Country Music Insiders Choose The Genre's 100 Greatest Songs By: John Gerome The Associated Press NASHVILLE -- George and Tammy are there. So are Johnny and Hank, and Waylon and Willie. But a ranking of the top 100 songs in country music history is bound to contain a few surprises, and this one by Country Music Television is no exception. Is Tammy Wynette's 1968 classic "Stand By Your Man" truly the best country song of all time? Should Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" rank that high? Is The Eagles' "Desperado" really a country song? And where's Merle Haggard's "The Fightin' Side of Me"? "Everyone has personal favorites that didn't make the list," said Kaye Zusmann, CMT's vice president of program development and production. "Everyone will look and say, 'How can that not make it on there?'" The list, which is the centerpiece of a six-hour special to air this weekend on CMT, was revealed in a Wednesday concert on the eve of Nashville's annual Fan Fair country music festival. Following a rundown of songs 100 to 87, a group of contemporary and classic country singers including Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Ray Charles and George Jones performed the top 12. The two-hour concert will be broadcast Sunday following a four-hour documentary that begins 4 p.m. EDT. Picking 100 songs is harder than it sounds, Zusmann says. The process began last summer when CMT asked music critics, historians and journalists to identify the genre's greatest songs. They came up with 600 titles. That list went to voting members of the Country Music Association, which consists of songwriters, musicians, singers and other industry insiders, who whittled it down to 100 songs and ranked them. The criteria was loose. Statistics such as weeks on the chart or total sales didn't matter, Zusmann said, only the "emotional, visceral connection people have to a song." That figured heavily in the top choice, "Stand By Your Man," Wynette's plea to women to forgive their wayward men. "It's the prototypical country song," Zusmann said. "It has everything." Jones, Wynette's husband from 1969-75 and duet partner, said Tuesday that "Stand By Your Man" touched both men and women, especially with the Vietnam War pulling couples apart. "When you're away from home it enters your mind, you know," he said. "You hope she's not fooling around, and you're missing home." Jones, who has the No. 2 song on the list with "He Stopped Loving Her Today," said Wynette's signature song "belongs where it is." McBride performs it in the concert. Co-written by Wynette and producer Billy Sherrill, it was a hit on country and pop radio at the height of the women's liberation movement, and Wynette took some heat for it. The song resurfaced in 1992 when then presidential candidate Bill Clinton and wife, Hillary, appeared on CBS's "60 Minutes" shortly after Gennifer Flowers alleged she had an affair with Clinton. "I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette," Mrs. Clinton said. Wynette demanded an apology, saying Mrs. Clinton had "offended every true country music fan and every person who has made it on their own with no one to take them to a White House." Mrs. Clinton said she didn't mean to hurt Wynette's feelings, and Wynette later performed at a Clinton fund-raiser. When the singer died in 1998, the Clintons issued a statement calling her a legend. Rounding out the top 12 songs on the CMT list are Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," Patsy Cline's "Crazy," Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart," Brooks' "Friends in Low Places," Cline's "I Fall To Pieces," Glen Campbell's "Galveston," Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors," Waylon Jennings' "Mommas Don't Let Your Babies," Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky," and George Strait's "Amarillo By Morning." Charles, who performs "Behind Closed Doors" at the concert and has the No. 49 song with "I Can't Stop Loving You," said the beauty of a great country song it its simplicity. "It's very plain, very simple music," Charles said Tuesday. "It's just for the average guy. You don't have to be a scholar or you don't have to be in the elite class or nothing like that. You just have to listen to the music and listen to the lyrics and the lyrics tell everything."

Originally Published By the Associated Press On June 6, 2003







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