The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 6

Randy Travis - Forever and Ever Amen

Photo courtesy of MyKindofCountry

A superbly produced song, with great balance between Travis’s singing and the instrumentation, Forever and Ever Amen hit country music like a locomotive: The song was Travis’s third #1 single, and garnered a Grammy for Best Country and Western Song and an Academy of Country Music award for Song of the Year. If that isn’t enough, the album that contained the song – Always and Forever – was number one for 43 weeks. It isn’t stretching too far to say the song put Country Music on the map for a lot of people who hadn’t listened to it before. Want it put in more authoritative words? According to CountryMusicPerformers.com, Forever and Ever Amen ‘arguably launched the neotraditionalist country era, boosting the popularity of country music beyond its traditional fan base.’

We just like the song.

Here's Travis singing Forever and Ever Amen live:

See Travis’ official video of Forever and Ever Amen here: 

Travis’ website is here.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 7

by Jim Poulton

Hank Williams - I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You

Image courtesy of Last.fm.

Hank Williams was a master of expressing a universe of feeling within the confines of a simple 8-bar verse. You might say he was as much of a painter as he was a singer: close your eyes and listen to the lyrics of this song, and see if you don’t get a vivid and dramatic picture of Hank and the woman he’s lost. The song is simple, with straightforward chording and unembellished accompaniment - but front-lined by Williams’ lovesick voice and southern drawl, it’s a masterpiece.

Williams died at the age of 29 – likely a result of mixing alcohol and drugs. Williams’ alcoholism was legendary – his friend and idol, Roy Acuff, once said to him ‘You’ve got a million-dollar voice, son, but a ten-cent brain.’ Wish Hank had listened.

Purchase albums and other items at Lost Highway Records

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 8

by Jim Poulton

Patsy Cline - Sweet Dreams

Photo courtesy of Last.fm

Well, here she is again - Patsy Cline. I told you we'd see her again in the top 10. And, not to speak out of school, but expect to run into her still one more time. She really knew what she was doing. In fact, I think (and I'm not alone) that Patsy Cline was a genius - about singing in general, but particularly about selecting songs that suited her voice and her persona. Word has it that she was pretty single-minded in making sure that the song and its production matched her vision. Today's song is no exception.

Written by Don Gibson (who, you might recall, also wrote I Can't Stop Loving You), Sweet Dreams has a rare history in Country Music. When Cline recorded it in 1963 (just before her death), her version was the third to reach the Country Hits top ten (Faron Young's 1956 version was the first, and Gibson's own 1960 version was the second). Since then, Sweet Dreams has reached the top 20 three more times, from recordings by three different artists: Tommy McLain, Reba McEntire, EmmyLou Harris (Harris' 1976 version hit number one). That is a song with staying power.

Our favorite version, though, is Cline's. As always, she treats it with such emotional expressiveness that you can almost feel it is your own story. The song's introduction is a bit cheesy (cascading violins - to represent falling into dreamland???), but the rest is pure gold.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 9

by Jim Poulton

Charley Pride - Kiss An Angel Good Morning

Photo courtesy of Torrentsland.com

This little slip of a song – it’s barely longer than two minutes – made a helluva splash when it was released in 1971. It wasn’t the first song by Charley Pride to reach the top of the charts, but it earned him the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year and Top Male Vocalist prizes – quite an accomplishment for a guy who had pitched for various teams in the Negro American League until 1960!

Pride sings Kiss An Angel Good Morning in an understated and mellow baritone, while the accompaniment – especially the piano – offers just enough contrast and punch. The song’s short duration makes you want to listen to it over and over, and it doesn’t take long before you’re singing the refrain to yourself – ‘Kiss an angel good morning … and love her like the devil when you get back home’. Now that’s a mark of a top 10 song!

Visit Pride's website here. Buy Kiss An Angel Good Morning at Amazon MP3 or ITunes.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 10

by Jim Poulton

Patsy Cline - I Fall to Pieces

If my wife had her way, every song in our top ten would be by Patsy Cline … Not that there’s anything wrong with that ... Cline was responsible for a string of Country love songs that all but single-handedly defined the genre. There’s just something about her: an innocent hayseed (she was the daughter of a blacksmith and a seamstress), always just a little bit awkward, appealing but not runway-model beautiful. But when she started to sing, the strength of her character, and maybe the realities of her own losses, came out in every tone and nuance.

Cline rose to national fame between the years 1957 and 1963, when she tragically died in a plane crash. She recorded I Fall to Pieces in 1961, and the song became her first #1 hit on the Country charts, and was her second song to cross over into the Pop charts. Written by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard, I Fall to Pieces at first worried Cline – she thought it’s Pop style didn’t suit her own. When the recording was completed, however, she said that she had finally found her own voice.

See a biography of Patsy Cline here.