Countdown Part X: Songs #386-395

Welcome to the 10th edition of our countdown blog! This week's entry includes a few fresh faces to the list, along with some tried and true. I can't believe we are already so far into the list! The last few weeks have been flying by! Don't worry, though, we still have a LOT of 90's country favorites to cover in the months to come!

A few notes before we get into the countdown:

- Last week, I mentioned that I am working on a blog cover stats over the first 100 songs on the list. It's still coming, but proving to be a little more challenging than I expected! Hopefully within this week it will be posted!

- New Music Tuesday: Jason Micahel Carroll, Shelby Lynne, and Chris Stapleton all have new music coming out this Tuesday. I have had the Stapleton vinyl preordered for weeks, and hope to get ahold of Shelby and Jason's music throughout the week. What are you planning on picking up?

- The BORN Country Facebook page is still booming! We are closing in on 800 "likes" and will hopefully hit that goal this weekend. As always, we appreciate your sharing of our page with your family, friends and anyone else that would love the music we are showcasing here in the blog! When we reach the 900 "like" level on Facebook, I will post another extended countdown blog with more music! Thanks again!

BORN Country's 505 Favorite Country Singles Of The 90's!!!

395. Steve Wariner - Burnin' The Roadhouse Down
Album: Burnin' The Roadhouse Down
Year: 1998

Despite being in the country music industry since the 70's "Roadhouse" is the first song that I REALLY remember hearing by Steve Wariner. In doing research for this week's blog, I couldn't believe to find that he had released 46 singles PRIOR to this one! Holy cow! While I like to believe my country music knowledge runs pretty deep (At least from the 90's and on) I definitely have some more digging to do on Steve Wariner! Heck, he even recorded the theme song for "Who's The Boss?" for seasons running between 1986 and 1990! Who knew?! ...Oh yeah, Garth Brooks is on the track too.



394. Faith Hill - Piece Of My Heart
Album: Take Me As I Am
Year: 1994

Fitting that this song lands on this week's portion of our countdown, as just this past Thursday, Faith shared on Facebook, that it had been 21 years since this song hit #1 on the Hot Country Chart. Some of you will of course also recognize this song as recorded by Big Brother & The Holding Company back in the late 60's.



393. Clint Black - Wherever You Go
Album: One Emotion
Year: 1995

Clint Black continued his rise to the top of the country music world with this 1995 hit. "Wherever You Go" reached #3 on the Hot Country chart. Black had 3 more singles to come from his album "One Emotion" which would be followed up by his first greatest hits compilation.



392. Brad Paisley - Who Needs Pictures
Album: Who Needs Pictures
Year: 1999

This is where it all started! Brad Paisley released his debut single in February of 1999. While "Pictures" would peak at #12, the follow-up single, "He Didn't Have To Be" would be Brad's first of many #1 singles to come!



391. Travis Tritt - Anymore
Album: It's All About To Change
Year: 1991

The video for this Travis Tritt single was the first in the "Mac Singleton" trilogy. "Tell Me I Was Dreaming" which was featured earlier in the list was part 2, followed by "If I Lost You" in 1998. CMT ranked this video #64 in their list of 100 Greatest Videos of All-Time in 2004.



390. Brooks & Dunn - That Ain't No Way To Go
Album: Hard Workin' Man
Year: 1994

I absolutely love the first 3 B&D albums. I recall ordering all three of them through the BMG music club. "That Ain't No Way To Go" was the final of five singles from the 2nd album. This song marked Brooks & Dunn's sixth #1 hit.



389. Michael Peterson - By The Book
Album: Michael Peterson
Year: 1998

Michael Peterson released 5 Country Top 40 singles from his debut album. With the amount of new artists coming into the exploding country genre in the late 90's, I'd say that's pretty impressive! While "By The Book" only peaked at #19 on the Hot Country chart, it feels to me like it was played quite a bit during it's radio run. Peterson's radio play tenure was unfortunately quite short, however, he found success in writing for other artists and still performs military benefits today.



388. Daryle Sinlgetary - I Let Her Lie
Album: Daryle Singletary
Year: 1995

Here's another fresh face to our countdown! Daryle Singletary has one of the strongest voices in country music. His first album hit the shelves in 1995 and produced 4 singles, including his highest charting song, "I Let Her Lie" at #2. Singletary was able to climb the charts with a single from his second album, but afterwards found little mainstream success. Daryle continues to produce some fantastic country music, including a duet with a personal favorite of mine, Ashton Shepherd (Buy her music, now!) In fact, Singletary has an album releasing this June, titled "There's Still A Little Country Left." Perhaps a little knock on today's mainstream country? Can't wait to hear it!



387. Diamond Rio - It's All In Your Head
Album: IV
Year: 1996

I had no idea what was going on in this song when I was little. In fact, I suppose it's still up in the air! However, I also remember thinking that the chorus was a blast to sing-a-long to! "We never walked on the moon, and Elvis ain't dead. You ain't going' crazy, it's all in your head." Fantastic! Not only does the music video feature Martin Sheen as the shouting priest, but also a young Melissa McBride, who most of you will know as "Carol" from AMC's "The Walking Dead".



386. Joe Diffie - Bigger Than The Beatles
Album: Life's So Funny
Year: 1995

Easily one of the goofiest singles in Joe Diffie's career, "Beatles" was his final #1 single on the Hot Country chart. I thought for sure that Diffie would get another single charting after Jason Aldean's "1994" hit radio a few years back. I've seen Joe perform acoustic shows twice in the last few years and he still sounds great live. I have plans to finally see hi perform with a full band backing him late this summer. Fingers crossed!




