This weekend on 92.9, we are bringing you the Top 10 Songs with a Touch of Country. Usually this time of year is The Country Music Festival, so we thought we would bring you a slight feel of country to make up for it.
10.
Amazed
Lone Star
This country ballad took 30 weeks to reach the US Top 10, which is a record. Lonestar were also the first country act to reach #1 on the Hot 100 since "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton in 1983. In the UK despite reaching only #21, it sold over 180,000 copies during its chart run, a large amount for a song that didn't reach the top 20.
9.
I Got This
The McClymonts
Brooke, Sam and Mollie McClymont co-wrote the feel-good bop with Andy Mak (Vera Blue, Tina Arena), the same award-winning producer and songwriter they worked with on 2017 album Endless, aka the trio's fourth record to debut at #1 on the ARIA Country Album chart in a row.
8.
Tequila
Dan & Shay
Rather than penning lyrics about downing shots and partying the night away, the songwriters flipped the script and wrote a number about the memories that coming flooding back every time the lovelorn guy sips tequila. The song's music video set in the Colorado mountains stars deaf and mute actor, model and activist Nyle DiMarco and Instagram personality Mica Von Turkovich. The pair portray a couple who fall in love with each other while cross-country skiing and learn to communicate through sign language.
7.
Body Like a Backroad
Sam Hunt
Sam Hunt co-wrote this sexy song with Zach Crowell, Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally. It was released as the lead single from the singer's sophomore album, which was produced by Crowell.
Hunt said the song was written after he got engaged to girlfriend Hannah Lee Fowler in Israel late 2016. "I connect music to the emotions that come from relationships, so most of the songs that I write are inspired by those circumstances, emotions, feelings, all that kind of stuff," he explained.
6.
Not Ready To Make Nice
The Chicks
When Natalie Maines remarked at a London concert on March 10, 2003 that she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," the Chicks were dropped from playlists at many radio stations and subjected to attacks on their character, even death threats. This song finds them standing up for themselves and refusing to back down from their statements. They might be willing to forgive at some point, but they're never going to forget.
5.
Meant To Be
Bebe Rexha
Bebe Rexha recorded this song with the country-pop duo Florida Georgia Line for the closing track of her third extended play All Your Fault: Pt. 2. It was released to American contemporary hit radio on October 24, 2017, as the second single from the EP. The piano-driven ballad has a feel-good message of whatever will be, will be.
4.
Need You Now
Lady A
This is the first single and title track from country trio Lady A's sophomore album, Need You Now. Group members Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott, along with co-writer Josh Kear, wrote this song about yearning for companionship in the middle of the night. Scott explained that the song, and many others on the album, "Are about what we are learning as we go through the ups and downs of different relationships."
3.
The Fighter
Keith Urban & Carrie Underwood
This disco-influenced, jazzy country love song finds Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood portraying two lovers having a conversation. The Australian country star thought of the American Idol songstress as soon as he wrote the tune with busbee. The duet was recorded by the two singers in separate studios as Urban was shooting the video for "Wasted Time" on the only day that Underwood was free. "She said, 'I have a day off in St. Louis, it's the only day off between now and when you need to finish your record',"
2.
You're Still The One
Shania Twain
This song was remixed for its single release to sound less country and to appeal more to pop audiences in the hopes of giving Twain a mainstream crossover hit. The plan worked as it became her first Top 10 hit in both the UK and US and reaching #1 in Australia. The song was Twain's most successful single release on the Billboard Hot 100 spending a record nine weeks at #2
1.
Love Story
Taylor Swift
Like most of Swift's songs, this was based on a real experience. As a teenager, she had an argument with her parents over a boy - they thought he was a creep, and Taylor thought it was love. She said that he was, indeed, a creep, but she thought he was amazing at the time. The pre-chorus of the song came into her head: "You were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles, and my daddy said, 'Stay away from Juliet.'" She grabbed her guitar and worked out the chords on her bedroom floor.