Countdown Part XII: Songs 366-375

We're back with another 10 songs in our 505 favorite country singles of the 90's countdown! You may have noticed the slower posts on Facebook and of course the lack of mid-week blogs over the last few weeks. We were struggling with the current laptop and it was an absolute chore to do anything, for the most part. However, I have great news! The BORN Country computer has been replaced and we are back on track! Hopefully, this will lead to a lot more blog postings outside of the countdown, more pictures, videos, ect.!

Also, with the new computer, comes another project that is in the works, but I can't quite share that one yet! Stay tuned!

Before we dive into the countdown, there are three new releases coming on Tuesday:

- Jon Pardi is releasing a collection of B-Sides that he recorded between 2011 and 2014 which could be very interesting. His full length album is pretty strong, so I'm very curious to hear this stuff!

- Kelsea Ballerini's "The First Time" is coming Tuesday as well. The first single was a bit "poppy" for my taste, but I'm curious to hear what the rest of the album brings. I have a feeling that there could be some great gems hidden on the album tracks.

- Logan Mize is releasing an EP of new music this week, titled "Pawn Shop Guitar". I really dig Logan's current single, though it's only received a little airtime so far. Give "Can't Get Away From A Good Time" a spin and let us know what you think!



Ok, on to the good stuff!

BORN Country's 505 Favorite Country Singles of the 90's!!!

375. Tim McGraw - My Best Friend
Album: A Place In The Sun
Year: 1999

We are starting this week's list off with a country superstar! McGraw's album, "A Place In The Sun" is a strong contender, along with "Not A Moment Too Soon", as the best album in his career. Songs like "My Best Friend" wrapped up his first run of singles before releasing the first "Greatest Hits" collection by Tim. "Friend" went to the top of the Hot Country Chart.



374. LeAnn Rimes - One Way Ticket (Because I Can)
Album: Blue
Year: 1996

"Ticket" lead Rimes to becoming the fourth teenage artist in country music history to reach #1 on the Hot Country Charts. Despite being her most successful single in the country music genre, this is NOT the first song to come to mind when I hear LeAnn's name. We'll get to that one much later on!



373. Kevin Sharp - If You Love Somebody
Album: Measure Of A Man
Year: 1997

Kevin Sharp's third single from his debut album peaked at #4 on the Hot Country Chart in 1997. This would be Sharp's final song to reach the Top 10. This would be followed by 3 more radio singles released to radio in the 90's, but none of which would pass #43 on the charts. Sharp would then lend more of his time to charities and public speaking, although still recording music until his passing.



372. Lonestar - Runnin' Away With My Heart
Album: Lonestar
Year: 1996

Lonestar's lead vocalist, Richie Mcdonald not only charted many songs, including 8 #1 songs, with the band, but he has also had some success outside of the group. In 1997, McDonald was a guest vocalist on fellow 90's country star Mind McCready's #18 hit, "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now."



371. Clay Walker - You're Beginning To Get To Me
Album: 1998
Year: Greatest Hits

One of my biggest gripes in not just country music, but the music industry in general , is when a "Greatest Hits" packaged is released and there are no new songs included. Yes, I understand that the idea is to pull all of the biggest songs by one artist together in one album, but if I already own all of the previous records, give me some incentive! Perfect example: Clay Walker included two previously unreleased songs as radio singles from his first hits collection. These aren't throw away songs either!



370. George Strait - I Know She Still Loves Me
Album: Strait Out Of The Box
Year: 1995

This was by no means planned, but speaking of new songs being included in "hits" collections, this George single was unavailable until his four disc "Strait Out Of The Box" CD set was released in 1995. "King George" took this "I Know She Still Loves Me" to #5 on the Hot Country Songs chart.



369. Ty Herndon - I Want My Goodbye Back
Album: What Mattered Most
Year: 1995

Throughout the 90's Ty Herndon charted seven singles in the Top 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart. With songs like "Goodbye Back" and "Steam," it's a wonder to me how he wasn't able to stay in the spotlight at least through the early-mid 2000's. Herndon's last album up to this point, "Lies I Told Myself" was released in 2013.



368. Sawyer Brown - The Walk
Album: Buick
Year: 1991

For Mother's Day last week, a last minute "Songs About Mama" playlist was posted on the BORN Country Facebook page & Spotify. In June, and with a bit more warning, "Songs About Dad" will have a little more work put into it. This Sawyer Brown #2 hit, will absolutely be featured in said list. Have other suggestions? Let us know!



367. Little Texas - First Time For Everything
Album: First Time For Everything
Year: 1992

The Little Texas guys have a huge and truly dedicated fan base! A few weeks prior, Little Texas performed a few songs (including this one) in a live streaming concert in order to promote their latest album. During the set, there was a chat window to leave comments/ ask the guys questions, and it seemed that nearly EVERYONE in the chat knew each other! I think it's very cool that a fan base could become almost like a family and stay in touch with others through an online community reaching all around the country!



366. Marty Stuart & Travis Tritt - Honk Tonkin's What I Do Best
Album: Honky Tonkin's What I Do Best
Year: 1996

What a perfect duo these two guys make! The third hit duet between Tritt and Stuart throughout the 90's, "Honky Tonkin" is certainly the most upbeat. What I love most about this song, is that Tritt and Stuart are obviously genuine friends and had a blast making it, opposed to duets that sometimes seem to be forced by the record labels. To see these guys perform live together would be an absolute dream!




There we have it! Another 10 songs down! We are only 46 "Likes" away from 800 on Facebook! Once we hit that milestone, I will be posting another extended countdown blog, as promised, so don't forget to share our page with your friends!

Keep your eyes pealed for more blogs coming throughout the week! Is there anything else you, as readers, would like to see on our page/blog? We are very open to suggestions and hope to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!
-Arthur Born

Facebook.com/borncountryblog
Twitter: @BORNCountryBlog
E-Mail: BORNCountryblog@gmail.com

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