The Flaws of Billboard’s New “Greatest All-Time” Country Charts
A couple of weeks ago without any fanfare, Billboard added brand new “All-Time” charts for country songs, albums, and artists. As part of the periodical’s recent Nashville-centric issue, they decided to finally shine a spotlight on these charts, and now many folks, especially fans of traditional country and older artists, are a bit up in arms over them.
To see folks like Florida Georgia Line crest the Top Songs chart is disturbing enough. But to not see any mention of Hank Williams in the Best Artist list has also solicited groans. So let’s run through some observations on these charts to help understand how best to gauge their usefulness (or not), and explain some of the strange wrinkles they evidence.
This Is Nobody’s Opinion
Unlike other “All-Time” charts from various outlets (Saving Country Music has its own), this is not an opinion-based judgement call by Billboard whatsoever. This is simply the raw numbers calculated into their charting system to spit out the results. You could argue their methodology or how the charts excludes many artists before 1958 (see below), but the numbers are what they are, and can’t be argued. So you can’t bellyache about their slanted editorial board or calling for the head of whomever put them together.
According to Billboard:
Titles are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower spots earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted differently to account for chart turnover rates over various periods. Artists are ranked based on a formula blending performance of all their Hot Country Songs and Top Country Albums chart entries.
The Charts Don’t Start Until After 1958 (Songs) and 1964 (Albums)
This is the fatal flaw of these charts, especially since Billboard is calling them the “Greatest All Time.” According to Billboard:
The Greatest of All-Time Top Country Artists, Songs and Albums rankings are based on weekly performance on Hot Country Songs (from its Oct. 20, 1958 inception through June 4, 2016) and Top Country Albums (from its Jan. 11, 1964 inception through June 4, 2016).
This means artists such as Hank Williams, Eddie Arnold, Red Foley, Roy Acuff, and many others whose heyday was during country music’s Golden Era of the early and mid 1950’s are virtually excluded from these lists, not to mention artists like The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers who did most of their bread winning before Billboard was even around.
For example, many regard Hank Williams as the greatest country music artist of all time. Yet during Hank’s era, there was no country songs chart in Billboard. The chart that Hank Williams and others populated was Billboard’s “Most Played Juke Box Folk Records” started on January 8, 1944. Sometimes there would be as little as two positions on the chart in a given week. This is also one of the reasons Hank Williams regularly referred to himself as a folk musician, not country.
Other charts were the “Best Selling Retail Folk Records,” and “Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys” started in 1949. Hank Williams was regularly bested by Eddie Arnold on these Billboard charts, who was sort of the pop country performer of the time. But none of this chart data was factored into these supposed “All-Time” charts.
Furthermore, artists like Hank Williams and Eddy Arnold didn’t release albums in those days. Everything was predicated on the single 45’s because one of the primary way people listened to records was on the juke box. This also puts these Golden Era artists at a disadvantage on the All-Time Artist chart because it is aggregated partly from album sales.
#1’s Don’t Always Tell the Whole Story
We see this regularly pop up on Billboard’s end-of-year charts. Though a #1 album or song is what every artist strives for, it doesn’t always denote the most popular music when zooming out to analyze the month, year, or in this case, the “Greatest All-Time.” Billboard says, especially relating to how they decided their greatest artists, “Titles are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower spots earning the least.”
For example Merle Haggard had an incredible 38 #1 hits. But even more incredible, Merle has the record for the most #2 hits in the history of country music. Sometimes a song won’t crack the Top 5, but it’s run in the Top 10 is for so long, it actually performs better than a #1. The song can get more spins, or have more sales than a #1, especially in the skewed environment of mainstream country music today where the system is gerrymandered to get as many songs to #1 as possible. That is why so many modern hits ended up on the top of Billboard’s “All-Time” songs chart.
