Ten Best Country Covers

The cycle is now complete. This is the fourth and final in a series dealing with covers. After listing some of my all-time favorites and least favorites in rock and my least favorites in country it's time for ten of the best covers in country music.

(Cover of Carl Smith's hit from 1951)

By 1973 Porter Wagoner's success was waning while Dolly Parton was well on her way to superstardom. Their professional career was nearing an end thanks to creative differences ("I was creative, and Porter was different," Dolly later joked after the wounds healed) but before they ceased performing together in 1974 they turned out this great cover of an early Carl Smith hit, performed in an uptempo fashion that undermined the pain of pining over lost love in the lyrics.

(Written and originally recorded by Charlie Rich, 1960)

Charlie Rich was one of those acts in a musical no-man's land, not exactly rock but not really country, either. That was no problem for Ray Price, who took this 1960 hit for Rich and made it 100% country with his excellent rendition.

(Cover of Wynn Stewart's first hit, 1956)

Margie Singleton is one of many female duet partners George Jones had through his career (others have included Melba Montgomery, Belinda Carter, and of course, Tammy Wynette). Their time together was short (only one album, Duets, Country Style), but the recordings produced this classic version of a classic song.

(Cover of the Gordon Lightfoot song from Lightfoot's first album, 1966)

One day Gordon Lightfoot may find himself inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame as a songwriter. A number of his songs have become country hits ("Ribbon of Darkness," "Did She Mention My Name," "Early Morning Rain"). George Hamilton IV (who also did "Early Morning Rain") did a fine version of this early superlative Lightfoot number.

(Originally recorded in 1961 by Little Jimmy Dickens)

As with a number of the songs on this list, many may be genuinely shocked to learn that the best-known version of the song is actually a cover. In this case, Little Jimmy Dickens' 1961 rendition (which is available on the Razor & Tie compilation I'm Little But I'm Loud) is a mid-tempo shuffle, which might be unfathomable to those only familiar with Gene Watson's magnificent ballad version from 1979. Although not Watson's biggest hit in terms of chart success, his powerhouse recording of "Farewell Party" has made it his signature tune.

(Cover of an Elvis Costello album cut from 1986)

While it superficially may sound like a terrible mismatch, in reality Elvis Costello is a huge country music fan, and his ability to do country music and do it well was displayed in 1981 with his album of country covers, Almost Blue. On his first album for Mercury after being unceremoniously released from his three-decade affiliation with Columbia Records, Cash covered "The Big Light" and did the song so well it's hard to believe that either he didn't write it or that Costello didn't write it expressly for Cash.

(Written and originally recorded by Rodney Crowell, 1978)

Rodney Crowell wrote this great song and recorded it as a mid-tempo ballad on his Ain't Livin' Long Like This album. The same year he did it his one-time boss Emmylou Harris (he was a member of her "Hot Band") did a version of the song very similar to Crowell's on Quarter Moon in a Ten-Cent Town. When the Oak Ridge Boys covered the song, taking the hit to #1 in 1980, they put a Louisiana music-influenced bounce in the song and added their superb harmonies, resulting in a fabulous new version.

(Originally a 1978 rock hit by Meat Loaf)

Usually when a country act tries to do a rock song they butcher the daylights out of the song (see my "worst country covers" list). Enter Jamey Johnson, a breath of fresh air in country music who performs country music. His reading of Meat Loaf's first hit is so well performed that no one who doesn't know the rock version would ever guess this song originated on an album called Bat Out of Hell. Johnson did this cover for the Imus Ranch II project.

(Hit version of oft-recorded song first released in 1922 by Elsie Clark)

One of the biggest shocks to any casual country music fan may be that Hank Williams didn't write "Lovesick Blues." This song originated in Tin Pan Alley, the hub of pop music songwriting since the late 19th century. Even more shocking may be the fact that Hank Williams wasn't even among the first ten people to do this song! When Hank recorded this song just before Christmas 1948 in Cincinnati (where a plaque commemorates the site of the recording) he transformed both this song and post-World War II country music forever. "Lovesick Blues" is the only song inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame twice, with the Emmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers 1927 rendition inducted in 2007 and Hank's version honored in 2011.

(The fourth hit version of the song written by Don Gibson and first a hit for Faron Young, 1956)

Could there be any other choice? Patsy Cline's version was not the first (Don Gibson's version was on the charts two different times, and Faron Young had a top 3 hit with the song in 1956), and in terms of chart success it wasn't the most popular (the only time this song ever hit #1 was in 1976, with Emmylou Harris' version). However, this song has come to be so closely affiliated with Patsy Cline that many may be surprised to know that her version was neither first nor highest charting. The Patsy Cline biopic was named after this song, which may have something to do with the automatic association with Patsy. More likely, however, is the fact that Patsy took this song and did a completely different version than Young's uptempo or Gibson's bluesy midtempo versions and made it her own. Almost every version of this song since has drawn from Patsy's rendition.