Favorite Songs of 2012
More than 350 songs were on this year’s ballot. We cut the list to just our top 60, though it easily could have been a Top 100 countdown. What were your favorite songs of the past year?
You can listen to a Spotify playlist of the available songs here.
60. Bucky Covington — “A Father’s Love (The Only Way He Knew How)”
59. Marty Stuart with Hank Williams III – “Picture from Life’s Other Side”
58. Brandi Carlile – “Hard Way Home”
57. Joey + Rory – “When I’m Gone”
56. Blackberry Smoke – “Up the Road”
55. Rodney Crowell & Kris Kristofferson – “My Father’s Advice”
54. John Fullbright – “Gawd Above”
53. The Time Jumpers – “The Woman of My Dreams”
52. Eden’s Edge – “Liar”
51. Rodney Hayden with Kelly Willis – “I Drink to Remember”
50. Kathy Mattea – “Hello, My Name is Coal”
49. Marty Stuart – “Holding on to Nothing”
48. Dwight Yoakam – “Never Alright”
47. The Time Jumpers – “On the Outskirts of Town”
46. Zac Brown Band – “The Wind”
45. Tim O’Brien & Darrell Scott – “House of Gold”
44. Ray Wylie Hubbard – “Mother’s Blues”
43. Chelle Rose with Elizabeth Cook – “Wild Violets Pretty”
42. Corb Lund – “Pour ‘Em Kinda Strong”
41. The Trishas – “Little Sweet Cigars”
40. Jason Eady – “Old Guitar and Me”
39. Blackberry Smoke – “Six Ways to Sunday”
38. Angel Snow – “Lie Awake”
37. Gretchen Peters – “Woman on the Wheel”
36. Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson – “The Quiet Life”
35. Chuck Mead – “Girl on the Billboard”
34. Gretchen Peters – “Hello Cruel World”
33. Corb Lund – “Cows Around”
32. Chelle Rose – “Rufus Morgan (Preacher Man)”
31. Marty Stuart – “Tear the Woodpile Down”
30. Bonnie Raitt – “Used to Rule the World”
29. Chris Stapleton with Morgane Hayes and Bradley Walker – “Tennessee Whiskey”
28. Don Williams – “Imagine That”
27. Avett Brothers – “Live and Die”
26. Chelle Rose – “Browder Holler Boy”
25. Lee Ann Womack – “Momma’s on a Roll”
24. Jerry Douglas with Paul Simon and Mumford and Sons – “The Boxer”
23. Dwight Yoakam – “A Heart Like Mine”
22. Alan Jackson – “She Don’t Get High”
21. Gary Allan – “Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)”
20. Kellie Pickler – “Stop Cheatin’ on Me”
19. Elizabeth Cook – “If I Had My Way, I’d Tear This Building Down”
18. Bobby Bare – “Lookout Mountain”
17. Corb Lund – “Dig, Gravedigger, Dig”
16. Alan Jackson – “You Go Your Way”
15. Waylon Jennings – “I Do Believe”
14. Lori McKenna – “Whiskey and Chewing Gum”
13. Don Williams – “First Fool in Line”
12. Jamey Johnson – “Would These Arms Be in Your Way”
11. Kellie Pickler – “Where’s Tammy Wynette”
10. Josh Turner – “Pallbearer”
9. Ashley Monroe – “Like a Rose”
8. Lori McKenna – “Sometimes He Does”
7. Marty Stuart – “Sundown in Nashville”
6. Iris DeMent – “The Night I Learned How Not to Pray”
5. Darrell Scott – “Someday”
4. Jason Eady – “AM Country Heaven”
3. Kacey Musgraves – “Merry Go Round”
2. Alan Jackson – “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore”
1. Don Williams with Alison Krauss – “I Just Come Here for the Music”
Tagged In This Article
Alan Jackson // Angel Snow // Ashley Monroe // Avett Brothers // Blackberry Smoke // Bobby Bare // Bonnie Raitt // Brandi Carlile // Bucky Covington // Chelle Rose // Chris Stapleton // Chuck Mead // Corb Lund // Darrell Scott // Don Williams // Dwight Yoakam // Eden's Edge // Elizabeth Cook // Gary Allan // Gretchen Peters // Hank Williams III // Iris Dement // Jamey Johnson // Jason Eady // Jerry Douglas // Joey + Rory // John Fullbright // Josh Turner // Kacey Musgraves // Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson // Kathy Mattea // Kellie Pickler // Kelly Willis // Kris Kristofferson // Lori McKenna // Marty Stuart // Mumford and Sons // Paul Simon // Ray Wylie Hubbard // Rodney Crowell // Rodney Hayden // The Trishas // Tim O'Brien // Time Jumpers // Waylon Jennings // Zac Brown Band
Current Discussion
- Barry Mazor: The assumption that everybody would be signed if only they could be no longer is necessarily so..Given the relatively much ...
