The 15 songs on the list are not listend in any particular order but rather set up in a sort of playlist that can be looped over and over again (and there's a link to Spotify to listen to them).
“Springsteen” – Eric Church
“Drink In My Hand” is already looking like it’ll be the biggest hit single of Eric Church’s career and we guarantee that this song will be a single sometime in 2012 but it doesn’t hurt to start off our list with a great song from one of the best-selling country albums right now, does it? This one is so good it may even break whatever record “Drink” sets for EC to become his best single ever. It’s that good.
“The Fight” – Eli Young Band
While Life At Best is full of great potential singles like “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” the fight is a song that really says what it’s like to breakthrough and earn something sweet for yourself and your family. “you’ve gotta spend your last dime before you ever make a million, you gotta know what got you here, what made you persevere….yeah, you gotta make it through your darkest night…it’s always been worth the fight.”
“Until You” – Billy Currington
This one’s an obvious one for us and with “Love Done Gone” seemingly stalling on the charts, it might actually see the radio dial yet. It’s our favorite song on the Enjoy Yourself and while a cover of a Dave Barnes (“God Gave Me You”) song, it suits Billy Currington well.
“You Don’t Know Jack” – Luke Bryan
Written by Erin Enderlin and Shane McAnally, “You Don’t Know Jack” is a downright great way to play on the oft-used “homeless prophet opens narrator’s eyes” to real life problems and ills of the world. Luke delivers it really well and it has song-of-the-year qualities to it.
“Heart of the World” – Lady Antebellum
Written by Tom Douglas (and Scooter Carusoe) , this is yet another beautiful song from the guy who wrote “The House That Built Me,” “Little Rock” and so many more great songs, including “I Run To You” and “Hello World,” two previous Lady Antebellum hits. It’s a well-written song about the things that center our lives, and while some may call this song ‘hokey’, as a hopeless romantic, it’s hard not to fall for this song.
“If Oil is the soul of the engine, if wine is the drink of the gods, forgiveness the road to redemption, if faith can still beat the odds, we’re meant to be, baby hold on to me, you’ll never not be my girl, cause love is the heart of the world.”
“Church Pew Or Bar Stool” – Jason Aldean
As somebody who spent a good portion of his life living in a small one blinkin’ light town, I know exactly what it is like to be a guy who gets out of a town like this to chase his dreams. It’s also a song that many other people can relate to and I know it’d sound really good on country radio.
“That’s What You Get” – Trace Adkins
The mood and melody of this song reminds me of “Ain’t Nothin’ ‘Bout You” from Brooks & Dunn and I’ve always loved that song (Rivers Rutherford co-wrote both songs). It may not say anthing that’s particularly new or interesting but sometimes (most of the time), music’s about enjoying a song for the mood it gives you and that’s what this tune does for me. It’s just fun and groove-y.
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“Neon” – Chris Young
This song’s too good to not be a single on country radio at some point and as the title track of Chris’ most recent record, it’s obvious both he and his record label agree that will be the case at some point. It’s a traditionalist country song that will remind fans of some classic George Strait songs and there’s never been anything wrong with that.
“Poison” – George Strait
Speaking of King George, his new album Here For A Good Time has some great songs on it but the best on the record for us is this tune. It may be moody and too ‘good’ for radio to play the hell out of it, but then again, it is George Strait singing it and the chorus is memorable as are the lyrics and George’s performance.
“Name On My Shirt” – The Dirt Drifters
This fantastic band hasn’t had a real breakthrough single yet but there’s most certainly room on the country radio – in our opinion - for a really strong band singing heartland country/rock tunes about real people and real life and perhaps there’s none better on This is My Blood than “Name On My Shirt,” a song about realizing how being a blue collar man isn’t as bad as it seemed to be as a kid.
“Sleeping On The Interstate” – Granger Smith
This tune was a radio in Texas and while the artist has never had a mainstream country radio hit, this song is as good as anything on mainstream country radio these days and what’s interesting about the song is that if a band like Eli Young Band, Zac Brown Band or a solo artist like Chris Young cut it, it’d be a big hit.
“Back Of My Heart” – Randy Montana
Randy released his self-titled album digitally during the summer and he has scored two Top 40 hits in “Ain’t Much Left of Lovin’ You” and “1,000 Faces” but neither of those songs are as immediate as this song is to us. It’s well-written (as all tunes are on his record) and the hook (chorus) goes on for days.
“The Old Me” – Sunny Sweeney
One of the few songs on Sunny’s Concrete album that weren’t written by her, the song really tells an interesting, picaresque story – a hallmark of Lori McKenna’s work – and Sunny sings the hell out of the song.
“Toothbrush” – Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley always excels at songs that rip from real life moments and “Toothbrush” is no different.”
“Until The Rain Stops” – Steve Holy
There are quite a few songs that the singer behind “Love Don’t Run” and “Brand New Girlfriend” can choose from on the new Love Don’t Run album but perhaps none other on the record begs for country radio airplay more than this one does. It’s hook-filled, melodically catchy and the vocal is downright fantastic.
Well, there ya go, here’s our list of 15 songs that should be country radio singles. What do you think of the list? What songs would you remove for other songs. Remember, if you make your own list, do not include more than one song from one artist.
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