BILLBOARD 2000's DECADE Hot Country Songs Chart

[RobbyFlorida]

BILLBOARD

Best of the 2000's
Hot Country Songs

Decade-End most popular country songs, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS.


1) SOMEBODY LIKE YOU Keith Urban
2) 19 SOMETHIN' Mark Wills
3) IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffett
4) HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?! Toby Keith
5) THE GOOD STUFF Kenny Chesney
6) AIN'T NOTHING 'BOUT YOU Brooks & Dunn
7) LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING Tim McGraw
8) THAT'SWHAT I LOVE ABOUT SUNDAY Craig Morgan
9) AS GOOD AS I ONCE WAS Toby Keith
10) GOOD MORNING BEAUTIFUL Steve Holy

11) IF YOU'RE GOING THROUGH HELL (BEFORE THE DEVIL EVEN KNOWS) Rodney Atkins
12)BEER FOR MY HORSES
Toby Keith Duet With Willie Nelson
13) THESE DAYS
Rascal Flatts
14) BEFORE HE CHEATS
Carrie Underwood
15) THE BEST DAY
George Strait
16) MY BEST FRIEND
Tim McGraw
17) WATCHING YOU
Rodney Atkins
18) WHAT ABOUT NOW
Lonestar
19) I'M ALREADY THERE
Lonestar
20) MY NEXT THIRTY YEARS
Tim McGraw

21) BEAUTIFUL MESS
Diamond Rio
22) DON'T BLINK
Kenny Chesney
23) I HOPE YOU DANCE
Lee Ann Womack With Sons Of The Desert
24) I LOVE THIS BAR
Toby Keith
25) DRIVE (FOR DADDY GENE)
Alan Jackson
26) SHE'LL LEAVE YOU WITH A SMIL...
George Strait
27) JESUS, TAKE THE WHEEL
Carrie Underwood
28) COWBOY TAKE ME AWAY
Dixie Chicks
29) ONLY IN AMERICA
Brooks & Dunn
30) MY FRONT PORCH LOOKING IN
Lonestar

31) BREATHE
Faith Hill
32) SOME BEACH
Blake Shelton
33) MY LIST
Toby Keith
34) THE WAY YOU LOVE ME
Faith Hill
35) THERE GOES MY LIFE
Kenny Chesney
36) I WANNA TALK ABOUT ME
Toby Keith
37) YES!
Chad Brock
38) BLESS THE BROKEN ROAD
Rascal Flatts
39) REMEMBER WHEN
Alan Jackson
40) THAT'S THE WAY
Jo Dee Messina

41) SUMMERTIME
Kenny Chesney
42) DON'T HAPPEN TWICE
Kenny Chesney
43)AUSTIN
Blake Shelton
44) YOU SHOULDN'T KISS ME LIKE THIS
Toby Keith
45) FAST CARS AND FREEDOM
Rascal Flatts
46) THE WORLD
Brad Paisley
47) AMERICAN SOLDIER
Toby Keith
48) MY WISH
Rascal Flatts
49) WHO I AM
Jessica Andrews
50) LIVING AND LIVING WELL
George Strait

51) MAKING MEMORIES OF US
Keith Urban
52) IT'S A GREAT DAY TO BE ALIVE
Travis Tritt
53) WITHOUT YOU
Dixie Chicks
54) DAYS GO BY
Keith Urban
55) OUR SONG
Taylor Swift
56) RUN
George Strait
57) REDNECK WOMAN
Gretchen Wilson
58) BETTER LIFE
Keith Urban
59) WHAT HURTS THE MOST
Rascal Flatts
60) NOTHING ON BUT THE RADIO
Gary Allan

61) HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?
Darryl Worley
62) WHAT WAS I THINKIN'
Dierks Bentley
63) WANT TO
Sugarland
64) WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN
Kenny Chesney & Uncle Kracker
65) COME A LITTLE CLOSER
Dierks Bentley
66) SHE'S EVERYTHING
Brad Paisley
67) WATCH THE WIND BLOW BY
Tim McGraw
68) BEST OF INTENTIONS
Travis Tritt
69) GOOD DIRECTIONS
Billy Currington
70) SOMETHING MORE
Sugarland

71) IT JUST COMES NATURAL
George Strait
72) JUST GOT STARTED LOVIN' YOU
James Otto
73) WHO'S YOUR DADDY?
Toby Keith
74) ONE MORE DAY
Diamond Rio
75) WHERE WERE YOU (WHEN THE WORLD STOPPED TURNING)
Alan Jackson
76) MUD ON THE TIRES
Brad Paisley
77) BRING ON THE RAIN
Jo Dee Messina With Tim McGraw
78) THE BABY
Blake Shelton
79) BLESSED
Martina McBride
80) CHICKEN FRIED
Zac Brown Band

81) I JUST WANNA BE MAD
Terri Clark
82) WHO WOULDN'T WANNA BE ME
Keith Urban
83) I MISS MY FRIEND
Darryl Worley
84) RED DIRT ROAD
Brooks & Dunn
85) I BELIEVE
Diamond Rio
86) MUST BE DOIN' SOMETHIN' RIGHT
Billy Currington
87) WHAT I REALLY MEANT TO SAY
Cyndi Thomson
88) REAL GOOD MAN
Tim McGraw
89) GROWN MEN DON'T CRY
Tim McGraw
90) ROLL WITH ME
Montgomery Gentry

