (1969)
75. Randy Travis “Forever and Ever, Amen” (1987)
76. Willie Nelson “Always on My Mind” (1982)
77. Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton “Islands in the Stream” (1983)
78. Hank Williams “Hey Good Lookin’” (1951)
79. Alabama “Dixieland Delight” (1983)
80. Billy Ray Cyrus “Achy Breaky Heart” (1992)
81. The Artists of Then, Now & Forever “Forever Country” (2016)
82. Tennessee Ernie Ford “Sixteen Tons” (1955)
83. Hank Williams “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (1949)
84. The Oak Ridge Boys “Elvira” (1981)
85. Conway Twitty “Hello Darlin’” (1970)
86. Lyle Lovett “L.A. County” (1988)
87. Kenny Rogers & Sheena Easton “We’ve Got Tonight” (1983)
88. Elvis Presley “Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1954)
89. Patsy Cline “I Fall to Pieces” (1961)
90. Dixie Chicks “Silent House” (2006)
91. Ronnie Milsap “Smokey Mountain Rain” (1980)
92. Collin Raye “Love, Me” (1991)
93. Jeannie C. Riley “Harper Valley P.T.A.” (1968)
94. Lady Antebellum “Need You Now” (2009)
95. Hank Williams “Move It on Over” (1947)
96. Lyle Lovett “Here I Am” (1989)
97. Alabama “My Home’s in Alabama” (1980)
98. John Anderson “Swingin’” (1983)
99. Juice Newton “Angel of the Morning” (1981)
100. Alabama “Forty Hour Week for a Livin’” (1985)
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First posted 11/11/2023; last updated 11/12/2023. | 