Conclusion
Billboard’s All-Time charts do offer some interesting insights, but saying their “All-Time” is misleading when you leave out the most important era in country music’s history, and exclude some of its most iconic artists. Sure, if you’re looking for some insight on popularity and influence after 1958 for songs, and 1964 for albums, these charts give you a rough sketch. And shake your little fists all you want, but Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise” was a massive hit, and probably deserves to be the #1 song (though it was actually a remix that helped it stay at #1 for so long). But for a truly “All-Time” chart, Billboard would need to factor in the quarter decade of music they left out, which admittedly would be difficult with how poor record keeping and charting was during that era.
Billboard’s Greatest All-Time Songs Chart
August 5, 2016 @ 9:34 am
The best joke of the summer isn’t FGL at #1 but Hunter Hayes at #3 with a complete forgettable pop song.
August 5, 2016 @ 10:10 am
Cody Johnson’s new album is number 1 on iTunes right now.
August 5, 2016 @ 2:43 pm
can’t wait for trig to review this one!
August 5, 2016 @ 3:00 pm
Is that the one with “Have I yet mentioned that I’m a cowboy?” or was that on the last album? Or the album after this one?
August 5, 2016 @ 4:06 pm
Nothing wrong with cowboy country hoss. Especially when it’s a bull rider singing the songs.
August 5, 2016 @ 4:32 pm
And aside from that, I would take “Have I yet mentioned that I’m a cowboy?” over “Have I yet mentioned that I light bonfires in fields with hot girls in daisy dukes who dance on my tailgate and slide over on my seat (unless I put them on the side ride), then we drink moonshine and fireball and drive my overcompensated truck around the county till we find the river then she loses her daisy dukes and we burn it down?”
August 6, 2016 @ 3:57 pm
There’s no question that Johnson’s auto-tuned 90’s country is worlds better than bro country. Dude’s just trying really hard to tell people what they knew about Chris LeDoux without being told. I saw a Corb Lund interview where he talked about how cowboy was a word that actually meant something to him and since he made his living with a guitar he wouldn’t call himself one. And in the spirit of words and meanings, bullriders aren’t cowboys, although cowboys can be bullriders.
August 6, 2016 @ 8:43 pm
@ Benjamin Beard: or “Have I Mentioned, Girl, You Make My Speakers Go Boom Boom When You’re Dancing On My Tailgate Drinking Moonshine From A Dixie Cup & We’re Rocking To My Mixtape of T Pain, Conway, The Highwaymen, AC/DC, Usher After You Broke Up With Me In a Small Town & You Got Your Fix”.
August 6, 2016 @ 7:22 am
No kidding, right? It’s one thing to actually be something. It’s another to have to tell everybody about it. Then again, he is from Texas.
August 5, 2016 @ 10:10 am
I think the title of the chart is a misnomer – it should be something like “greatest charting songs” or something like that to reflect the subjectivity of the thing – but I get what they’re doing.
But even in the context of what the chart represents, like DimM I don’t get some things like Hunter Hayes at #3. What was even more surprising to me, though, was finding songs like “If You Leave Me Tonight I’ll Cry” by Jerry Wallace and “Baby, Baby (I Know You’re a Lady)” by David Houston toward the bottom of the list. Great songs, but mostly forgotten today. Also, Cash’s only entry is “Daddy Sang Bass”.
I guess I just don’t get the formula.
August 5, 2016 @ 1:58 pm
The proof that their methodology was flawed is definitely on display on the songs chart. Very little there makes sense.
August 7, 2016 @ 12:53 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but billboard recently (<5 years ago) changed the country charts to count all spins of the son, not just on country stations. Thus, all those Cruise remix spins on pop and rap stations kept the song at the top of the country charts. That's why non country songs from Hunter Hayes and Sam Hunt are so high as well. To make it useful, you'd have to stick with the same methodology throughout the life of the chart.
In the end, I think all they did was offer further proof of why their charts are nearly useless.
August 7, 2016 @ 1:33 pm
Exactly. Folks in the 60’s didn’t benefit from those spins. That is why this chance was so significant. I remember saying at the time this would skew the numbers historically for songs. This “All-Time” songs chart is proof of that.
