Johnny Horton Tops List of Most Popular Country Songs From Past 50 Years

Billboard’s list was based on objective chart measures, right?

Because, with a couple of notable exceptions, it looks like a playlist of the worst, least genre-relevant songs in the history of country music.

Wow, yeah, that Billboard list is embarrassing. Those are apparently the biggest country hits on the Hot 100 Chart (not the country chart), which explains why so few of the songs have anything to do with country music.

Here’s how it was explained for the Hot 100, so I would assume it’d be similar for the country songs, too.

The Billboard Hot 100 chart measures airplay and sales information (and more recently digital downloads) in determining the nation’s most popular songs. To determine the most popular song of the Hot 100 era, Billboard used a formula to determine the top song — not always relying on weeks at No. 1 since the data was reported differently in its early days.

Initially, Billboard relied on stations to report the most popular songs, and got sales surveys from record stores. But Mayfield said stations often stopped reporting on a song’s popularity if it was no longer a priority for record labels. And in 1991, Billboard began relying on sales data from Nielsen SoundScan and airplay data from Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. So Billboard weighted certain songs from different eras to make sure all songs were on an even playing field.

“We went through each era, and we looked through the rate of turnover. The rate of turnover was very high in the late ’50s and early ’60s, and we had to put a weight on that to make the chart runs of that era equal to the chart runs that can be accomplished since 1991,” he said.

When I think of country music, Ray Stevens, Sgt. Barry Sadler and Vicki Lawrence are not three names that come immediately to mind. And apparently, Faith Hill is the most successful of the last 10-15 years.

Another piece of country news…Grand Ole Opry member Charlie Walker passed away today from colon cancer.

From the Opry website:
Grand Ole Opry star Charlie Walker passed away this morning in Hendersonville, Tenn. Walker, 81, had recently been diagnosed with colon cancer. He is survived by his wife Connie as well as 10 children: Ronnie, Cindy, Arthur, Charlie III, Elissa, Charlene, Catherine, Christina, Caroline, and Charlton; 15 grandchildren; 3 step-grandchildren; and 1 great-grandchild.

“The Grand Ole Opry family will miss our friend and Opry member, Charlie Walker,” said Pete Fisher, Opry vice president and general manager. “We are truly grateful for all of the musical moments he has shared with us on the Opry stage and over the airwaves as a disc jockey. We will dedicate this weekend’s Opry shows to his memory.”

Charlie Walker started singing as a Texas high school student, then played country music during World War II over the Armed Forces Radio Network as part of the Eighth Army Signal Corps occupation forces in Tokyo. Back stateside, Walker relocated to San Antonio in 1951 and quickly became its most popular country music announcer, soon to be recognized as one of the nation’s Top 10 country disc jockeys.

Alongside his burgeoning radio career, Walker succeeded as a country recording artist. He achieved regional hits with “Tell Her Lies and Feed Her Candy” and his first charting song, “Only You, Only You” on the Decca label. Walker hit gold on Columbia Records in 1958 with “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down,” penned by young future Hall of Fame songwriter Harlan Howard. The song became a million-seller and a country music staple. Membership in the Grand Ole Opry followed in 1967 along with successful tours and other hits including “Who Will Buy the Wine” and “Don’t Squeeze My Sharmon.” Walker was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 1981.

Visitation and funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time.

And the Tennessean Paper:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080912/TUNEIN/80912040

Photocrap is awesome. Always a good laugh!

I don’t think that Billboard’s country songs ratings were pulled from the pop charts, as Leann Rimes’ “How Do I Live” is #4 on the overall top 100 but doesn’t even make an appearance on the country list.

Of course, the fact that one of two competiting versions of “How Do I Live” is (apparently) the fourth-most popular song of all time just shows how f’ed up these lists are. I don’t know what kind of math they used, but the result is pretty wacky.

Leeann, back a year or so ago on a Tuesday night Opry a regularly scheduled artist was late so they had Kellie Pickler fill in the time by singing “Stand By Your Man” and a couple of other country classics and she blew me away. I never would have guessed from her radio singles she had it in her, but she definitely does. I think “Things That Never Cross a Man’s Mind” was a great single and just wish they hadn’t tarted it up with the electric guitars as they did and especially on the intro…

Hey Everyone, Play the Ashton Shepherd Drag & Drop “Pickin’ Shed Game”! When you move the items into their proper position inside the pickin’ shed they change to solid colors (except for Ashton). Everything that can be moved must be relocated to find its rightful spot including Ashton herself. Once everything is in place the door opens up and a panel appears playing the music video for Ashton’s “Sounds So Good”.
Link: http://www.mcanashville.com/ashtonshepherd/shed.html

I’m not sure what Billboard is doing – I do know that they have re-named the Country chart a few times. About a decade ago they proclaimed Leroy Van Dyke’s “Walk On By” the number one song since they dropped the “& Western” name off the Country charts. If you go back to January 1, 1944 when Billboard first started keeping country charts the #1 record is Hank Snow’s “I’m Moving On” which spent 21 weeks at #1 in 1950.

If I had to take a guess I would suspect they biased their data to get some more recent songs onto their list in order to seem relevent to younger readers.

Rick, I’d be interested to hear her sing those songs. It’s something I wouldn’t guess.

I too was totally surprised by the BB 100 list. I would have thought that Reba’s recording of ‘Light Went Out In Georgia’ had more airplay than Vicki Lawrence – seriously, does anybody remember her outside of Mama’s Family? (I effin love that show btw)