The 20 Best Country Radio Hits of 2019
It felt like country music was in the center of pop culture in 2019 more than in most years, but mostly for things that didn't impact country radio playlists. Lil Nas X broke Hot 100 Records for a country rap song that country radio had no interest in, Kacey Musgraves won Album of the Year at the Grammys for an album that got even less spins than her previous record, and the Ken Burns miniseries "Country Music" gave a history of the genre that basically acted as if the story ended when Johnny Cash died. More than any other radio format, country is a genre where hit singles are still drawn from albums for a year or two. 11 of the songs on this list where released before 2019, and many of those artists released new music in 2019 but I preferred the songs that were hits this year from older projects.
Here's a Spotify playlist of these songs, and the country hit lists I made in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
1. Kane Brown - "Good As You"
#1 Country Airplay, #36 Hot 100
I had mixed feelings about Kane Brown's first three #1's, but the fourth one sounded pretty much perfect to me, a gentle breezy midtempo with a shuffling beat and light touches of organ and banjo, just a beautiful arrangement of a sweet, simple lyric.
2. Luke Combs - "Beer Never Broke My Heart"
#1 Country Airplay, #21 Hot 100
Luke Combs is a big guy with a neckbeard who I wouldn't have predicted to be country's next superstar. But he's on an unprecedented run right now, with all of the first 7 singles of his career going to #1 on country radio, and 5 of them are ballads or sentimental midtempo songs. And I have to say, I much prefer him in an uptempo lighthearted mode on "Beer Never Broke My Heart" and "When It Rains It Pours."
3. Dan + Shay - "Speechless"
#1 Country Airplay, #24 Hot 100
Shay Mooney was signed to T-Pain's Nappy Boy Entertainment before he started a country duo with Dan Smyers, so there's nothing surprising about Dan + Shay ascending to pop crossover success and collaborating with Justin Bieber. I like their harmony-driven future wedding staple "Speechless" about 10 times more than their 2 other really big hits, though.
Shay Mooney was signed to T-Pain's Nappy Boy Entertainment before he started a country duo with Dan Smyers, so there's nothing surprising about Dan + Shay ascending to pop crossover success and collaborating with Justin Bieber. I like their harmony-driven future wedding staple "Speechless" about 10 times more than their 2 other really big hits, though.
4. Carrie Underwood - "Southbound"
#3 Country Airplay, #64 Hot 100
Carrie Underwood has always been the tightly wound talent show perfectionist of country, so it makes sense that her "getting drunk on a boat" summer anthem would be a little faster and more rigidly composed. And that's what makes "Southbound" a breath of fresh air, it's hard to imagine any of her contemporaries pulling this off as well. And it was Underwood's biggest hit in a year when she was heavily favored to finally win Entertainer of the Year at the CMA's (but in the end Garth Brooks got it and everyone hated Garth, as usual).
Carrie Underwood has always been the tightly wound talent show perfectionist of country, so it makes sense that her "getting drunk on a boat" summer anthem would be a little faster and more rigidly composed. And that's what makes "Southbound" a breath of fresh air, it's hard to imagine any of her contemporaries pulling this off as well. And it was Underwood's biggest hit in a year when she was heavily favored to finally win Entertainer of the Year at the CMA's (but in the end Garth Brooks got it and everyone hated Garth, as usual).
5. Eric Church - "Some Of It"
#1 Country Airplay, #43 Hot 100
This was one of the immediate standouts for me on Desperate Man, so I wasn't too surprised when it was designated as Church's compulsory big 2nd single after an underperforming difficult lead single. I love how "Some Of It" opens like it's slowing down from a faster song already in progress.
6. Luke Bryan - "Knockin' Boots"
This was one of the immediate standouts for me on Desperate Man, so I wasn't too surprised when it was designated as Church's compulsory big 2nd single after an underperforming difficult lead single. I love how "Some Of It" opens like it's slowing down from a faster song already in progress.
6. Luke Bryan - "Knockin' Boots"
#1 Country Airplay, #31 Hot 100
"Knockin' Boots" is a ridiculously goofy song, but Luke Bryan is the perfect cornball to really sell it, it's his first song that I've really genuinely enjoyed since his 2007 debut single "All My Friends Say." If anyone else recorded "Knockin' Boots" I would've felt embarrassed for them, but since Bryan did it, I only have to feel embarrassed for myself for how much I enjoy it.
"Knockin' Boots" is a ridiculously goofy song, but Luke Bryan is the perfect cornball to really sell it, it's his first song that I've really genuinely enjoyed since his 2007 debut single "All My Friends Say." If anyone else recorded "Knockin' Boots" I would've felt embarrassed for them, but since Bryan did it, I only have to feel embarrassed for myself for how much I enjoy it.