August 5, 2016 @ 10:19 am
What bizarre universe is billboard living in? Top 5 of their greatest songs of all time includes Florida Georgia line, Sam Hunt and hunter hayes? These aren’t country artists.
I don’t care ratspit about their stupid numbers and chart ranking system. Frankly that only matters to the money whores that run Trashville and the mindless puppets that do their bidding.
That list is an insult to everything country music stands for. If you asked human pollsters for a list, you would see : He stopped loving her today, Your cheating heart, Crazy, Mama Tried,and so many others. For that matter, Friends in low Places is a much better pick than anything by Sam Hunt, FL and HH.
I’m with Dale Watson, the industry long ago abandoned country music….so at this point we owe the industry nothing. Don’t support billboard or country radio. Listen to satellite radio, public radio and internet radio. Support Ameripolitan, bluegrass, rockabilly and maybe Americana.
So the day has finally arrived when a Sam Hunt song is considered greater than anything by Williams, Strait, Jones,Nelson, Haggard,Cash, Parton, Kristofferson. Really!!!????
August 5, 2016 @ 10:24 am
Everything’s such an attention grab any more.
At least they didn’t put Debby Boone on here. For some reason I thought she was considered country, maybe because Mike Curb was involved. Evidently ‘You Light Up My Life’ only topped out at no. 4 on the country chart (and she spells her name with a ‘Y’).
If nothing is going to have any soul any more just let the Skynet machines have it.
August 5, 2016 @ 10:25 am
How does Garth not have a track on the first list?
August 8, 2016 @ 7:06 am
Blown away by that as well
August 5, 2016 @ 11:10 am
I wonder how these charts will look like in twenty years from now. I mean, for example, the “Greatest All Time- Artist chart” now consists mostly of more or less traditional Country music artist. But most Pop Pountry music artists have another maybe 20-30 years to climb much higher than they are now ….
That is….Unless Trigger and Save Country Music will to succeed in his mission…
August 5, 2016 @ 12:01 pm
My theory on this is that we are going to see country performers have much shorter careers going forward as society has so much shorter attention spans and as the powers that be of country music more and more come from the pop music world where careers are much shorter on average.
I think that the three current ‘old timers’ on the country charts right now (McGraw, Urban, Chesney) may be the last that can still be hitting the top in their late forties.
Therefore the lists of ‘greatest country artists’ may not change as much as we fear as they won’t have the dozens of hits that would be needed to eclipse Strait, Jones, Haggard and the like.
These ‘greatest songs’ lists on the other hand may be rendered useless as time goes on.
August 5, 2016 @ 3:00 pm
Didn’t think about it that way but you are probably right. And even if my personal “wish-chart” would be a bit different. I would for example, like Waylon to be among the top three, but I still like that chart and most of the artists on it belongs there.
And it will at least to some degree help people remember them since people do read at these chart.
But on the other hand… You never know… there might come a new Waylon,Cash, Merle or Jones. and or a new Loretta, Connie or Emmylou… Start climbing the charts… 🙂
August 5, 2016 @ 5:21 pm
“My theory on this is that we are going to see country performers have much shorter careers going forward as society has so much shorter attention spans and as the powers that be of country music more and more come from the pop music world where careers are much shorter on average.”
Yup ….the music is disposable , the artists have no style or vision or point of view , the buying demographic is MUCH younger with finicky ( read ‘hip’ and trendy) tastes and very little life experience and yes …a VERY short attention span . Why do you think SO many great film actors have given up committing to serious roles to play ( Huge Pay Day ) comic book characters ….young people don’t have time for anything with substance , depth , irony , nuance or subtlety . Its gotta be about loud explosive action and sex …everything else falls through the cracks . Its embarrassing to watch some veteran actors with REAL cred and long successful careers forced to sell their new comic book movie ( looking at you Will Smith ) on a show like James Corden or Jimmy Fallon . Those hosts are geared to a very very young market who likely don’t even know the veteran actors . Similar to the music scene and the ridiculous chart released by Billboard with all of those barely known and barely remembered songs while the great , timeless , meaningful genre -defining stuff by fucking icons of the industry is almost completely ignored .
