The Big One - A George Strait Rankdown (Revealing)

[LBTrocks]

Now it's .indulgecountry 's turn to lose his #10 and I don't feel an ounce bad for him considering he ranked my #10 at #93 :kii:

Anyway, "Twang" is awesome but it's typical of the type of song Pulse hates so I'm not surprised it's out now, and considering Pulse hates this style it's no wonder why I always do so poorly in Pulse rankdowns. However, with "Twang" being one of his more modern songs, I was thinking it was possible it might do a little better. The fact that it didn't though is, like I said, not that surprising.

[fearlessarrow]

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of this song: "Twang, TWANG, TWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG"

Everything else is ok but that part dragged it way down for me in a discography full of strong songs.

[bboat11]

Life tough, and then you die...

91. "Let It Go"

Album: Cold Beer Conversation
Year: 2015





Total: 1406
Average: 70.30
Std Dev: 22.63


DistrictTwelve - 24
castleoblivion26 - 34
carriekins - 40
zaclord 🌈 - 41
sabre14 - 49
.indulgecountry - 55
BackwoodsBarbie - 66
CoJoFan - 67
gardyfan - 70
countrymusicjunkie - 73
LBTrocks - 76
tim - 84
mamasaid - 86
bboat11 - 87
George Strait Junkie - 87
@adam1995 - 87
codyj100 - 92
fearlessarrow - 93
Kanenrá:ke - 97
Cody Wants Out... - 98






This song was all over the place ranking-wise, but overall it did a good job of leveling out in the 80s and 90s for the whole submission process. I am disappointed that this one is leaving before the much inferior "Goin' Goin' Gone" from the same album, but this one needed to leave towards the bottom too.

I do love that opening line though. "Life's tough, and then you die..." LMAO

SPOILER: Click to show

{Songs Remaining}
A Fire I Can’t Put Out
Ace In The Hole
Adalida
All My Ex’s Live In Texas
Am I Blue
Amarillo By Morning
Baby Blue
Baby’s Gotten Good At Goodbye
Blue Clear Sky
Carried Away
Carrying Your Love With Me
Check Yes Or No
Cold Beer Conversation
Cowboys Like Us
Desperately
Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind
Don’t Make Me Come Over There And Love You
Drinkin’ Man
Easy Come, Easy Go
Famous Last Words Of A Fool
Fool Hearted Memory
Give It All We Got Tonight
Give It Away
Go On
Goin’ Goin’ Gone
Gone As A Girl Can Get
Heartland
Here For A Good Time
How ‘Bout Them Cowgirls
I Can Still Make Cheyenne
I Cross My Heart
I Got A Car
I Gotta Get To You
I Hate Everything
I Just Want To Dance With You
I Know She Still Loves Me
I Saw God Today
I’d Like To Have That One Back
I’ve Come To Expect It From You
If I Know Me
If You Ain’t Lovin’ (You Ain’t Livin’)
If You Can Do Anything Else
If You’re Thinking You Want A Stranger
It Ain’t Cool To Be Crazy About You
It Just Comes Natural
King Of The Mountain
Lead On
Let’s Fall To Pieces Together
Living And Living Well
Living For The Night
Love Without End, Amen
Love’s Gonna Make It Alright
Lovebug
Marina Del Rey
Meanwhile
Murder On Music Row
Nobody In His Right Mind Would’ve Left Her
Ocean Front Property
One Night At A Time
Right Or Wrong
Round About Way
Run
She Let Herself Go
She’ll Leave You With A Smile
So Much Like My Dad
Tell Me Something Bad About Tulsa
Texas
The Best Day
The Big One
The Breath You Take
The Chair
The Chill Of An Early Fall
The Cowboy Rides Away
The Fireman
The Man In Love With You
The Seashores Of Old Mexico
Today My World Slipped Away
Troubadour
True
Unwound
We Really Shouldn’t Be Doing This
What Do You Say To That
What’s Going On In Your World
When Did You Stop Loving Me
Wrapped
Write This Down
You Can’t Make A Heart Love Somebody
You Know Me Better Than That
You Look So Good In Love
You’ll Be There

[fearlessarrow]

Dec 7, 2017 2:02:39 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

This song was all over the place ranking-wise, but overall it did a good job of leveling out in the 80s and 90s for the whole submission process.

