Best Country Songs That Never Make Best Country Songs Lists

They are everywhere: the "best ever" lists. Magazines, radio stations, and cable networks all compile the list of the "best" or "definitive" songs and publish them.

Country music's "best" lists, regardless of the origin, suffer from one universal problem: they ignore most of country music. To read most of these lists, one would think the only country song that existed prior to George Jones' recording of "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was "Crazy" by Patsy Cline.

Why is this? The probable causes are plentiful. Perhaps the people making the list do not know that these songs exist. If that is the case, they should not title a list "best country songs of all time." Country music was first recorded in 1922, so if the list does not take into consideration songs that go back that far then don't say "all-time." Call it what it is, instead, "best country songs since 1980 with 'Crazy' thrown in for good measure."

More likely, however, is the magazine or TV show wants an audience, and they cater the lists to the audiences.  What else would explain the heavy dose of songs from the 90s and 2000s in CMT's list, while only two songs before 1950 ("Lovesick Blues" and "You Are My Sunshine") made the list -- not to mention the fact they put Ray Charles as the performer of "I Can't Stop Loving You" instead of Don Gibson!  (Gibson wrote the song and had the country hit with it.  Charles' version never made the country charts.)

Regardless of the reason, there are legendary songs that never make these lists.  In honor of those songs, here are the ten best songs that never make the "best country songs" lists:

1.  "Blues, Stay Away From Me" - Delmore Brothers (1949).  This song broke more ground than many people realize:  it was written by three white southern boys (Alton and Rabon Delmore, from Alabama, and Arkansas native Wayne Raney) and a black man (Henry Glover), long before segregation found its way out of American life.  The twin harmonicas by Raney and Lonnie Glosson highlight the musical background.  This song has been recorded by people ranging from the Louvin Brothers and Ray Price to The Band and Mark Knopfler.

2.  "When I Stop Dreaming" - Louvin Brothers (1955).  Speaking of the Louvin Brothers, in 1955 they were looking to try their hand at "secular" country music after years as recording strictly as a gospel act.  The Capitol Records executives warned them that if their experiment failed they would be kicked off the label.  They staked their career on this lost-love waltz highlighted by Ira Louvin's exceptional tenor, and the bet paid off.

3.  "The Three Bells" - the Browns (1959).  This song was so popular that it hit #1 on both the country and pop charts.  The harmonies were spine-tingling as they recounted the life of a valley town resident by the name of Jimmy Brown.

4.  "Wabash Cannonball" - Roy Acuff (1937).  During World War II Japanese kamikaze pilots would attack American ships yelling, "To hell with Roosevelt!  To hell with Babe Ruth!  To hell with Roy Acuff!"  It's sad that the enemy knew who the King of Country Music was but modern country fans do not.  "Wabash Cannonball" was Acuff's signature song.

5.  "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)" - Tex Ritter (1952).  An Academy Award-winning song so closely associated with Ritter that he was the one who performed the song at the Oscars show.  Ritter was an early inductee in the Country Music Hall of Fame but he is more thought of today as the father of John Ritter, not for his long career.

6.  "Four Walls" - Jim Reeves (1957).  Not only one of the biggest hits of Reeves' career (one of two top ten pop hits he had in his career), this is also one of the most important songs in country music:  historians generally regard "Four Walls" as the first song of the "Nashville Sound" era.

7.  "Sixteen Tons" - Tennessee Ernie Ford (1955).  Merle Travis' lament of the life of a coal miner came from personal experience:  Travis grew up in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, where coal mining was the primary occupation.  Ford recorded the song and made it a #1 country and pop hit.

8.  "Homecoming" - Tom T. Hall (1969).  Hall, known as "the storyteller," is usually overlooked by these lists, which is odd considering how many people think of country music as music that tells a story.  His description of a musician on the road performing, even as his mother died, is one of the best songs about the life of a singer ever recorded.

9.  "The Long Black Veil" - Lefty Frizzell (1958).  A masterful song about a man who would rather die than admit to an affair with his best friend's wife has been recorded by acts from The Band in rock to Johnny Cash in country, but no one gave the song such an eerie, haunting rendition as the man who first made it popular.

10.  "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" - Elton Britt (1942).  Elton Britt was a superb yodeler and B-western performer, but this song, recorded on the heels of America's entry into World War II, stands as one of the best "war songs" ever recorded.  It is also the first country song to ever receive a gold record.

So the next time you see a "best country songs of all time" list ask yourself where the "old" songs are -- then ask the people making the lists!