Chart Displacement / Country Music

Country Music artists in general are prone to this for several reasons. First off, few country singles were issued as physical releases, thus rendering them ineligible for the Hot 100 until 1998. Also, even among those that did cross over and/or have physical singles, country was woefully under-represented in the Hot 100 for many years.

Even within the country genre itself, the charts in The '80s were determined entirely from submission of radio playlists, thus meaning that songs that did get to #1 inched their way up the Top 10 one rung at a time, then fell drastically after a single week at the top. As a result, many songs that would certainly have been monstrous hits back then did not get the long runs that their longevity would have indicated. The charts began to be tracked via Nielsen SoundScan in January 1990, which digitally tracks airplay among stations monitored by Billboard.

Also, in 2012, the Billboard country chart was split into two separate charts: one keeping the old methodology of tracking only airplay (Country Airplay), and one tracking digital downloads, crossover airplay, streaming, etc., similarly to the Hot 100 (Hot Country Songs, the former name of the airplay-only chart). As a result, many songs have vast discrepancies in their Country Airplay vs. Country Songs peaks, particularly songs that do well in airplay but poorly in downloads/sales or vice-versa.

Finally, from 2009 to 2017, all syndicated country countdown shows (American Country Countdown, Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40, etc.) used the Mediabase country charts (ACC reverted to using Country Airplay in August 2017), which have significant overlap in which stations they survey, but have slightly different tabulation methodologies that are easier to manipulate. As a result, countless songs in The New '10s have gotten last-minute pushes to the highest possible position on the Mediabase chart, which often undercuts their position on Billboard.

• Aaron Lewis; frontman of the Nu Metal band Staind, scored his largest solo hit on Billboard's country charts (topping Hot Country) and the Hot 100 (#14) with "Am I the Only One" in 2021. However, given its highly conservative political bent, it's not considered his solo signature, that being "Country Boy", which was RIAA certified platinum^note by comparison, "Am I the Only One" only went Gold despite only reaching #50 on the country charts and #87 on the Hot 100. Prior to "Am I the Only One", his best-charting hit on either country chart was the much lesser known "Forever" (#38); and on the Hot 100, that honor went to a live version of Staind's "Outside" (#56) with Fred Durst during the 1999 Family Values Tour.
• Although Aaron Tippin is best known for his patriotic, blue-collar themes, the song that codified these — his debut release "You've Got to Stand for Something" — only got to #6. "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly" zig-zags this, as it only got to #2, but is his only Top 40 hit on the Hot 100 at #20 (due, no doubt, to it being rush-released right after 9/11). In a very strange case of this, all three of Tippin's #1 hits are fairly well known ("There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio", "That's as Close as I'll Get to Loving You", and "Kiss This"), all three are also against his usual style — "Radio" and "Kiss This" are novelty songs, while "Loving You" is an impassioned ballad of unrequited love which features him using a much different singing style than usual.
• You'd think Alabama would avert this, as all but two of their single releases in the entire decade of The '80s hit #1^note not counting their guest vocals on Lionel Richie's "Deep River Woman" or the Christmas release "Christmas in Dixie". However, one of those two exceptions, "My Home's in Alabama" at the start of the decade, is still one of their most famous songs despite peaking at #17. Conversely, their longest-lasting #1 hit, at four weeks, is 1990's "Jukebox in My Mind", which is seldom thought of as one of their cornerstone songs, due to it coming after they became much Lighter and Softer near the turn of the decade.
• The Amazing Rhythm Aces' only top 10 on the country charts wasn't "Third Rate Romance", which fell one spot short, but the long-forgotten "Amazing Grace (Used to Be Her Favorite Song)". However, "Romance" was their only top 40 pop hit, and interest in the song was reignited when Sammy Kershaw covered it in 1994.
• The Bellamy Brothers' debut single "Let Your Love Flow" only got to #21 on the country charts, but still gets a lot of recurrent airplay at both oldies and country because it was also their only #1 on the Hot 100. "Old Hippie" is also one of their most famous songs (to the point that they recorded two sequel songs) despite only hitting #2 at country. Finally, "Country Rap" only got to #31, but remained popular after the fact due to many 21st-century critics citing it as one of the first examples of, well, Country Rap.
