My Top 100 Country Singles of the 1970s
I've been going back through musical history, one decade at a time and one genre at a time, and often country is the last one I cover. I finished up my '80s series with a country list just a few months ago, but I kind of got into a groove into that one and decided to start my '70s series with country.
Here's every song on the list as a 5-hour Spotify playlist.
1. Dolly Parton - "Jolene" (1974)
I am posting this just 5 weeks after we lost Dolly, but I don't have to tell you that this was already in my mind as my likely #1 long before that tragic loss. If there's any reason I wouldn't put it at the top of this list, it's only because it's beloved by so many people who don't like any other country song (the other day I saw someone sniff derisively that a current country hit "is no 'Jolene,'" because of course that's the only basis for comparison). But there it is, where it deserves to be.
2. George Jones - "The Grand Tour" (1974)
Country's greatest singer and most famous alcoholic rose to fame singing about moonshine in the '60s, and my '80s country list was heavy on George Jones songs about drinking, but his '70s hit parade comprises mostly heartbreak songs and the occasional love song. The Possum was on his third marriage (out of four total) in 1974, so it makes sense that he could sing a tale of divorce like "The Grand Tour" with so much ache in his voice.
3. Bobbie Gentry - "Fancy" (1970)
Bobbie Gentry released seven albums in four years from 1967 to 1971, writing her most famous material and even self-producing an album at a time when that was a serious rarity (for all recording artists, not just women or country singers). And then she dealt with some music industry bullshit, did the Vegas circuit for a while, and pretty much retired from public life and has lived the last 50 years or so out of the spotlight. The music she made, including "Fancy," was awesome, though, I'm sad that she didn't get to make records for decades like most of the people on this list. I will try to comport myself in this post but I'll just make the point once that some of the most beautiful women of all time were '70s country singers.
4. Willie Nelson - "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" (1975)
In 1975, Willie Nelson was 42 years old and had written some of the biggest country songs of the '60s, including "Crazy" and "Funny How Time Slips Away," but his first 17 albums hadn't really made him a star. Then he made a sparse, quiet concept album, stringing mostly songs that had been written by other people years or decades earlier into a storyline about a murderous preacher, and it became a multi-platinum phenomenon. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," a hit for Ray Acuff in 1947 that had been recorded by everyone from Hank Williams to Conway Twitty, became the first of Nelson's many #1 country hits as a performer.
5. Johnny Cash - "Man in Black" (1971)
Johnny Cash has such a unique presence, so much gravitas, I don't know if he's the only person that could have written "Man in Black" but is there anyone else who could have sung it and you would actually believe him and want to call him the man in black?
6. Loretta Lynn – "Coal Miner’s Daughter" (1970)
Like "Man in Black," "Coal Miner's Daughter" is synonymous with its singer, practically their official title of nobility. They even made a biopic based on the song, and it was the 7th biggest box office hit of 1980! I feel like you really get all of Lynn's story and her essence in the three minutes of that song.
7. The Charlie Daniels Band - "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" (1979)
I will be the first to admit that I didn't grow up steeped in country, and "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," may be the only song here that I had more than a passing familiarity with before I was 15 or so, and it really is just deliriously entertaining, I wish more mainstream country songs had ridiculous showboating fiddle solos. A few years ago, Charlie Daniels went away, just like Benghazi.
8. Waylon Jennings - "Good Hearted Woman" (1971)
Waylon Jennings has such a fascinating story. He was a friend, protege, and sideman of Buddy Holly, playing bass in his band on the ill-fated 1959 tour when Holly died in a plane crash, and Jennings's guilt and trauma from that derailed his life and career for years. But he eventually found his footing, and his own sound and identity, and "Good Hearted Woman" was one of his biggest hits twice, first reaching #3 on the country as a solo track and then hitting #1 four years when he re-recorded it with Willie Nelson.
9. Kenny Rogers - "The Gambler" (1978)
Another one of those songs I've loved from a pretty young age and just never got sick of. These days it surprises me a little just how gentle it sounds, how delicate Kenny Rogers's voice is, because in mind it's just this big gregarious anthemic song.
10. Conway Twitty - "Hello Darlin'" (1970)
Harold "Conway Twitty" Jenkins started out in the '50s as a rock crooner who sounded like Elvis Presley (his first hit "It's Only Make Believe" was the sixth #1 ever on the Hot 100). He actually considered releasing country music as Harold Jenkins while continuing to make rock under his stage name, which sounds so strange to me now, Conway Twitty just seems like a quintessential country singer name to me now.