91) NEVER WANTED NOTHING MORE
Kenny Chesney
92) BORN TO FLY
Sara Evans
93) AWFUL, BEAUTIFUL LIFE
Darryl Worley
94) NOTHIN' TO LOSE
Josh Gracin
95) ANGRY ALL THE TIME
Tim McGraw
96) MISSISSIPPI GIRL
Faith Hill
97) SUDS IN THE BUCKET
Sara Evans
98) BABY GIRL
Sugarland
99) WASTED
Carrie Underwood
100) WHERE I COME FROM
Alan Jackson

[RobbyFlorida]

The chart is now completed !

[Zazie]

Thank you for posting this. And I'm glad to see that my favorite song of the decade was the highest-ranking non-#1 song on the list.

[joey2002]

Dec 11, 2009 14:55:55 GMT -5 Zazie said:

Thank you for posting this. And I'm glad to see that my favorite song of the decade was the highest-ranking non-#1 song on the list.

Would that be "It's A Great Day To Be Alive"?

[countryfan2002]

So happy for Keith Urban at #1. Great list actually. :)

[joey2002]

I'm a little surprised to see that "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)" was only #75 on the list.

[Marv]

It's chart run @ R&R was 22-10-7-5-2-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-recurrent, so I'd suspect that the chart run @ BB wasn't much longer.

It replaced 'I Wanna Talk About Me' at #1 @ R&R eight years ago (12-19-01), yet the song that replaced it, 'Good Morning Beautiful', also spent five weeks on top as did Toby's tune, but finished #10 for the decade; IIRC, 'GMB' needed 26 weeks to reach #1.

I'd hazard a guess that depressed AI numbers and spins during the Christmas season impacted Alan's song much more than either of those other two smashes, and the same scenario might have explained why 'Our Song' finished in 55th place despite six weeks in the penthouse.

[dajross6]

I'm going to guess this chart was tabulated cumulatively throughout the decade? I don't see very many songs from 2007-2009.

[onebuffalo]

The Billboard chart run for Alan Jackson's Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning looks like this between 11-24-01 to 04-06-02:

25-12-6-5-2-1-1-1-1-1-2-4-7-9-13-15-16-19-20-21

As for songs between the 2007-2009 time period, only ONE was mentioned: Our Song by Taylor Swift which was #1 for six weeks between December, 2007-January, 2008!

[Cody Wants Out...]

Happy to see Somebody Like You at #1 for the decade; one of my absoulte favorite songs ever. However, I'm a little sad to not see You'll Think of Me up there.

[reidster]

I was looking at the Top Country Albums of the decade, in the top 10, there is no "male" singer, only a male group (Rascal Flatts). This really makes you wonder. The entire Country music industry always praises their male singers, yet their females are the ones who sell the most. Not to mention how the Dixie Chicks, and Shania Twain in her day, were criticized by the industry. They seem to be trying to make things better by awarding Taylor Swift non stop, but that won't make up for the lack of support they had for their core artists of the late 90's early 00's.

[WamuFive]

Dec 14, 2009 19:25:55 GMT -5 reidster said:

I was looking at the Top Country Albums of the decade, in the top 10, there is no "male" singer, only a male group (Rascal Flatts). This really makes you wonder. The entire Country music industry always praises their male singers, yet their females are the ones who sell the most. Not to mention how the Dixie Chicks, and Shania Twain in her day, were criticized by the industry. They seem to be trying to make things better by awarding Taylor Swift non stop, but that won't make up for the lack of support they had for their core artists of the late 90's early 00's.

I think the reason why the top selling country albums are mostly female is because, with rare exception, they are the ones who crossd-over into the Hot A/C realm. If you look at the top selling artists like Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, even the Dixie Chicks to a lesser extent, they all made a conscious effort to appeal to a mass audience. There are few male artists that come to mind who have made as blatant an attempt to cross-over to "mainstream" as these acts. So of course they're going to realize higher album sales figures. Consquently, these cross-over artists have received some criticism from country purists for producing pop music under a country guise and for compromising their country roots in the name of fame and album sales.

Granted, there are few male solo acts who would be as successful at appealing to a mass audience as the aforementioned artists, but that doesn't mean that their music is inferior to a mega-selling artist. It just means that it wasn't made for the purpose of appealing to a mega-audience. A lack of sales should not be construed as a lack of quality.

[joey2002]

^ yeah i think that's probably true -- the only male i can only think is keith urban -- who had 2 or 3 few songs that have crossed over to the light pop type stations earlier in the decade.

[countryfan2002]

Dec 14, 2009 20:49:01 GMT -5 joey2002 said:

^ yeah i think that's probably true -- the only male i can only think is keith urban -- who had 2 or 3 few songs that have crossed over to the light pop type stations earlier in the decade.