• Big & Rich hit the #1 spot on the country charts and top 40 of the Hot 100 only once...but it wasn't with their 2004 smash "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)", but rather with "Lost in This Moment". The latter is also a major Black Sheep Hit as it's a sensitive ballad, and most of their famous songs (including "Save a Horse") were novelties. For comparison, "Save a Horse" only got to #11 on the country charts (due in part to the Top 10 being ridiculously top-heavy) and #56 on the Hot 100. They hit the country Top 10 another time in 2014 with "Look at You" and got another #11 with its followup "Run Away with You", but these songs are not as remembered due to coming much later in their career (in a case of Later-Installment Weirdness, both are ballads like "Moment"). In addition, their high positions were due to their independent label doggedly pushing them up the charts as long as possible (an increasingly common tactic in country music in The New '10s).
• Billy Currington's longest lasting #1 hits, at three weeks each, are "Good Directions" and "Do I Make You Wanna", the latter of which is nowhere near as well-known as "People Are Crazy" (his Signature Song), "Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right", (both two weeks) or "Hey Girl" (one week).
  • Currington achieved three top 40 hits on the Hot 100, but "Good Directions" fell short at #42; peaking one spot higher is the relatively lesser-known "Pretty Good at Drinkin' Beer".
• Billy Dean's most famous song is "Let Them Be Little", which only hit #8, though it was his only solo entry on the Hot 100. Dean had nine songs fare better on the country charts, including a trio of #3 hits ("Only Here for a Little While", "Somewhere in My Broken Heart", and "If There Hadn't Been You"), from his strongest hit-making period ranging from 1990-1996. By comparison, "Let Them Be Little" was released in mid-2004, long after his career had peaked. His cover of Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree" is also one of his more popular cuts despite only reaching #9. Finally, his only country #1 (at least on Billboard), and highest overall entry on the Hot 100, is a featured credit on Kenny Rogers' 2000 hit "Buy Me a Rose" (which also featured Alison Krauss)
• Billy Ray Cyrus's two most-played songs are of course his only #1 hit "Achy Breaky Heart" and... "Some Gave All", which only got to #52. This is because "Some Gave All" was not heavily promoted, but perennial airplay during Memorial Day and Fourth of July kept it in the public consciousness. By comparison, Cyrus had six other top-ten hits.
  • His highest peak on the Hot 100 was a featured spot on Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road", which topped the chart for a record 19 weeks. While it’s certainly Nas’s signature and is probably the most famous song Cyrus has ever appeared on, since it isn't his song, it doesn't replace "Achy Breaky Heart", which peaked at #4, as his signature. "Old Town Road" was notoriously yanked from the Billboard country charts after only one week, due to the publication determining that it was not a country song; if not for this, downloads and streaming likely would have sent it to #1 on Hot Country Songs (as opposed to only #19 on Hot Country Songs and #50 on Country Airplay).
• Blackhawk's most popular song, "Goodbye Says It All", only got to #11. Seven of their songs fared better: the still popular "Every Once in a While" and "I'm Not Strong Enough to Say No" both got to #2, while the #3 "Like There Ain't No Yesterday", the #4 "There You Have It" and the #10 "Down in Flames" are far lesser known relative to the #9 "I Sure Can Smell the Rain" and #7 "That's Just About Right" (quite possibly their second-most famous song). "There You Have It" goes double, as it is their only hit on the Hot 100 at #41 despite being one of their most obscure songs overall.
• Blake Shelton's "Ol' Red" is one of his Signature Songs, a fan favorite, and a popular recurrent, despite only reaching #14 on the country charts. The same is true to a lesser extent with "Playboys of the Southwestern World" (#24) and "The More I Drink" (#19). "Kiss My Country Ass" is very popular as well, even though it was never a single for him (although a version by writer Rhett Akins hit the bottom of the charts in 2005 before Shelton covered it).
• Bobbie Gentry's highest country chart entry, at #6, was not "Ode to Billie Joe" (#17) or "Fancy" (#26), but rather a cover of The Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream" featuring Glen Campbell in 1970. However, "Billie Joe" averts this on the Hot 100, where it is her highest ranking at #1, and "Fancy" has been Covered Up by Reba McEntire.
• Bobby Bare's only #1 hit was the Shel Silverstein-penned "Marie Laveau". While somewhat well known, it isn't quite as famous as "Detroit City" (#6) or "500 Miles Away from Home" (#5), which are also his highest hits on the Hot 100 (barring the bizarre case of "All American Boy", which was erroneously credited to Bill Parsons). It also came much later in his career than those songs.
