The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 11

Ray Charles – I Can’t Stop Loving You

I Can’t Stop Loving You was written and originally recorded by Don Gibson (one of the originators of the Nashville Sound) in 1957. In 1958, Gibson’s version climbed to #7 in Billboard’s Country Singles charts. Gibson’s success, though, was eclipsed four years later, when Ray Charles released his version of the song. In 1962, Charles’ recording reached #1 in three separate U.S. charts (Hot 100, R&B Styles and Adult Contemporary), and in both the UK’s and Australia’s Singles charts.

Gibson sang I Can’t Stop Loving You as a straight country song with a hint of TexMex in the accompaniment. Charles, in a stroke of musical and marketing genius, transformed it into an amalgam of country, blues, jazz, soul and pop styles – with the heaviest emphasis on the blues, of which Charles was a master. The song suited his voice and his wry performing style perfectly.

Here’s Charles doing a live version of I Can’t Stop Loving You on the Dick Cavett Show:

Here’s Gibson’s original version:

Puttin' the Pedal to the Metal

by Jim Meyer

The heart and soul of any good country song is the pedal-steel guitar. Think of Don Helms’ distinctive playing on just about any classic Hank Williams, Sr. recording. In the 1950s and 60s, the legendary Ernest Tubb provided a showcase for two of the all-time great pedal-steel players – in his band The Texas Troubadours: Buddy Emmons and his successor, Buddy Charleton (who died last month at the age of 72).

Here’s a sample of Charleton tearing it up with guitarist Leon Rhodes:

And here’s (sorry, embedding isn't available for this video) Emmons at the 1997 International Steel Guitar Convention in St. Louis.

I’d just moved to Washington, DC, in 1985, and I saw in the paper that Emmons was playing that evening in a bar somewhere out in the Virginia countryside. It cost me $60 to drive out there and back in a taxi, but it was worth every cent. I sat right down front, and watched The Master at work.

I’d have done the same to see Buddy Charleton, but I never got the chance.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 12

Kris Kristofferson - Me And Bobby McGee

Images courtesy of Savingcountrymusic.com and Showbizireland.com

Nobody is going to pretend that Kristofferson is a great country singer, but it’s hard to imagine a singer who is more authentic, who shows more of his emotions, and who pours more of his soul into his songs. This version of Me And Bobby McGee – a live rendition from The Essential Kris Kristofferson – is partly sung and partly spoken into his beard, but it’s entirely believable all the way through. The accompaniment will draw comparisons to the musical backgrounds for Jimmy Buffet, but the weird conjunction of party-style country/folk music with the poignancy of the lyrics somehow multiplies the effect. A great song, sung by one of Country’s best songwriters.

Here some of Kristofferson's newest songs at Daytrotter.com

Purchase Me And Bobby McGee on Amazon MP3 or iTunes.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 13

Glen Campbell - Gentle On My Mind

Photo courtesy glencampbellshow.com.

A unique song in many ways, Gentle On My Mind has both folk and country sensibilities. It’s a folk song by virtue of the detailed descriptions of people and states of mind. But it’s a country song, especially when Campbell sings it, because of its vivid country places – back roads, wheat fields, junk yards, and clotheslines. At the time he recorded Gentle On My Mind, Campbell was at the height of his singing prowess (he should have been … he’d just spent 18 months singing with the Beach Boys), and the clarity and sureness of his voice comes across with every line. The instrumentation – a gentle wall of music with elements of both country and bluegrass – stands behind Campbell’s voice like a stage curtain. You barely notice its there, and its effect is to allow you to focus on the abundance of lyrics.

John Hartford, a folk musician, wrote Gentle On My Mind in 15 minutes (he says) after watching Doctor Zhivago. It won four Grammys in 1968, including one for Hartford for Best Folk Performance and one for Glen Campbell for Best Country and Western Solo. The song was a phenomenal crossover, reaching pop, easy listening and country charts in two separate ‘chart attacks’ – 1967 and 1968.

Buy Gentle On My Mind at Amazon MP3 or iTunes. Visit Campbell's website here.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 14

Keith Whitley - When You Say Nothing At All

Keith Whitley. Photo courtesy of photobucket.com.

When You Say Nothing At All has the distinction of having topped the charts for three different performers: Keith Whitley, Alison Krauss and Ronan Keating. We’re featuring Whitley’s version because we think it’s the best of the three, and because he had one of the great voices for country singing – deep and expressive, with a twang that can only be described as western timbre... The song itself (by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz) is finely crafted, with a chorus that offers unexpected turns – small but satisfying. The musical accompaniment for Whitley will sound to an experienced ear a bit too much like the over-produced and ponderous ‘80s, but still the song has withstood the test of three decades.

Behind the song is a tragedy. Although he had been a musician since the late ‘60s, Whitley’s talent wasn’t commercially recognized until 1982, with the release of his solo album Don’t Close Your Eyes (with When You Say Nothing At All). For the next few years, he began to be thought of as an emerging superstar in Country Music. Sadly, he died of alcohol poisoning in 1989.

Buy When You Say Nothing At All at Amazon Mp3 or iTunes.