The shade

Also DistrictTwelve I know the first day of reveals were tough for you, but I hope this doesn't discourage you from participating in future country RDs!!

[DistrictTwelve]

The first line definitely hooked me into the song. I heard that and I was like 'oh dang' and I really enjoyed the calm, chill vibe of it.
I was generally a bigger fan of his slower songs, I just felt that those type of songs were really good for his voice. Which is also another factor in it being boosted up for me.

[bboat11]

Now that we have finished the bottom 10, here's a recap of how our decades are shaping up so far!

1980s: 3/27 (11% gone)
1990s: 2/36 (5% gone)
2000s: 3/26 (12% gone)
2010s: 2/11 (18% gone)

So far I am impressed with how evenly dispersed the eliminations have been throughout his career! So far no decade seems to be dominating. Percentage-wise the '90s are winning, but that is to be expected because that is the largest group of songs. As far as actual eliminations, every decade has lost 2 or 3 songs.

We shall see if that continues for the next 10 songs!

Any observations/thoughts about the bottom 10 so far?

[LBTrocks]

"Life's tough, and then you die" has to be the truest statement ever lmao but every time I listen to this song, I'm like... dang George, what a horrible opening line for a song hahahaha. It does capture your attention though, I will say that!

Anyway, I like this song! I just like 75 other ones better

[bboat11]

Dec 7, 2017 2:12:21 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

"Life's tough, and then you die" has to be the truest statement ever lmao but every time I listen to this song, I'm like... dang George, what a horrible opening line for a song hahahaha. It does capture your attention though, I will say that!

Anyway, I like this song! I just like 75 other ones better

See, I love that line! But I listen to the song and think "dang George, what a horrible opening for an album era"

[BackwoodsBarbie]

I'm happy that Shiftwork was eliminated first. I'm even more happy that all songs that I really like are still in :)

[George Strait Junkie]

damn it maybe im crazy but "Twang" is a jam for me every time i hear it gotta turn it up

[Deleted]

He's just so consistent(ly good) that there's a very even distribution of eliminations. This is so far a very exciting rankdown.

[carriekins]

Twang sucks. Bye.

[castleoblivion26]

"Down and Out" is a good song but I do feel it belongs at the bottom of the list.

I really do not care for "Twang" at all. It's not a terrible song but definitely one I'm good with never hearing again.

I really like "Let It Go" and the more I hear it the more I enjoy it so I'm a little sad to see it out this early but not one bit surprised either.

[Cody Wants Out...]

Somehow, none of his singles from Cold Beer Conversation impressed me much; they're not awful, just boring in comparision to the rest of his work. Sorry.

[mamasaid]

I'm a bit broken hearted that "Lovesick Blues" didn't rank higher overall...it's a classic and George gives it love it deserves...

Otherwise, I'm not so far off in the rankings so far....Love me some George...

[.indulgecountry]

"Twang" is one of my faves and I've never understood why it gets so much hate, but I also 100% expected it to be out in the bottom 10 so no tears from me, lol.

Nothing else has left yet that I'm sad about, either. Solid start!

[LBTrocks]

Only one I'm really upset about so far is "Down and Out" otherwise this has been going alright so far.

[Cody Wants Out...]

Dec 7, 2017 21:30:23 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

Only one I'm really upset about so far is "Drinking Champagne" otherwise this has been going great so far.

[bboat11]

Dec 7, 2017 21:58:23 GMT -5 Cody Wants Out... said:

Dec 7, 2017 21:30:23 GMT -5 LBTrocks said:

Only ones District Twelve is really upset about so far are "I Believe" and "River Of Love", otherwise this has been going great so far.

[LBTrocks]

bboat11  being here means more reveals! Hopefully... 

[tim]

Dec 6, 2017 22:19:31 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Dec 6, 2017 22:11:55 GMT -5 countrymusicjunkie said:

Wasn't "Drinking Champagne" originally meant to be a duet with Frank Sinatra?

Ooo I don't know! I think I heard once that he had been singing it live for years and then finally added it to an album by popular request.