August 5, 2016 @ 3:09 pm
Jesus…Pop Country not Pop Pountry….
August 5, 2016 @ 11:34 am
Willie doesn’t have 1 single in the top 100 Singles?
Merle doesn’t have 1 Album in the top 100 Albums?
August 5, 2016 @ 11:55 am
The problem with lists like this is they only take into account the chart facts and they can’t account for impact and lasting greatness. ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’ just looks like a song that spent two weeks at number and charted for 18 weeks. And ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ just looks like a song that spent one week at number one and charted for 18 weeks.
The changes they made to the chart methodology a few years ago have made a tough task of comparing chart eras an almost impossible one now.
August 5, 2016 @ 12:21 pm
In a list of greatest all-time country albums, they would both have plenty of albums in the list.
August 5, 2016 @ 11:41 am
So, the top of the “songs” list is more new poppy than an opium farm with FGL, Sam Hunt,etc , the “albums” list is 90s-heavy with Shania and Garth,etc, and the “artists” list has an assortment that includes many all-time greats ? However flawed these lists might be, it is a curiosity to see how different eras fare in the different categories.
August 5, 2016 @ 12:22 pm
Albums don’t mean anything these days…
August 5, 2016 @ 12:17 pm
If Billboard launches a “Billboard’s Greatest Country of All Time” digital radio station or playlist, it’s an open invitation for audible whiplash.
I mean, can you imagine this:
*
VOICEOVER I: “And that was LeRoy Van Dyke, with his legendary hit from 1961: ‘Walk On By’. It was an unprecedented hit of its time: spending nineteen weeks at #1 since the introduction of our Hot Country Songs chart, formerly known as the Hot Country & Western Sides chart in October 1958.
VOICEOVER II: “Prior to then, only three other singles had spent more than nineteen wee…”
(VOICEOVER I deactivates VOICEOVER II’s mic)
VOICEOVER I: “My apologies, we appear to have some unresolved technical difficulties. Anyway, coming up next: you’re in for another classic country treat: an extraordinary track that would go on to revolutionize country music and set the gold standard for what more it had to offer. I’m, of course, talking about Jason Aldean’s ‘Burnin’ It Down'”
*
August 5, 2016 @ 1:46 pm
At least the Band Perry made the top 100 albums, barely.
August 5, 2016 @ 2:03 pm
Ya’ll are reading too much into Billboard putting out this list. Of course it’s ridiculous! You should just laugh and say “UM, NO!” and move on!
August 5, 2016 @ 2:07 pm
I think my head is going to explode. Not from anger, but pure confusion. The songs list isn’t even in order of longest weeks at #1 or top selling. I honestly don’t understand how they made this ranking.
August 5, 2016 @ 2:17 pm
Greatest songs list is messed up! Cruise is in no way anywhere near worthy of even #100! If you’re going to include any FGL songs at least put in their good tracks. Like Dirt, Confession, and Stay. Sam Hunt. #4. Wow. No comment. Only one Hank Jr. song. No comment again. Achy Breaky Heart being on there is just a joke. No Eric Church songs either. The dude making this list was probably half asleep. At least there is Merle Haggard. Other than that this list is a joke.
August 5, 2016 @ 2:28 pm
The methodology for this chart really is a baffler. They say that weeks at #1 earn more points but I was just looking at it and ‘We Are Never Getting blah blah blah’ by Taylor Swift is nowhere to be found on this top 100 while it spent 10 weeks at #1 on the Hot Country Songs right after they changed the chart rules. It caused massive criticism to rain down on Billboard at the time.
How can this song not be on here somewhere?
I call BS on this whole thing.