• Bobby Helms had two #1 hits on the country charts, but "Jingle Bell Rock" only got to #13. However, it is his biggest Hot 100 hit at #3.
• Brad Paisley's "Whiskey Lullaby" (with Alison Krauss) only got to #3, because it got caught behind the one-two punch of "I Go Back" and "Live Like You Were Dying", both of which had exorbitantly high airplay for their peaks. It's also the only one of his four double-platinum certified singles not to reach #1. To say the least, it's certainly a better-known song than "The World" or "Anything Like Me", which, along with the Keith Urban duet "Start a Band", are his only chart-toppers in the digital era not to be certified at all. "Whiskey Lullaby" also fell one spot short of entering the top 40 of the Hot 100, charting lower than 17 of his other songs.
  • "Alcohol" is also not one of his many #1s, only reaching #4, though it is one of his two songs (the other being "Then") to hold the title of his second-highest Hot 100 entry, at #28, 11 spaces below the Carrie Underwood duet "Remind Me".
  • Additionally, the LL Cool J duet "Accidental Racist" is one of his most famous songs (albeit not for good reasons) despite not even being a single.
• Bryan White's most-downloaded song is "God Gave Me You", which spent a single week at #40 in 1999 before falling from sight. This is because it surged in popularity after appearing on the Philippine TV show Eat Bulaga. By comparison, White has had four #1 hits. While "Rebecca Lynn", "Someone Else's Star", and "So Much for Pretending" are still fairly well-known, the fourth is not "I'm Not Supposed to Love You Anymore" (#4) or his duet on Shania Twain's "From This Moment On" (#6; only the country version was a duet; all other formats got a Shania-only version), but rather the far more obscure "Sittin' on Go" from 1997.
  • White never had a solo entry on the Hot 100, but he did have two #1s on Bubbling Under: "I'm Not Supposed to Love You Anymore" and… the lesser-known "Love Is the Right Place". All his #1s on country (minus "Sittin' on Go", which never entered BU) peaked in the teens on Bubbling Under.
• Carrie Underwood's American Idol coronation song "Inside Your Heaven" is her only #1 on the Hot 100 after it had a huge sales launch following her victory. Today, it's all but forgotten compared to the likes of "Before He Cheats" (#8) and "Jesus, Take the Wheel" (#20), which are among her many #1s on the country charts. And what is her second-highest Hot 100 peak? Surprisingly, not any of her famous singles, but rather her 2007 cover of The Pretenders' "I'll Stand by You", which was recorded live for an American Idol charity special called Idol Gives Back. It got a one-week download spike taking it to #6 on the Hot 100 before it was abruptly pulled from iTunes.
• The Chicks' "Goodbye Earl" doesn't rank among their six #1 hits on country (it only got to #13) and is only their fourth highest ranking on the Hot 100 (behind the #7 peaks of "Long Time Gone" and "Landslide", and the #4 peak of "Not Ready to Make Nice"). Relatedly, both "Long Time Gone" and "Landslide" only got to #2 on the country charts; and on the Hot 100, "Wide Open Spaces" stopped at #41, behind 11 of their other songs, despite the song easily being among their ten most well-known.
• Chris Cagle's only #1 hit (and only top 40 hit on the Hot 100) was not "Chicks Dig It" (his most-downloaded song; #5), "What Kinda Gone" (#3), "What a Beautiful Day" (#4), or "Miss Me Baby" (his most-viewed music video on YouTube; #12), but rather the far lesser-known "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out", a bonus track from a reissue of his debut album. "Look at What I've Done" also outpaces most of his singles in terms of sales and online play despite having never been a single.
• Chris Janson's only #1s are "Good Vibes" and "Done", nowhere near as popular in the long run as his other top-ten hits "Buy Me a Boat" (his Signature Song; #3), "Fix a Drink" (#2), or even "Drunk Girl" (#7). Even "Holdin' Her", which only got to #20, proved more popular in the long run. Somewhat averted on the Hot 100, where "Buy Me a Boat" was his highest-peaking at #41, albeit tied with "Done".