"You'll Think of Me" was a hit on AC, and "Once in a Lifetime" and "You're My Better Half" minorly crossed over to AC. "Kiss a Girl" crossed over to AC, being a top 15 hit, then minorly crossed over to HAC and Pop. :)

[joey2002]

Dec 14, 2009 20:54:21 GMT -5 @countryfan2002 said:

Dec 14, 2009 20:49:01 GMT -5 joey2002 said:

^ yeah i think that's probably true -- the only male i can only think is keith urban -- who had 2 or 3 few songs that have crossed over to the light pop type stations earlier in the decade.

"You'll Think of Me" was a hit on AC, and "Once in a Lifetime" and "You're My Better Half" minorly crossed over to AC. "Kiss a Girl" crossed over to AC, being a top 15 hit, then minorly crossed over to HAC and Pop. :)

"Making Memories Of Us" still gets a lot of airplay on the light a/c pop stations around here, and "Somebody Like You" got a small amount of pop airplay a few years back. I don't really know about any of the chart data though...

[WamuFive]

Keith Urban was one of the few male artists that came to mind, and not coincidentally, one the of top selling country artists of the decade.

[Cory | Alan]

This isn't from Billboard, rather MusicVF.com. They have the top 100 county songs based on airplay & sales with the "points" after. Here is the top 20:

1. Faith Hill - There You'll Be
2. Kid Rock - All Summer Long
3. Carrie Underwood - Inside Your Heaven
4. Faith Hill - The Way You Love Me
5. Dixie Chicks - Landslide
6. Taylor Swift - Love Story
7. LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight
8. Rascal Flatts - What Hurts The Most
9. Kid Rock - Picture
10. Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me
11. Lady Antebellum - Need You Now
12. Shania Twain - Forever and Always
13. Dixie Chicks - Not Ready To Make Nice
14. Allison Moorer - Picture
15. Carrie Underwood - Before He Cheats
16. Shania Twain - I'm Gonna Get You Good
17. Dixie Chicks - Long Time Gone
18. Bon Jovi - Who Says You Can't Go Home
19. LeAnn Rimes - I Need You
20. Carrie Underwood - I'll Stand By You


Interesting that Country radio is DOMINATED by males but 16 of the top 20 of the decade are women or women-led groups.

www.musicvf.com/songs.php?page=decade&decade=2000&tab=countrysongchartstab&sort=pointsup&filter=all

[dajross6]

I think this is more due to nearly all these songs being pop songs by country acts, or songs that were crossover into country and pop. Some of the top songs on this list weren't even country singles.

[northerncountry]

Just a quick point - in reading the article on how the decade-ending charts were compiled, it said that because of changes in the chart methodology during the decade, some ranking was done on a point system, instead of aggregated sales or airplay.

It said the country chart was compiled using an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value.

Not sure if they used bonus points as well, but they did use the point system instead of Nielsen BDS airplay. This was due to the fact that they were using spins instead of audience to determine the rankings in the chart during the earlier parts of the decade.

[Cory | Alan]

Dec 17, 2009 9:49:47 GMT -5 dajross6 said:

I think this is more due to nearly all these songs being pop songs by country acts, or songs that were crossover into country and pop. Some of the top songs on this list weren't even country singles.

Yep. I wouldn't call either of LeAnn's tracks as "country" at all. Both were big pop hits in either (or both) the US and UK charts and country does not chart in the UK

[Ten Pound Hammer]

I'm kind of surprised that the top 3 songs weren't #1 songs of the year. (How on earth did My Front Porch Looking In, with its one week at #1, beat out the 6-week Beer for My Horses, 7-week 19 Somethin' and 8-week It's 5'00 Somewhere for #1 song of 2003?!)

[joey2002]

19 Something' was #1 for the year on one of the countdown shows...probably Bob Kingsley. The other year end charts (especially Mediabase) are a joke IMO because what matters most is simply what part of the year the song was released...

[Marv]

Billboard & R&R/Mediabase have only agreed on the #1 single of the year in four of the past nine years--'Ain't Nothing 'Bout You' in 2001, 'That's What I Love About Sunday' in 2005, 'Watching You' in 2007, and 'Just Got Started Loving You' in 2008.

'19 Something' was indeed tops for the year in 2003 @ R&R/Mediabase, followed by 'My Front Porch Looking In' and 'Beer For My Horses'.

[joey2002]

Just curious -- does anybody know the chart run for "Somebody Like You", and why it's the #1 song of the decade on many charts? I know it spent 6 weeks at #1 (on billboard), but I wasn't paying enough attention back in 2002 to see the climb, and what made it so outstanding.

[onebuffalo]

This is the Billboard chart run for Somebody Like You by Keith Urban, the #1 song of the decade between 07-06-02 to 04-12-03:

42-38-31-30-26-22-16-13-11-9-8-8-5-4-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-4-5-6-8-10-9-9-11-11-12-13-16-15-17-15-17-19-18-18

I hope this was helpful!

[joey2002]

Yes, it was very helpful...thank you so much!

It appears that the song spent 15 weeks on the chart after it fell to #10...

So i'm guessing the different recurrent rules back then helped it out! :)