7. Thomas Rhett - "Sixteen"
#1 Country Airplay, #42 Hot 100
Thomas Rhett has more #1s than almost any of his contemporaries under 40, and he hasn't even turned 30 yet, so he's probably the most reliable sure thing country music has for the foreseeable future. This year the Center Point Road album added a couple more big hits to his catalog, but my favorite song he had on the radio was the 5th single from 2017's Life Changes, which artfully packed a whole decade of adolescence into a wistful little 3-minute snapshot.
Thomas Rhett has more #1s than almost any of his contemporaries under 40, and he hasn't even turned 30 yet, so he's probably the most reliable sure thing country music has for the foreseeable future. This year the Center Point Road album added a couple more big hits to his catalog, but my favorite song he had on the radio was the 5th single from 2017's Life Changes, which artfully packed a whole decade of adolescence into a wistful little 3-minute snapshot.
#14 Country Airplay, #70 Hot 100
I never loved Miranda Lambert as much as a lot of my friends and peers do, but I took a crash course on her discography this year and she grew on me a lot. This song should have done better, the best laundry-themed country hit since the Sara Evans classic "Suds In The Bucket."
I never loved Miranda Lambert as much as a lot of my friends and peers do, but I took a crash course on her discography this year and she grew on me a lot. This song should have done better, the best laundry-themed country hit since the Sara Evans classic "Suds In The Bucket."
9. Old Dominion - "Make It Sweet"
#1 Country Airplay, #56 Hot 100
Old Dominion kind of stepped in to fill the niche that the Zac Brown Band used to occupy in country radio -- in fact Old Dominion had their first #1 around the same time Zac Brown had his last #1 about 4 years ago, and ever since then it's been back-to-back hits for Old Dominion and Brown keeps shooting blanks.
10. Maren Morris - "Girl"
10. Maren Morris - "Girl"
#1 Country Airplay, #44 Hot 100
Greg Kurstin probably has the most far ranging resume of any of pop's current super-producers, with singles for everyone from Adele to Foo Fighters to Kendrick Lamar. So it makes a certain sense that he'd finally get a country #1, and it'd be with Maren Morris, who just dipped a toe into the pop world with "The Middle" with Zedd last year but wasn't about to go full EDM for her 2nd solo album. "Girl" was kind of slow to catch on, I wonder if it was still a little too far out of country radio's comfort zone even with a guitar-driven track, but chewy turns of phrase like "if vanity's my vitamin" reaffirmed Morris's understated lyrical gift. 11. Justin Moore - "The Ones That Didn't Make It Back Home"
#1 Country Airplay, #46 Hot 100
Last year I broke the streak of Justin Moore being the only artist who'd been on my country singles list every year since I started doing them in 2012. "The Ones That Didn't Make It Back Home" was already out by then, but it wasn't a hit yet, and I hadn't really made up my mind about it yet. People that don't listen to country always seem to think that half the songs are patriotic anthems about supporting the troops, so I cringe a little at songs that fit that stereotype. But "The Ones" is pretty well written, and grew on me in the context of my favorite country album of 2019, Late Nights And Longnecks.
12. Eli Young Band - "Love Ain't"
#1 Country Airplay, #50 Hot 100
Hits started to dry up for Mike Eli and James Young's band about 5 years ago, so it seemed like maybe an odd move for them to release a greatest hits album in 2019. But it worked out well, because the new song from the compilation, "Love Ain't," became their biggest hit in ages, and deservedly so. 13. Sam Hunt - "Kinfolks"
#10 Country Airplay, #62 Hot 100
October marked the 5th anniversary of Sam Hunt's first and only album, the triple platinum Montevallo, and in November, Hunt got arrested for a DUI. Hopefully Sam Hunt isn't turning into the D'Angelo of country and gets his shit together and releases his second album in 2020. "Kinfolks" isn't a no brainer crossover smash like his only 2017 single "Body Like A Back Road," but it's nice to see it faring better than his only 2018 single, the flop "Downtown's Dead."
14. Maddie & Tae - "Die From A Broken Heart"
#44 Country Airplay
Madison Marlowe and Taylor Dye will probably always be remembered primarily for ruffling feathers with "Girl In A Country Song" at the height of the 'bro country' era in 2014. But they've quietly made some really excellent, emotionally resonant singles like this year's "Friends Don't" and "Die From A Broken Heart" that deserved more airplay than they got, in part because while 'bro country' isn't really a thing any more, country radio is even more male-dominated now than it was 5 years ago.