11. Charley Pride – “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” (1971)
Ray Charles made best-selling country albums in the '60s but didn't actually get played on country radio until the '80s. So Charley Pride was really the trailblazer of Black country stars, with "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'" being the biggest of his 29 #1's from 1969 to 1983.
12. Dolly Parton – “Coat of Many Colors” (1971)
Dolly several times called the autobiographical "Coat of Many Colors" her favorite song that she ever wrote. Both Porter Wagoner's dry cleaning receipt that she wrote the lyrics on and a dress made by Parton's mother (though not the original that inspired the song) are both displayed in a museum at Dollywood.
13. Sammi Smith - "Help Me Make It Through The Night" (1970)
Several men have recorded great versions of "Help Me Make It Through The Night," including the song's writer Kris Kristofferson, but I must admit I'd rather hear a woman sing "take the ribbon from my hair" than a man singing "take the ribbon from your hair," the Sammi Smith version is just sexy.
14. George Jones - "These Days (I Barely Get By)" (1975)
Before the advent of hip-hop, no genre really explored the emotional effects of poverty and economic struggle like country music. And "These Days" has long been one of my favorite George Jones songs, it goes into a litany that almost feels like an over-the-top country cliche along the lines of "my wife left me, my dog died, my truck won't start," but instead Jones really keeps it in the realm of reality with the gravity of his vocal performance.
15. Merle Haggard and the Strangers – “If We Make It Through December” (1973)
Another great song about struggling to make ends meet that can hit a little too hard if you're going through a rough patch. I unfortunately find "I don't mean to hate December, it's meant to be the happy time of year" very relatable, the stress of mounting adult responsibilities at the end of every year has really sapped me of most of my enjoyment of the Christmas season.
16. Johnny Cash - "Oney" (1972)
Jerry Chestnut, a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, wrote at least three songs on this list, including "Oney," a comic but potent little song from the perspective of a retiring factory worker. I defy you to get to the end of "Oney" or Cash's similarly themed hit "One Piece At A Time" (which appears further down on this list) without laughing and/or yelling "fuck yeah!"
17.Johnny Paycheck - "Take This Job And Shove It" (1977)
I was surprised to learn that Johnny Paycheck's stage name wasn't a humorous hat tip to Johnny Cash, there was actually a famous boxer named Johnny Paychek. In any case, you can't talk about country's odes to the working man without mentioning this song.
18. Tanya Tucker - "Lizzie and the Rainman" (1975)
I didn't really know Tanya Tucker's '70s stuff before working on this list, I love the sound her voice had as a teenager on those early hits. Snuff Garrett's production on this song is remarkable, the screaming strings that enter at the top of the chorus, and those pummeling drum fills.
19. Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson - "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" (1978)
In 1978, Willie Nelson released three albums that each sold millions: Stardust, Willie and Family Live, and Willie & Waylon (beat that, Drake!). Arkansas singer-songwriter Ed Bruce's original recording of "Mamas" was a minor hit when he released it in 1975, but in country it often feels like a song really belongs to whoever was the biggest artist to record it.
20. Linda Ronstadt - "When Will I Be Loved" (1975)
County and rock & roll had only been really diverging and going in opposite directions for a few years in the '60s when "country rock" became a niche genre and eventually a big business in the '70s. Linda Ronstadt and her frequent collaborators in the Eagles are probably the biggest stars of the country rock explosion, although she got more country radio play than they did (their only hit on the country charts, "Lyin' Eyes," is further down this list). Andrew Gold (the guy who wrote the "Golden Girls" theme song) went absolutely crazy with the guitars on Ronstadt's wonderful Everly Brothers cover.
21. Billy Swan - "I Can Help" (1974)
Depending how you categorize certain songs, somewhere between 15 and 20 country songs hit #1 on the Hot 100 in the 1970s, and for the next four decades that number was between zero and 5 (there have been 8 or 9 so far in the 2020s, so we're finally rebounding!). "I Can Help" is the first pop chart-topper to appear here, and I absolutely love the way it sounds coming out of "When Will I Be Loved" on my playlist, and those fun hyped-up false endings that Swan and his band go into.