Regarding Frank Sinatra though, they recorded a duet on "Fly Me To The Moon" that was supposed to go on one of Frank's new duet albums or something, but Frank decided to cut it from the album at the last minute and George was really disappointed. George released the song on his Strait Out of the Box collection though, so the recording is available and findable.

Maybe tim knows more about Frank Sinatra and "Drinking Champagne"?

To the best of my knowledge "Drinking Champagne" was never intended to be a duet. I'm pretty sure "Fly Me To the Moon" was the first opportunity that came up for George to finally sing along with one of his idols Frank Sinatra, albeit in subsequent interviews you can tell how much George was disappointed not to have it included on Sinatra's Duets album (maybe because George outsung Ol' Blue Eyes lol?). Anyways, looking back I'm surprised this was even released as a single. "Lonesome Rodeo Cowboy" has always been of my favorites from Livin' It Up, but now I"m getting ahead of myself!

I'm not at all surprised to see "River of Love" out so soon as I know it isn't a favorite on Pulse. I do have to say my opinion of this song is greatly shaped by George's live performance of it as you can tell he not only enjoys the song but likes to sing it live. It really fits his live show and has a smooth ring to it.

Also not surprised by "Overnight Success" leaving early as it was his first single to miss out at the top spot since 1985's "You're Something Special to Me." It's not a song I listen to often, but I do enjoy it now and then.

[bboat11]

Dec 7, 2017 23:14:27 GMT -5 tim said:

Dec 6, 2017 22:19:31 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Ooo I don't know! I think I heard once that he had been singing it live for years and then finally added it to an album by popular request.

Regarding Frank Sinatra though, they recorded a duet on "Fly Me To The Moon" that was supposed to go on one of Frank's new duet albums or something, but Frank decided to cut it from the album at the last minute and George was really disappointed. George released the song on his Strait Out of the Box collection though, so the recording is available and findable.

Maybe tim knows more about Frank Sinatra and "Drinking Champagne"?

To the best of my knowledge "Drinking Champagne" was never intended to be a duet. I'm pretty sure "Fly Me To the Moon" was the first opportunity that came up for George to finally sing along one of his idols Frank Sinatra, albeit in subsequent interviews you can tell how much George was disappointed not to have it included on Sinatra's Duets album (maybe because George outsung Ol' Blue Eyes lol?). Anyways, looking back I'm surprised this was even released as a single. "Lonesome Rodeo Cowboy" has always been of my favorites from Livin' It Up, but now I"m getting ahead of myself!

I'm not at all surprised to see "River of Love" out so soon as I know it isn't a favorite on Pulse. I do have to say my opinion of this song is greatly shaped by George's live performance of it as you can tell he not only enjoys the song but likes to sing it live. It really fits his live show and has a smooth ring to it.

Also not surprised by "Overnight Success" leaving early as it was his first single to miss out at the top spot since 1985's "You're Something Special to Me." It's not a song I listen to often, but I do enjoy it now and then.

I totally agree with this! The Livin' It Up album is overall not one of my favorites from him, but "Lonesome Rodeo Cowboy" is a clear standout. Otherwise they nailed the singles with "Love Without End, Amen" and "I've Come To Expect It From You", but "Drinking Champagne" was not a great choice when LRC got left on the album...

[codyj100]

Just getting caught up here. I love all of these songs, really. But I'm not overly surprised to see how the rankings have come out so far. This is going to be an interesting rankdown. 

[bboat11]

The Live Albums

For The Last Time: Live From The Astrodome



Released: February 11, 2003
Label: MCA Nashville
Producer: Tony Brown, George Strait
Runtime: 61min 21sec
Country Albums Chart: 2
Certification: Gold

Tracklist:
1. Deep In The Heart Of Texas
2. Stars On The Water*
3. Write This Down
4. I Can Still Make Cheyenne
5. Heartland
6. Love Without End, Amen
7. Check Yes Or No
8. The Fireman
9. Run
10. Murder On Music Row
11. The Chair
12. She'll Leave You With A Smile
13. Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind*
14. Amarillo By Morning
15. Living And Living Well
16. Take Me Back To Tulsa
17. Blue Clear Sky
18. The Cowboy Rides Away