- Luckyoldsun: Can't say I necessarily know who is or isn't signed, but I have no knowledge that any of the following ...
- Occasional Hope: Is Patty Loveless free now, since she's implied she doesn't seem to have any plans to record again, but perhaps ...
- Arlene: Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison's current terrific album, Cheater's Game, was financed via Kickstarter. If they are still unsigned, they'd ...
- KC: My picks seem to be doing ok without a label, but I would sign them even if it was just ...
- SCOOTER: Sturgill Simpson - fantastic artist Ashton Shepherd - I know she was recently dropped and a lot of people complain ...
- Daniel Mullins: Lee Ann Womack is a must. I would also sign Wyatt McCubbin. He was featured on The Music Inside: A Tribute ...
- Ken Morton, Jr.: BTW- Julie's been in the recording studio all this past week and will be unveiling something new soon.
- Ken Morton, Jr.: Jonathan, I actually had this exact conversation with Julie Roberts a couple weeks ago. She came out with Emily West, ...
- Jack Williams: The first name that came to my mind was electic bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart. He hasn't released a proper ...
12 Comments
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January 4, 2013 at 7:41 am
I’m going to spend this afternoon listening to the Spotify playlist, thanks for doing that! A scan down the list has made me realise I missed at least a couple of songs out when making my own list – grr! Some re-jigging needed!
January 4, 2013 at 8:00 am
I didn’t even know the Chris Stapleton track existed. Good list.
January 4, 2013 at 8:07 am
I like the idea of making a Spotify playlist of this.
One minor quibble, Marty Stuart had previously released Sundown in Nashville on his 2003 Country Music CD.
January 4, 2013 at 8:39 am
Surprised that Wade Hayes didn’t make it. Favorites for me are the Wind (46) & the Storm (21), Ashley, Kacey and Don w AK.
January 4, 2013 at 10:58 am
Seems like if we’re talking best SONGS, we should at least note the songwriters, not just or only the performers who sang them.
January 4, 2013 at 12:59 pm
Spectacular list, but Barry does make a good point.
January 4, 2013 at 2:12 pm
I absolutely agree with Barry. On my blog I almost always list the songwriter.
January 4, 2013 at 2:33 pm
@ Dave- Marty Stuart re-recorded “Sundown in Nashville” for Nashville, Vol. 1. Tear the Woodpile Down.
I almost think we should refer to this category as “Best Recordings of Individual Songs” since it seems a bit odd to me that older songs such as “If I Had My Way, I’d Tear This Building Down” or “House of Gold” or “Would These Arms Be in Your Way” or “The Boxer” would qualify as a “Best Song of 2012.”
BTW. Tim O’Brien & Darrell Scott had previously included “House of Gold” on their studio album, “Real Time,” which was released in 2005 but of course, the version released this year was recorded live.
January 4, 2013 at 3:00 pm
These dating things are always difficult; the best new song of a given year might not have been recorded at all yet, but heard live, for example, or on a broadcast.. Even then, we’ve heard of it because it was performed, and, obviously, more or going to have heard of one that’s been performed on record–enough “more’ to give it traction on lists like this, no matter who’s voting. So it’s reasonable to go by “best new songs on record”–but a record is a record, with arrangements and instrumentation and production laid down separate from the song itself, at least momentarily, and a song is usually a song before that. For which the songwriters should be honored, I and others figure..
January 4, 2013 at 6:00 pm
I have to second Arlene.
The list seems to be titled “Favorite Songs” simply as a shorthand to indicate that it’s a list of recordings of individual songs–as opposed to albums.
The topic of distinguishing when songs were written, copyrighted, introduced, etc. seems to have had nothing to do with the complilation of the list.
Now I love Waylon Jennings, but I don’t think I’d have included “I Do Believe” on this list because it’s an old recording and Waylon had already recorded and released a very similar version of the song many years ago–as one of the cuts on the Highwaymen’s “Road Goes On Forever” CD–a disc that was itself reissued in a special deluxe package not that long ago.
January 4, 2013 at 6:08 pm
Apart from the few songs listed I have on CD’s purchased I haven’t downloaded any of the rest. Don’t know if I care enough any more to even bother checking them out. Oh well…
It’s nice to see Kacey Musgraves score so high on the list. Now the big question is if she will be able to build any momentum at AirHead Country Radio? Hmm. Go Kacey!
January 4, 2013 at 10:57 pm
I’m so happy to see “Woman on the Wheel” here – I was surprised at how little that song was mentioned in most of the “Hello Cruel World” reviews I saw.
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