22. Freddy Fender - "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" (1975)
"Before the Next Teardrop Falls" was another #1, in fact one of six songs that topped both the country and pop charts in 1975, the peak of country's chart dominance. Four other recordings of "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" had charted since it was written in 1967, but Freddy Fender's version, with the second version sung in Spanish, was the one that just took off and became the one everybody remembers.
23. Crystal Gayle - "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (1977)
Crystal Gayle was a coal miner's daughter, too, the youngest of Loretta Lynn's seven siblings, but she had a clearer, lighter voice and was a good match for the 'countrypolitan' sound that came into vogue in the '70s.
24. Dolly Parton - "Joshua" (1971)
By 1971, Dolly Parton had had most of her commercial success with duets with her mentor Porter Wagoner, and it was a cover of "Mule Skinner Blues" that broke her through as a solo artist, with her self-penned follow-up "Joshua" becoming her first country #1 and her first Grammy nomination.
25. Ronnie Milsap - "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends" (1974)
Bobby Bare was the first artist to record Kris Kristofferson's "Please Don't Tell me How the Story Ends," but Ronnie Mislap's version was the best and biggest hit, and he really owns it with those beautiful high notes on the second verse.
26. George Jones and Tammy Wynette - "Golden Ring" (1976)
It's interesting to occasionally hear a country song that takes place somewhere like Chicago instead of the usual deep south geography, and I love this sad little tale of a wedding ring that winds up back in the same pawn shop where a young couple found it. George and Tammy were country's top power couple of the '70s, and the public fascination with them endured to the point that Epic kept releasing duets they'd recorded after they divorced in 1975, with 1976's Golden Ring becoming their biggest album together.
27. Emmylou Harris - "One of These Days" (1976)
Country rock innovator Gram Parsons's "cosmic American music" hadn't really impacted country's mainstream by the time he died in 1973, but in the following years his frequent collaborator Emmylou Harris became a major hitmaker. I've worked on a couple of events where Emmylou Harris performed and I'm starstruck every time.
28. Glen Campbell - "Southern Nights" (1977)
New Orleans rhythm and blues legend Allen Toussaint had been widely covered and had produced big hits for Labelle and Dr. John, but Glen Campbell's cover of the title track from his 1975 album Southern Nights took Toussaint to the top of the country and pop charts for the first and only time as a songwriter.
29. Tanya Tucker - "Delta Dawn" (1972)
I really had no idea until I looked it up just now that Tanya Tucker was only 13 when she recorded "Delta Dawn," has to be one of the most remarkable vocal performances by someone that age on a hit. Helen Reddy's similar recording of "Delta Dawn" got to #1 on the pop charts a year later but I like the Tucker version best.
30. Willie Nelson - "Bloody Mary Morning" (1974)
Willie Nelson's 1974 masterpiece Phases & Stages was something of a precursor to Red Headed Stranger, and its fastest, most playful track was one of the hits that started to move his performing career up to a new level. Probably my favorite banjo playing of any song on this list.
31. Loretta Lynn - "The Pill" (1975)
Country music isn't a place where progressive politics often thrive, but it's usually the women who really push things forward, as when Lynn wrote a frank song about birth control that was as controversial as it was popular.
32. Merle Haggard and the Strangers - "The Fightin' Side of Me" (1970)
Merle Haggard had a lot of crossover cachet as one of the few "outlaw country" stars who had actually done time in prison. And oddly, when he revealed a conservative side and sneered at libs and hippies on 1979's "Okie from Muskogee" and then the following year's "The Fightin' Side of Me," the libs and hippies just seemed to like him more. It's hard to imagine the hipsters suddenly getting into Toby Keith after "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" or Jason Aldean after "Try That in a Small Town."
33. Waylon Jennings - "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand" (1978)
Waylon Jennings actually had a top 5 hit with this pretty funny commentary on the whole outlaw country phenomenon: "Was it singin' through my nose that got me busted by the man?"
34. Jessi Colter - "I'm Not Lisa" (1975)
Waylon Jennings's wife became the most prominent woman in outlaw country with their string of hit duets and the platinum 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws by Jennings, Colter, Willie Nelson, and Tompall Glaser. Her biggest solo hit, however, is a tearful little ballad.