*Available as singles on iTunes only


"Take Me Back To Tulsa"


For the Last Time: Live From the Astrodome was recorded in the old Astrodome in Houston, Texas. This George Strait concert was the final event in the dome before it was scheduled for demolition. If I recall correctly, this concert broke attendance records for the most people who had ever been in the building! In any case, this is by far one of the best live albums I have ever heard. George and his band both sound amazing, and this was also just excellent point in his career to make a live album. His most recent studio album was The Road Less Traveled, which means that "Run", "Living And Living Well", and "She'll Leave You With A Smile" were the current/recent hits at the time of this concert. All the recordings here are amazing, but I chose to feature "Take Me Back To Tulsa" because that is the only song that he sang at this concert that is not available on any George Strait studio albums. It is unique to this album! ("Deep In The Heart Of Texas", the opener, is not available in studio format either, because it is just an instrumental opening that his band always plays while George walks onstage.)

---

Live At Texas Stadium



Released: April 3, 2007
Label: Mailboat
Producer: Mac McAnally, Keith Stegall, George Strait, Michael Utley
Runtime: 59min 38sec
Country Albums Chart: 4
Certification: None

Tracklist:
1. Honk If You Honky Tonk (George Strait)
2. Murder On Music Row (George Strait/Alan Jackson)
3. Milk Cow Blues (George Strait)
4. Cowboys Like Us (George Strait)
5. All My Ex's Live In Texas (George Strait/Jimmy Buffett)
6. Hey Good Lookin' (Jimmy Buffett/George Strait/Alan Jackson)
7. Sea Of Heartbreak (Jimmy Buffett/George Strait)
8. North East Texas Woman (Jimmy Buffett)
9. Boats To Build (Jimmy Buffett/Alan Jackson)
10. Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett/Alan Jackson/George Strait)
11. Five O'Clock Somewhere (Alan Jackson)
12. Designated Drinker (Alan Jackson/George Strait)
13. Texas Women (Alan Jackson)
14. Seven Bridges Road (Alan Jackson)
15. Where I Come From (Alan Jackson)


"Designated Drinker"



This album was recorded in 2004 when George Strait when on tour with Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, but did not get released until 2007. The album is pretty good, with nice sound quality, but George's role is pretty limited since it's a 3-person concert, so it is not the best live album to check out if you want to get familiar with George's music.

However, now feels like as good of a chance as any to spotlight "Designated Drinker", which was an album track on Alan Jackson's 2002 Drive album. This song is one of the biggest missed hit opportunities of the last 20 years! It is asinine that this was never a single, as they were the two biggest male country artists at that time. This would be like Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett recording a duet today and then not releasing it as a single... Except this song is like 800x better than anything Luke and Thomas would ever come up with together. I'm glad they got to perform it live together on this tour, because it is a definite fan favorite.

---

The Cowboy Rides Away: Live From AT&T Stadium



Released: September 16, 2014
Label: MCA Nashville
Producer: Chuck Ainlay, George Strait
Runtime: 1 hr 51min 34sec
Country Albums Chart: 2
Certification: None


Tracklist:
1. Check Yes Or No
2. The Lovebug (ft. Vince Gill)
3. Fool Hearted Memory (ft. Jason Aldean)
4. Arkansas Dave (ft. Bubba Strait)
5. Cowboys Like Us (ft. Eric Church)
6. Easy Come, Easy Go (ft. Eric Church)
7. That's What Breaking Hearts Do
8. Marina Del Rey
9. Here For A Good Time (ft. Sheryl Crow)
10. I Can Still Make Cheyenne
11. Jackson (ft. Martina McBride)
12. I Saw God Today
13. Drinkin' Man
14. River Of Love
15. A Showman's Life (ft. Faith Hill)
16. Amarillo By Morning (ft. Alan Jackson)
17. Murder On Music Row (ft. Alan Jackson)
18. The Chair
19. Give It All We Got Tonight
20. How 'Bout Them Cowgirls (ft. Miranda Lambert)
21. Run (ft. Miranda Lambert)
22. I'll Always Remember You
23. Ocean Front Property (ft. Kenny Chesney)
24. The Firemen (ft. Kenny Chesney)
25. Troubadour
26. Unwound
27. All My Ex's Live In Texas (ft. Jason Aldean, Ray Benson, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert & Martina McBride)
28. The Cowboy Rides Away