And I am in no way saying this thing is in any way country nor should it have ever been allowed on the country chart but by there own rules it sure seems like it should be on this list.
August 5, 2016 @ 3:11 pm
I’m coming up with a list as well. This is how it works: album sales (in units that were shipped)÷ albums in a warehouse × the number of time radio played the single – 0.769 × the number of times Luke Bryan shook his ass at a concert in Atlanta in 2014 ÷ the number of shitty albums released in the previous voting cycle for the CMA’s.
…and it is a very precise predictor of all time greatness.
All joking aside Hunter Hayes at #3…shocking
August 5, 2016 @ 5:28 pm
The real joke is not that stupid song Hunter Hayes planted at number 3 – one of the WORST songs ever recorded by anyone in my not so humble opinion -but that Hunter Hayes has more talent in his left nut than a bushell of bro-boys and can’t get the time of day right now . He’s a vocal and musical force to be reckoned with in these times . Unfortunately ” These Times” want NOTHING to do with anyone with actual musical talent . Fuck ” These Times ” …
August 5, 2016 @ 3:45 pm
One of the flaws is the songs aren’t allowed to be judged accurately because of chart adjustments and changes. For instance, I believe it was this website that proved that “Cruise” technically wasn’t the longest running Country #1 because another song (I want to say “Before He Cheats”) spent longer on the Hot 100 (pop) chart so if the rules had been changed 5-10 years earlier, that song would hold the record. Yet Cruise is #1 and BHC is #64 in this new ranking. I think Billboard has such a hard-on when it comes to their chart producing #1 hits and they think a #1 on their chart is the pinnacle of success when like Trigger said, a #2 song can actually perform better.
A good example of this would be Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”. It only peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 Chart but at the end of the year was the #1 most played song on the radio in 2009. While this example takes place on the pop charts, there are no doubt similar instances happening on country radio, especially now that streaming has become a factor.
August 5, 2016 @ 11:16 pm
Yes, once again Billboard’s chart changes in 2012 are showing up in very significant ways. I think that’s also the reason we’re seeing so many pop star/country star collaborations lately. Since spins on pop radio get credit on country charts as well, it really encourages artists to work for crossover hits.
Nonetheless, I still contend “Cruise” was a huge song in the history of country music. It solidified bro-country and was a massive hit. I’m not happy about it, but it deserves to be near the top of the all-time charts.
August 5, 2016 @ 4:25 pm
Remember when I posted a month or so ago giving you my top 10 country artists ever? I took a lot of flack for not having Waylon Jennings in my list. He’s not in billboard’s top 10 either.
They did get no. 1 right with George Strait (even over Hank)…Alan Jackson being 9th behind Barf Brooks is a joke. Willie is way too high and shouldn’t even be in the top 10. He was more of a songwriter (and cartoon character). Alabama shouldn’t be in the top 5. Nor should Conway Twitty. Charley Pride is the biggest joke, I’m not sure if he is a HOF/top 50 let alone 6. And I’m sure most of you will love how Tim McGraw is ahead of Waylon Jennings lol. And I personally think Cash is the most overrated artist in the history of any music, but he belongs in the top 10. George Jones at 16?? Um, no. Finally, Dolly is way, way too far down the list….
Side note: Why is it that the world mourned for like 10 years after Cash died but for Haggard it was like a day? Political? Maybe to be fair, when Cash died country music fans respected the past genre (pre bro country music).
August 5, 2016 @ 4:49 pm
This list is based on chart performance not opinion.
Conway Twitty has 40#1 singles the second most of all time Alabama has 33 #1’s the fifth most all time and Charley Pride has 29 #1’s the sixth most all time. George Jones despite having more chart hits (approx. 170) than any other artist he has only 13 #1’s and since they apparently put lots of emphasis on #1’s combined with the fact that he was never an album artist would account for his being somewhat lower.
Based on chart performance solely I would say 11 is about right for Waylon Jennings.
This is not some opinion list it attempts to use chart data to rank songs, albums and artists and while it fails in a lot of ways it has nothing to do with the quality of each artist.