35. Vicki Lawrence - "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" (1973)
Success in both comedy and music (like, non-comedic music) is a pretty rare achievement, but Vicki Lawrence went to #1 with a whole murder ballad in the middle of "The Carol Burnett Show"'s decade-long run on CBS. I don't know who else you can even put in that category other than Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx.
36. Johnny Cash - "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down (live)" (1970)
Johnny Cash also had a variety show on primetime TV in the early '70s. And his hit rendition of Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" was a live performance from "The Johnny Cash Show" that always fully sounds like a studio recording to me until you hear the audience at the very end.
37. George Jones - "A Good Year For the Roses" (1970)
George Jones's prime can be easily divided into two main eras, the Pappy Daily productions of his '50s and '60s honky tonk work and the lush Billy Sherrill productions of the '70s and '80s. "A Good Year For the Roses" was produced by Bob Moore right in that brief period between those eras, and I love the way drummer Kenny Buttrey occasionally switches from a rim tap to a snare for these moments of surging strings and emotion flooding out of Jones's otherwise perfectly restrained and controlled performance. I was so surprised to realize after many years of listening to Elvis Costello that his version of "A Good Year For the Roses" was one of his biggest hits in the UK, where George Jones had absolutely no commercial profile.
38. Skeeter Davis - "Bus Fare to Kentucky" (1971)
Producer Ronny Light penned "Bus Fare to Kentucky" for the Kentucky-born Skeeter Davis, who made a turn toward a twangier sound in the '70s after having some pop crossover success in the '60s.
39. Moe Bandy – “I Just Started Hatin’ Cheatin’ Songs Today” (1974)
"I Just Started Hatin' Cheatin' Songs Today" was Moe Bandy's career-launching debut single, but he decided to negate the song's premise with a string of later hits with titles like "I Cheated Me Right Out of You," "It's a Cheatin' Situation," and "She Just Loved the Cheatin' Out of Me."
40. The Amazing Rhythm Aces - "Third Rate Romance" (1975)
I think I'd kind of assumed that the Amazing Rhythm Aces were an R&B or jazz band or something with that name, but they were a Memphis country rock band, and I really enjoy their biggest hit, a droll little song about a one night stand.
41. Dolly Parton - "I Will Always Love You" (1974)
Dolly Parton famously wrote her two most enduring songs, "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You," on the same day. We should all hope for a day as good as that in our lives. Elvis Presley was interested in recording "I Will Always Love You," but Colonel Tom Parker would only allow it if Parton signed over half of the publishing rights. Parton made the difficult decision to say no, which turned out to be even smarter than anybody could have realized at the time when Whitney Houston's 1992 recording became one of the biggest hits of all time.
42. Elvis Presley - "Way Down" (1977)
Of course, Elvis wasn't as successful in his later years as he'd been earlier in his career, but he was still Elvis. And like other early rock & rollers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Don Everly, Presley was a steady presence on the country charts in the '70s. "Way Down" was his most recent single when Presley died, and it only rose up a little bit on the charts after he passed, not a big posthumous smash like "(Just Like) Starting Over" or "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay," but I really like it. Presley's last top 10 pop hit remains 1972's "Burning Love," which wasn't on the country charts but was penned by Nashville legend Dennis Linde.
43. Jimmy Buffett - "Come Monday" (1974)
Jimmy Buffett toiled as a minor country star for years before "Margaritaville" made him a superstar, and "Come Monday" was one of the early singles that remained a cornerstone of his repertoire as a huge touring act.
44. Willie Nelson - "Whiskey River (live)" (1979)
"Whiskey River" was a minor hit for Houston singer/songwriter Johnny Bush when he wrote it in 1972. But over the years it's become his friend Willie Nelson's signature song, first on 1974's Shotgun Willie and then the hit live version, and it's been Nelson's customary opening song for his concerts for decades now.
45. Barbara Mandrell - "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" (1978)
Country thrived commercially in the '70s partly because there was so little difference between soft rock and a lot of what was coming out Nashville, and this one in particular could practically be a Captain & Tenille song.
46. John Denver - "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (1971)
Taffy Nivert and Bill Danoff started writing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" while driving around the twisty roads of Montgomery County, Maryland, and I think about this song every time I'm driving around the rural parts of Maryland, even if they did add a shout out to West Virginia that's given the song a permanent association with another state.