• Rodeo star and singer/songwriter Chris LeDoux has a large catalog of well-known songs, but many would be surprised to find out that "This Cowboy's Hat" fell three spots short of cracking the Top 60 (the original by Porter Wagoner in 1983 peaked at #35), or that "Five Dollar Fine" or "Bareback Jack" didn't even chart. Even "Cadillac Ranch", his biggest solo hit, only got to #18 (his highest charting hit overall being the #7-peaking Garth Brooks duet "Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy").
• Chris Stapleton's highest solo Top 40 hit on the Hot 100 is his cover of George Jones' "Tennessee Whiskey", which was never even a single — it got a massive Colbert Bump after he performed it on the CMA Awards with Justin Timberlake. The song's popularity is so enduring that it has been certified diamond by the RIAA (meaning ten million copies sold) in spite of negligible airplay (it got to #1 on Hot Country Songs due to strong sales, but only made #57 on Country Airplay).
• Clay Walker had six #1 hits, and while none of them are particularly obscure, none of them were "Hypnotize the Moon", "Then What?" (both #2), "The Chain of Love" (#3), or "Fall" (his most-downloaded song; #5). He also has two songs that ranked in the Top 40 of the Hot 100: "The Chain of Love" at #40, and the now much more obscure "You're Beginning to Get to Me" one space higher.
• Clint Black has a huge catalog of Top 10 hits, including thirteen #1 hits, but his cover of Eagles' "Desperado" only got to #54. This is because "Desperado" was from a multi-artist tribute album and was never sent out as a single, but remained popular after the fact. Conversely, "Nobody's Home", which was the first ever #1 after the change to SoundScan, is tied with "Like the Rain" as his longest-lasting #1 at three weeks, and was the top country hit of 1990 on the Billboard Year-End charts, but it's far from his most popular song (much lower ranking on iTunes, lesser rotation on classics formats, far fewer appearances on concert setlists even in The '90s).
• Collin Raye had four #1 hits. Three of them were "Love, Me", "My Kind of Girl", and "I Can Still Feel You", all of which remain among his most known songs. The fourth was not "That's My Story" (#6), "Little Rock" (#2), "I Think About You", or "Little Red Rodeo" (both #3), but rather the forgettable ballad "In This Life". Similarly, none of the aforementioned songs entered the Hot 100; his highest peaks on that chart, both at #37, are the relatively forgotten "Someone You Used to Know" and "Anyone Else".
• If you hear a Confederate Railroad song on the radio, there's a very good chance that it'll be "Trashy Women". However, that song only got to #10, and three singles of theirs fared better ("Queen of Memphis" at #2, "Jesus and Mama" at #4, and "Daddy Never Was the Cadillac Kind" at #9). "Trashy Women", however, was the closest they've gotten to the Hot 100, peaking at #13 on Bubbling Under.
• Downplayed example with Corbin/Hanner. None of their singles ever hit the top 40, but "Work Song" (#55) is still played by many country stations on Monday mornings despite not being their highest-charting hit ("Livin' the Good Life" and "Everyone Knows I'm Yours", both #46 hits). It was also their only song to get a music video.
• Cowboy Troy's highest chart entry was not his Signature Song "I Play Chicken with the Train" featuring Big & Rich (#48), but rather "Our America" (by four spots), a promotional Fourth of July release which had Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" interpolated with recitations from Troy. Averted on the Hot 100, where the former was his closest attempt at reaching the chart, #18 on Bubbling Under.
• Craig Morgan's highest Hot 100 ranking is not "That's What I Love About Sunday" (#51), but rather its follow-up "Redneck Yacht Club" (#45). Averted on Hot Country Songs, where "Sunday" is his only #1 hit ("Redneck Yacht Club" topped the Radio & Records charts but only got to #2 on Billboard).
• Daryle Singletary hit the Top 10 three times, with the #2 hits "I Let Her Lie" and "Amen Kind of Love", and the #4 "Too Much Fun". But if you hear him at all on the radio, it will almost certainly be the last of these. Also, his only Hot 100 entry was none of the aforementioned songs, but rather "The Note", which only got to #28 on country.
• One of Dave & Sugar's most-played songs is "Queen of the Silver Dollar", which only got to #25. Unlike most examples of 1970s and 1980s country songs that get a lot of airplay despite low peaks on the country charts, it wasn't even a crossover.
• Dave Dudley had only one song top the country music charts. Surely it was the iconic trucking anthem "Six Days on the Road", right? Nope, that only got to #2; his lone #1 was "The Pool Shark". "Six Days", however, was his only hit on the Top 40 of the Hot 100.