15. Luke Combs - "Even Though I'm Leaving"
#1 Country Airplay, #11 Hot 100
I think the triple platinum "Beautiful Crazy" will be the most enduring Luke Combs hit of 2019, but I always found it a little mawkish and simplistic. So I'm pleased that "Even Though I'm Leaving" upstaged it to become his highest charting Hot 100 entry to date, it's a much better example of how affecting Combs can be as a ballad writer.
16. Maren Morris - "The Bones"
Country has been fairly late to the party with streaming music reshaping the charts -- country albums still get most of their sales figures from actual sales, and country singles still chart on the Hot 100 largely off of radio spins. So I've watched with interest on the rare occasion when streaming fuels a song's popularity before country radio catches onto it: "Beautiful Crazy," Russell Dickerson's "Yours," and especially "The Bones," which had more streams than any other song on Maren Morris's 2 albums well before it was promoted to radio. I'm not exactly sure why this song hit a nerve the way it did, but it's lovely and has grown on me over the course of the year.
17. Brantley Gilbert and Lindsay Ell - "What Happens In A Small Town"
I really did not like Russell Dickerson's first two hits, but his third straight #1 wore me down with its dopey upbeat charm, kind of reminds me of Sam Hunt's "House Party."
19. Kelsea Ballerini - "Miss Me More"
#2 Country Airplay, #47 Hot 100
I think country production is in a pretty good place right now, obviously a lot of things are more polished than they need to be, but I hear a lot more records on the radio that just sound like a band in a room with some good mics than I used to. But "Miss Me" is definitely one of those overproduced songs where I thought a good lyric wasn't served well by the musical arrangement.
20. Brothers Osborne - "I Don't Remember Me (Before You)"
I think the triple platinum "Beautiful Crazy" will be the most enduring Luke Combs hit of 2019, but I always found it a little mawkish and simplistic. So I'm pleased that "Even Though I'm Leaving" upstaged it to become his highest charting Hot 100 entry to date, it's a much better example of how affecting Combs can be as a ballad writer.
16. Maren Morris - "The Bones"
#17 Country Airplay, #48 Hot 100
17. Brantley Gilbert and Lindsay Ell - "What Happens In A Small Town"
#1 Country Airplay, #53 Hot 100
Canadian singer-guitarist Lindsay Ell had her first minor U.S. hit last year with "Criminal," but that was nothing compared to the success of her duet with Brantley Gilbert. Hopefully this means Ell's new solo single "I Don't Love You" will far better on the American charts than her previous songs that did better in Canada.
18. Russell Dickerson - "Every Little Thing"
#1 Country Airplay, #50 Hot 10018. Russell Dickerson - "Every Little Thing"
I really did not like Russell Dickerson's first two hits, but his third straight #1 wore me down with its dopey upbeat charm, kind of reminds me of Sam Hunt's "House Party."
19. Kelsea Ballerini - "Miss Me More"
#2 Country Airplay, #47 Hot 100
I think country production is in a pretty good place right now, obviously a lot of things are more polished than they need to be, but I hear a lot more records on the radio that just sound like a band in a room with some good mics than I used to. But "Miss Me" is definitely one of those overproduced songs where I thought a good lyric wasn't served well by the musical arrangement.
20. Brothers Osborne - "I Don't Remember Me (Before You)"
#31 Country Airplay
One quirk of how I write about music on this site is that I post 10 favorite singles every month, and I'm always listening to a playlist of current singles trying to decide which ones to write about. And some songs I kick around for months and months without every writing about them, and those songs I'm never totally sure I love but have no problem with end up being some of my most listened to songs on Spotify. And the 2nd single from Brothers Osborne's 2018 Port Saint Joe ended up being one of my most played songs of 2019, much like it kicked around the country charts for almost a year without ever really becoming a big hit. It's a gorgeous song, though, in retrospect I was kind of underrating it.
The 10 Worst Country Radio Hits of 2019:
9. Rayne Johnson - "Front Seat"
10. Matt Stell - "Prayed For You"
1. Blake Shelton - "God's Country"
2. Jason Aldean - "We Back"
3. Lee Brice - "Rumor"
4. Riley Green - "I Wish Grandpas Never Died"
5. Chris Lane - "I Don't Know About You"
6. Blanco Brown - "The Git Up"
7. Chase Rice - "Eyes On You"
8. Thomas Rhett - "Remember You Young" 10. Matt Stell - "Prayed For You"
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on Friday, December 06, 2019 at 11:41 AM.
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