47. Johnny Cash - "The Lady Came From Baltimore" (1974)
If Maryland doesn't get a lot of mentions in country music, Baltimore gets even less, aside from Bobby Bare's '60s classic "Streets of Baltimore," so I was amused to find this charming Tim Hardin cover while trawling through Johnny Cash's discography.
48. Anne Murray - "Snowbird" (1970)
Another song I'd never heard before putting together this list, love that string arrangement and Anne Murray was kind of a trailblazer for Canadian women in country music, from K.D. Lang and Shania Twain to Terri Clark and Lindsay Ell.
49. George Jones - "Her Name Is" (1976)
One of my favorite George Jones albums is Alone Again, the despondent and self-pitying album he released after his divorce from Tammy Wynette. The album's only hit, however, is an atypically goofy little novelty song. Jones describes the woman he's in love with and then says "Her name is..." with Hargus Robbins's clavinet filling in the blanks with a 3-note melody symbolizing her name that descends from B to A to G (her name is BAG?). Her hair color is symbolized by an E, and so on.
50. Tammy Wynette - "Til I Can Make It On My Own" (1976)
Tammy's big post-divorce hit is a bit more straightforward, and an absolute heartbreaker, her 15th #1 on the country charts.
51. Charlie Rich – “Behind Closed Doors” (1973)
52. Kenny Rogers - "Lucille" (1977)
53. Hank Williams Jr. - "Family Tradition" (1979)
54. Olivia Newton-John - "Let Me Be There" (1973)
55. Conway Twitty - "This Time I've Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me" (1975)
56. Willie Nelson - "Yesterday's Wine" (1971)
57. Lynn Anderson – “Rose Garden” (1970)
58. Johnny Cash - "One Piece At A Time" (1976)
59. The Bellamy Brothers - "Let Your Love Flow" (1976)
60. Tanya Tucker - "Blood Red and Goin' Down" (1973)
61. O.B. McClinton – “Don’t Let The Green Grass Fool You” (1972)
62. Linda Martell - "Bad Case of the Blues" (1970)
63. . George Jones - "The Door" (1974)
64. Merle Haggard and the Strangers - "The Roots of My Raising" (1976)
65. Jerry Reed - "East Bound And Down" (1977)
66. Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn - "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" (1973)
67. Faron Young - "It's Four in the Morning" (1971)
68. Willie Nelson - "If You've Got The Money I've Got The Time" (1976)
69. Johnny Cash - "Flesh and Blood" (1970)
70. Dolly Parton - "Baby I'm Burnin'" (1978)
71. Glen Campbell - "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975)
72. Bobby Bare - "Come Sundown" (1970)
73. Gordon Lightfoot - "Sundown" (1974)
74. Emmylou Harris - "Two More Bottles of Wine" (1978)
75. Charley Pride - "Is Anybody Goin' To San Antone" (1970)
76. John Denver - "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (1975)
77. B.W. Stevenson - "My Maria" (1973)
78. Olivia Newton-John - "Have You Never Been Mellow" (1975)
79. Don Williams - "Tulsa Time" (1978)
80. Kris Kristofferson - "Why Me" (1973)
81. Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton - "Please Don't Stop Loving Me" (1974)
82. Johnny Rodriguez - "Ridin' My Thumb To Mexico" (1973)
83. Willie Nelson - "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" (1974)
84. Johnny Cash - "Any Old Wind That Blows" (1972)
85. Tanya Tucker - "The Jamestown Ferry" (1972)
86. George Jones - "Loving You Could Never Be Better" (1972)
87. Eric Weissberg - "Dueling Banjos" (1972)
88. Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty - "You're The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly" (1978)
89. C.W. McCall - "Convoy" (1975)
90. The Eagles - "Lyin' Eyes" (1975)
91. Mac Davis - "Stop and Smell the Roses" (1974)
92. Gary Stewart - "She's Actin' Single, I'm Drinkin' Doubles" (1975)
93. Alabama - "I Wanna Come Over" (1979)
94. Dolly Parton - "Here You Come Again" (1977)
95. Charley Pride - "I Ain't All Bad" (1975)
96. Reba McEntire - "Sweet Dreams" (1979)
97. Eddie Rabbit - "Rocky Mountain Music" (1976)
98. Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings - "There Ain't No Good Chain Gang" (1978)
99. Merle Haggard and the Strangers - "Old Man from the Mountain" (1974)
100. Willie Nelson - "Remember Me (When the Candlelights Are Gleaming)" (1976)
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