• David Allan Coe is best known for "The Ride" (#4) and "You Never Even Called Me by My Name" (#8), but neither is his biggest hit. Instead, that honor goes to the lesser-known "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile", which hit #2 but is never thought of as one of his more memorable songs due to being a Black Sheep Hit.
• David Lee Murphy's two #1 hits are his 1995 Signature Song "Dust on the Bottle"... and "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", a 2018 single that took off entirely because friend and collaborator Kenny Chesney persuaded Murphy to record again and provided duet vocals to assist in the song's success. In the long run, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" remained just a one-off fluke for Murphy, lacking the impact of "Dust on the Bottle" or his other '90s hits such as "Out with a Bang" (#13), "Party Crowd" (#6), or "The Road You Leave Behind" (#5). The same holds true on the Hot 100, where his only entries at all are "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" (#66) and "Loco" (#5 country, #44 Hot 100), another fluke hit from 2004 that quickly disappeared from public consciousness due to a label closure.
• Deana Carter has three #1 hits. Obviously, one of those is her debut smash "Strawberry Wine", and another is its followup "We Danced Anyway". The third is "How Do I Get There", a far more obscure song than "Did I Shave My Legs for This?", which only got to #25. However, "How Do I Get There", unlike the others, did not make it to the Hot 100.
• Debby Boone's only #1 hit on the country charts was not "You Light Up My Life" (#4), but rather the far more obscure "Are You on the Road to Lovin' Me Again". However, "Light" was her only #1 on the Hot 100.
• Deborah Allen's highest charted hit was not "Baby I Lied" (#4), but rather its follow-up "I've Been Wrong Before", which got to #2. "Baby" is probably better remembered because it was her only crossover.
• The Desert Rose Band had two #1 hits, neither of which was "One Step Forward" (#2), "She Don't Love Nobody" (#3), or "Hello Trouble" (#11). The honors instead go to the far more obscure "He's Back and I'm Blue" and "I Still Believe in You" (not to be confused with the Vince Gill song).
• Diamond Rio has five #1 singles on the country charts. This notably includes their 1991 debut "Meet in the Middle", which made them the first country band ever to send a debut single to #1, along with their Turn of the Millennium crossovers "One More Day", "Beautiful Mess", and "I Believe". The fifth? Their 1997 hit "How Your Love Makes Me Feel" which, despite being their longest-lasting #1 hit at three weeks, is also leagues more obscure than a the #2 "Love a Little Stronger" or "Unbelievable", the latter of which was also their first hit on the Hot 100.
• Dolly Parton has several #1 hits, but "Coat of Many Colors" only got to #4. "Jolene" was one of her many #1s on country, but it only hit #60 on the pop side. "I Will Always Love You" hit #1 for her in 1974 and again in 1982 (the latter being a rerecording for the soundtrack to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), but the first release did not enter the pop charts at all, and the second only got to #53. Averted overall, as both "9 to 5" and the Kenny Rogers duet "Islands in the Stream" hit #1 on country, Hot 100, and AC. There's also the curious case of "Two Doors Down", which was sent to country in a version by Zella Lehr, while Dolly's version never charted at country (it was the B-side of "It's All Wrong but It's All Right"); however, Dolly's version is the only one that country radio plays.
• Doug Stone's most famous song is his 1990 debut single "I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)", which is not one of his four #1 hits (it only got to #4). Also, his only Hot 100 entry is "I Never Knew Love", which is nowhere near as well-known as "Pine Box" or any of his #1 hits.
• While Dwight Yoakam's two #1 hits "Streets of Bakersfield" (duet with Buck Owens) and "I Sang Dixie" rank among his most famous, many would be surprised to find that some of his other famous songs such as "Honky Tonk Man" (#3), "Guitars, Cadillacs" (#4), "Little Sister" (#7), "Ain't That Lonely Yet", or "Fast as You" (both #2) did not reach the summit. His covers of "Suspicious Minds" (for the film Honeymoon in Vegas) and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" are also very popular despite only getting to #35 and #12 respectively; the latter is also his highest Hot 100 showing at #64.