And Charley Pride and Conway Twitty are two of the most important country artists of all time.
Johnny Cash was culturally a far bigger figure than Haggard and that is why his death was treated differently
August 5, 2016 @ 7:58 pm
Conway misses my personal top 10. Pride is only known for “Kiss An Angel Good Morning” for the most part. Cash was bigger because liberals like him and Haggard was conservative (until his comments towards the end of his life) so that is why Cash got more attention. Haggard was far better regardless of politics.
The list they have is stupid-especially songs. “Cruise” won’t stand the test of time. “He Stopped Loving Her Today” has and will. Anybody associated with country music proud of “Vacation” or “Achy Breaky Heart”? Yeah I didn’t think so.
August 6, 2016 @ 10:33 am
” …Cash is the most overrated artist in the history of any music…” Could you explain why???
I remember back in the seventies and the beginning of the eighties George Hamilton IV was called the “Ambassador of Country Music” (to UK In particular) but also to the rest of Europe. But If there is anyone who deserved that title it’s J. Cash and the only other (modern era) artists i can think of that has spread so much goodwill to Country Music as much as Him and June is Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris.
And this: “….Why is it that the world mourned for like 10 years after Cash died but for Haggard it was like a day? Political?…”
No I don’t think it’s “political” it’s just that J. Cash was loved far beyond the Country music sphere.
Although it might have slight connection to politics because of (“Okie from Muskogee”) Which in some people’s minds made him a reactionary conservative But as far as I’m concern they were both almost soul mates and humane and warm people.
And I think Merle is one of the most misunderstood Country Artist.
I mean “political”; yes he had an opinion about almost everything and he was never afraid to speak his mind….
But if “Okie from Muskogee”, “politically”, made him a conservative…Then “The Immigrants” would “politically”, send him to the left of Kris Kristofferson…
And another thing what really bothers me thats all this talk about him being a racist, it’s just fucking awful
I’ve seen “White boy” on one playlist called “Niggersongs” and another playlist called “dirty dirty songs in Country Music”
And I wish Trigger would write an article about it because not only does it drag Merle’s name in the dirt but also Country Music.
And then there is this I guy talking about him in at least three videos accuses him of everything from being racist, and a child abuser to a Demon. But he seem to be some religious nutcase and I was thinking of providing a link but those videos only have 350 to 950 views and i don’t want him to get any more.
And finally here is a link to an interview with him by American Songwriter. (From 2010).
http://americansongwriter.com/2010/04/merle-haggard-as-he-is/
August 6, 2016 @ 2:50 pm
One example: after Cash died he won a lot of awards for “Hurt” (produced by the nine inch nail guy). Not a terrible song but eh. It was a pity thing. Had he not died, he would never have won those awards. Then all of a sudden his popularity grew- as if his career was reborn. When you compare what he did commercially to other guys…he’s in the top 10 but not top 5. Then everyone got the Cash shirts and then I had to hear students tell me he was one of their favorite artists. They only did that because it was the “cool” thing to do and of course that is always followed up with “I like all types of music.” Blah.
Here’s the thing a lot of music comes down to preferences. I don’t really prefer Cash. His voice is deep and depressing. He didn’t have great range. His songs I could do without. Overrated. But I don’t like the Beatles either so much or Elvis. I’m 32- maybe it’s an age thing.
***Sunday Morning Coming Down however is a classic country song and I give a thumbs up on that one.
August 7, 2016 @ 5:09 am
I can’t say I’ve delved deep into the cash catalogue or know him as well as others. I’m 35. I’ve read a few books of his though but he details that he had many voice issues that went along with his use of pills, and perhaps other stuff.