"Jackson" (ft. Martina McBride)


"All My Ex's Live In Texas" (ft. Jason Aldean, Ray Benson, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert & Martina McBride


Here it is: George's June 7, 2014 farewell concert! For this epic showstopping concert at the AT&T stadium in Arlington, Texas, George Strait brought along several guests, who are all listed above with the "All My Ex's Live In Texas" video. This concert was the final show of his The Cowboy Rides Away tour, which was his final goodbye before retirement. Fittingly, the show drew a crowd of 104,793 people, which is the largest amount of people to have EVER attended a single show in a U.S. stadium, by a pretty significant margin! All in all, this should be one of the most epic live cds of all time, right?

Unfortunately, it sucks. Big time. Like, I literally cannot even bring myself to listen to the whole album in full... In production, this album was overrun with a shitload of autotune, totally ruining the sound of every single artist's voice. The sound in this arena must not have been very good for a live album or something. It is a real bummer, because with all these star-studded collaborations, this had potential to be an extremely epic album

Above I attached "Jackson" which features Martina McBride. Not just because Martina is featured (although that obviously played a part ), but because that is once again the only song on the album that is not a George Strait song. I also included "All My Ex's Live In Texas" because LOOK AT ALL THOSE AMAZING ARTISTS COLLABORATING OMG!!!

---

bboat11 @adam1995 Cody Wants Out... .indulgecountry codyj100 sabre14 George Strait Junkie zaclord 🌈 mamasaid castleoblivion26 DistrictTwelve countrymusicjunkie CoJoFan gardyfan carriekins fearlessarrow LBTrocks tim BackwoodsBarbie Kanenrá:ke

[mamasaid]

Love George with Asleep at the Wheel and all the old Bob Wills tunes....

[bboat11]

Oh, that little-bitty teeny-weeny thing they call the lovebug.

Nobody’s ever seen it,

But it’s got the whole world shook up.

90. "Lovebug"

Album: Easy Come, Easy Go
Year: 1994





Total: 1404
Average: 70.20
Std. Dev: 26.45


DistrictTwelve - 15
castleoblivion26 - 32
carriekins - 35
George Strait Junkie - 41
LBTrocks - 47
.indulgecountry - 50
CoJoFan - 59
tim - 59
gardyfan - 66
bboat11 - 76
codyj100 - 79
@adam1995 - 81
Kanenrá:ke - 87
Cody Wants Out... - 91
mamasaid - 96
countrymusicjunkie - 96
zaclord 🌈 - 98
fearlessarrow - 98
sabre14 - 99
BackwoodsBarbie - 99




I have honestly never understood the hate that this song gets... "Lovebug" is pure unfiltered ear candy! It has all the makings of a song that should be fairly well-liked, but instead there are not even enough high rankings to consider it polarizing... My #76 ranking felt low to me honestly, but it ended up being the song's highest placement for the entire submission process DistrictTwelve loses another fairly high ranking, but this time only a top 20, while castleoblivion26 loses the second song in a row from his 30s. carriekins loses a top 40 as well.

[castleoblivion26]

I really enjoy this song a lot, surprised it is this low, it deserved to be much higher. I have a feeling I'm not gonna be happy with some of these results...

[countrymusicjunkie]

"Lovebug" is easily one of Straits worst songs ever. Glad to see it go!

[bboat11]

Dec 9, 2017 18:45:36 GMT -5 castleoblivion26 said:

I really enjoy this song a lot, surprised it is this low, it deserved to be much higher. I have a feeling I'm not gonna be happy with some of these results...

Lol trust me, in this rankdown, I'm pretty sure ALL of us are going to be unhappy with many some of the results! It's inevitable when like 95 out of 100 songs were well-received top 10 hits...

[tim]

“Lovebug” is such a fun song in concert!

On a side note...I’ve always really liked that album cover. That was the first one to include his dog Buster (who was also included in the album shoot for Lead On and Strait Out of the Box). Unfortunately Buster went missing in early 1996.