We are 120 songs into the countdown now! Like I stated above, I can't believe how fast this seems to be moving along! Thanks again for reading, and keep an eye out for the special blog I am working on focusing on the stats of the first 100 songs from our list. I think it'll be a pretty fun read!

As always, we appreciate your reading, and hope you will continue to join us on this musical journey down memory lane! Follow along, comment and share with friends!

-Arthur Born
Facebook: BORN Country
Twitter: @BORNCountryBlog
E-Mail: BORNCountryBlog@gmail.com

Countdown Part II: Songs 486-495

It's been a long week of battling a little ear-ache, work and other things, so I didn't get to make a mid-week blog entry, unfortunately. However, we are back with the another 10 songs on Born Country's list of 505 Favorite Singles of the 1990's!

But first, I must say a special "Thank you" to Diane Schumann for setting Amy and I up with a chance to see 90's country star, Billy Dean, last night! He put on a great set, and still has an awesome voice. He played just about everything I could've wanted to hear, but left out one minor hit. Diane was also able to get us a last minute chance to meet Billy! I'll share some pictures later this week!

Now, the list continues!

BORN Country's Top 505 Country Singles Of the 1990's!!!

495. John Michael Montgomery - Cover You In Kisses
Album: Leave A Mark
Year: 1998

Starting this week's countdown with one of my favorite artist's of the 90's! While Montgomery easily had much stronger singles and success prior to this single, "Kisses" made it up to #3 on the country Billboard charts.



494. Collin Raye - I Think About You
Album: I Think About You
Year: 1996

Although I am not a father, I always loved singing along to this song whenever it came on the radio. I unfortunately missed out on a chance to see Collin perform last year, but hopefully he comes around again someday. "I Think About You" clocked in at #15 on Billboard's year end country chart in 1996.



493. Mila Mason - That's Enough Of That
Album: That's Enough Of That
Year: 1996

This was Mila's only real splash in the country music scene during the 90's. She reached #18 on the Country Billboard charts with this single, but had very little luck with anything that followed.



492. Travis Tritt - Tell Me I Was Dreaming
Album: Ten Feet Tall And Bulletproof
Year: 1995

Amy and I had the chance to see Travis Tritt perform an acoustic show late in 2014 from the 2nd row. He was incredible! Trott still has one of the best and most recognizable voices in country music. This is truly a case in which an artist has lost the spotlight, despite 100% still being deserving of it. I had never seen the video for this song until the writing of this post, and it turns out that there is a trilogy of videos based on this character played by Tritt. Imagine my confusion!



491. Vince Gill - Pretty Little Adriana
Album: High Lonesome Sound
Year: 1996

While I certainly understand the love for Vince Gill, the majority of his work in the 90's never really appealed to me when I was young. The killer guitar player and fantastic vocals didn't sync in until later on for me, but I still recall the few songs that really stuck out to me back then. I would love to see the guy perform live!



490. Clint Black - No Time To Kill
Album: No Time To Kill
Year: 1993

In 1989, there were 5 artists who released their first radio singles and exploded into country music. The "Class of '89" included Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Mary Chapin Carpenter and this man, Clint Black. Black was the first of the group to find immediate success, which followed him throughout the entire decade of the 90's



489. Alan Jackson - Little Man
Album: High Mileage
Year: 1999

Speaking of the "Class of '89", next up is Alan Jackson. Being my all-time favorite artist, I suppose it's only fitting that he be the first artist with 2 songs on the list! While I admit that I'm guilty of taking advantage of the convenience offered by Walmart and other major chain businesses, I always try to remind myself to also help out small businesses when I am able. This song will always be a true reminder that we need to support local businesses in order to not allow EVERYTHING to be taken over by the big guys.



488. Lee Roy Parnell - Heart's Desire
Album: We All Get Lucky Sometimes
Year: 1996

If any of these 10 songs this week receive a big "WHO?!" from readers, its probably going to be this one. Lee Roy had a number of radio songs throughout the 90's with a few nearly taking the #1 spot, including "Heart's Desire" which peaked at #3. Parnell's last released album came out in 2006, but he has not held a strong radio presence since the mid-90's.



487. Michael Peterson - Too Good To Be True
Album: Michael Peterson
Year: 1998

Ok, so if Lee Roy Parnell wasn't the one to not ring a bell, here comes Michael Peterson. Peterson is another artist who dropped a few successful hits to country radio, but as the years went by, sales slowed down leading to his final album in 2002. Peterson still performs at military benefits. This will NOT be the only time you see him on this list though!



486. Garth Brooks - It's Midnight Cinderella
Album: Fresh Horses
Year: 1996

Undoubtably, Garth is the KING of 90's country music. With that being said, referring to "Cinderella" as possibly one of Garth's weakest radio singles of the decade, is by no means degrading. It's catchy, easy to sing along to and just plain fun. Just like Alan and George, you can certainly expect to see a LOT more of Garth on our journey through these 505 songs!!!




There you have it! Another 10 songs down on my list of 505 Country Singles of the 90's! Hopefully this list is bringing back some memories for those of you who listened to country music in the 90s. For those that didn't, perhaps my list will help you dive into what in my opinion, was the best decade in country music history!

Stay tuned for my next post sometime mid week! I plan on writing a bit more on the Billy Dean concert, including pictures, and perhaps I'll finally get everything uploaded from the trip I took down to Nashville a couple months ago with Amy!

Please comment below! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the songs, and the blog in general! Who do you hope to see more of on the list? Is there anyone that you think shouldn't make the list from the 90's? I'm curious!!!

Follow, comment, share, Tweet, Facebook, Instagram(?) the blog to your friends and family who listen to country music! Share on message boards! Do whatever you can to help get BORN Country to those who would enjoy it! Thanks!

-Arthur Born
Twitter: @arthurborn
Instagram: @arthur214
#iwasBORNcountry