August 5, 2016 @ 4:28 pm
“Vacation” by Thomas Rhett is no. 1 this week again. Any takers saying that is an actual country song? What a horrible piece of crap. I’m ashamed and heartbroken all at the same time…especially when it hit no. 1 a few weeks ago for the first time and you compare it to the no. 1 from 1990’s lyrics Strait’s “Love Without End, Amen”
August 5, 2016 @ 4:39 pm
‘Vacation’ is not nor has it ever been #1. It is currently #35 on Airplay chart and #20 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
August 5, 2016 @ 8:07 pm
@Scotty- I stand corrected. I don’t know what I was looking at. It was t-shirt from all of those week ago.
But is there really a difference between T-shirt and Vacation? Both are terrible…Vacation is even worse though I guess.
Just how bad are we going to sink here?
August 6, 2016 @ 7:25 am
Can we stop using “all time,” please? You see it in sports, music, films, etc. These things don’t cover “all time.”
August 6, 2016 @ 8:18 am
I blame Buzzfeed. Their various click-bait, easily digestible “stories” have led to us always wanting to create lists of the best ever. That and ESPN which is a notorious offender of this.
BTW, I hope Trigger gets a chance to review Justin Wells new album. I know Trigger gets inundated with album review requests, but I think this album is right up the alley of a lot of folks who read SCM. Former Fifth on the Floor lead singer, Wells new album is damn close to perfection. Solid production and great songwriting. I think it’s a sleeper candidate to make it on a number of “best albums of the year” like Matt Woods was a few years ago.
August 6, 2016 @ 10:04 pm
This has nothing to do with this, but i just saw allan jackson play in auroa il and it was fuckin awsome.
August 7, 2016 @ 11:53 am
He’s my favorite. I’m 32 and I’ve been a fan since like 8-years-old. I got to meet him at the Grand Ol’ Opry a few months ago. I was star struck.
August 7, 2016 @ 7:54 pm
Im 24 and grew up listing to him and was so happy to be 50ft from the stage
August 8, 2016 @ 1:11 am
Seriously, world? You didn’t learn your lesson when I flooded the earth the first time???
August 8, 2016 @ 7:05 am
These lists are rediculous , George Jones is nowhere to be found the man that sang most likely the best country song of all time “He stopped loving here today.” and had many of the all time favorites for over 50 years.
August 8, 2016 @ 8:27 am
Billboard’s methodology is ridiculously flawed, not only for country music, but for the measuring of pop music in general.
Taking only into account the songs from 1958 onward eviscerates the Jazz Age, or the era of the Great American Songbook, and basically doesn’t allow for guys like Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Sinatra or even Bing Crosby to take center stage.
Bing is arguably the most successful singer in the history of popular music (he had more #1’s than the Beatles and Elvis combined) yet he remains somewhat of a mysterious figure to the general public, in part due to this nonsense methodology.
Some of the elder country stars of that era risk that problem too, unfortunately.
August 8, 2016 @ 12:26 pm
To the person that actually said “Stay” was a good song,it was a great song by Black Stone Cherry…FGL screwed that song up its nowhere near as good as the original. This chart is a joke and that’s a understatement.
August 8, 2016 @ 12:42 pm
Mr. Vargas is absolutely correct…on another note I guess according to a certain artist I am an old fart and jackass( Mr. Shelton) Right now Dale Watson is the KING and of country music.
August 8, 2016 @ 4:52 pm
The only reason Billboard “starts” their count in 1958 (when their country-hillbilly-folk chart goes all the way back to 1944) is because in the 1950’s country hits often stayed at the top of the charts for months. Check out the Joel Whitburn’s country singles books – his all-time 100 chart is almost completely 1950’s hits. This of course is not acceptable to the movers and shavers in modern Nashville and Billboard has obviously hacked off the earlier era to let these modern day “country” singers (who pay the bills today with ads, etc) have a chance to place and even dominate. At least many of the 60s/70s icons still manage to hold their own to a degree.
This list is at least better than the Billboard “alltime country” top 100 of a few years ago which counted everything that charted both pop and country in order of their POP chart success, thus the Hot 100 was overloaded with Elvis, John Denver, Olivia Newton-John, and the like.