• Emerson Drive had one #1 hit on the US country charts during their career. Surely, it was the smash hit "Fall Into Me", right? (Nope, #3). "Only God (Could Stop Me Loving You)"? (Only made it to #23). "I Should Be Sleeping"? (Charted behind the #3 peak of "Fall Into Me" at #4). The only time they ever topped the country charts was with the anti-suicide ballad "Moments", which is still well-known, but isn't quite as iconic as "Fall into Me" or the other songs it outpeaked (This is averted on the Hot 100, where "Fall Into Me" was their highest entry at #34). This is also true in their native Canada, where "Moments" is their highest country peak at #4 (partially because Canada did not have a country singles chart between late 2000 and early 2004, the timespan into which "Fall into Me", "Only God", and "I Should Be Sleeping" all happen to fall). Likewise, their highest peak on the Canadian pop charts is the now-obscure "She's My Kind of Crazy" from 2012.
• Faith Hill's highest-peaking entry on the Hot 100 was not "The Way You Love Me" (#6), "Cry" (#33), "Let's Go to Vegas" (#22 on the Bubbling Under extension chart) or "There You'll Be" (#10), but rather "Breathe", which, despite only reaching #2, somehow managed to top the Hot 100 year-end list due to its longevity (more about that in the Billboard Year-End Charts folder on the main page). While "Breathe" is one of her many #1 hits on the country charts and is still a popular recurrent within the country radio format, its popularity with mainstream audiences isn't near the level of the aforementioned songs it outpeaked.
• Garth Brooks:
  • His only Top 40 pop hit is "Lost in You" from the abortive In the Life of Chris Gaines project. This is because Garth rarely issued physical singles, thus causing many of his songs during his peak period to be ineligible for the Hot 100. The highest he ever got on the Hot 100 as himself was the #46 peak of the long-forgotten "Wrapped Up in You" (which hit #5 country) in 2001, well after his career had peaked. (He had also gotten to #45 on Hot 100 Airplay with a cover of KISS' "Hard Luck Woman", but this was quickly forgotten due to it being a one-off from a now obscure covers album.)
  • Meanwhile on the country charts, he sent twenty songs to the top. The longest-lasting at four weeks each are the Signature Song "Friends in Low Places"... and "What She's Doing Now", which remained considerably less popular in the long run. This song appears on none of his greatest-hits albums, and even 1990s setlists give it little to no presence.
  • Also among his #1 hits are "Somewhere Other Than the Night" and "She's Every Woman", neither of which proved as popular in the long run as "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" (#9), "Rodeo" (#3), "We Shall Be Free" (#12), "Papa Loved Mama" (#3), and "Callin' Baton Rouge" (#2). It's telling that the former two are on none of his greatest-hits albums nor his otherwise career-spanning Double Live. ("She's Every Woman" at least has the excuse of being a lead single that quickly got brushed aside.) Finally, two of his twenty #1 hits came long after his peak period — "More Than a Memory" (the only song ever to debut at #1 on the country airplay charts) from 2007, and "Ask Me How I Know" from fall 2017.
• Gary Allan has topped the country charts four times. While two of his #1 hits ("Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)" and "Nothing On but the Radio") are still very well-known, the other two are not "Smoke Rings in the Dark" (#12), "Right Where I Need to Be" (#5), "Best I Ever Had" (#7), or "Watching Airplanes" (#2), but rather the far lesser-known "Man to Man" and "Tough Little Boys". "Man to Man" goes double, as it also holds his highest Hot 100 ranking of #25 (only one space above "Every Storm") despite being far lesser-known in the long run.
• George Jones:
  • His first charted single "Why Baby Why" only got to #4, because a competing version by Webb Pierce and Red Sovine blunted its chart run. Although many other artists cut it over the years (most notably, both the Sovine/Pierce version and another by Charley Pride in The '80s made it to #1), "Why Baby Why" is still thought of primarily as a George Jones song.
  • Other very popular songs during his peak hit making period (from The '50s to the end of The '80s) that didn't reach the summit: "The Race Is On", "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes", and "The One I Loved Back Then (The Corvette Song)" only got to #3, while "A Good Year for the Roses" and "Tennessee Whiskey" stopped at #2.
  • Of special note are two songs in The '90s: "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair" (#34) and "Choices" (#30), both of which remain among his most iconic. They came at a point when Jones was considered too old to still be a radio draw, a fact that "Rockin' Chair" even lampshaded; that song's profile was also boosted by ten other contemporary country stars performing a Call and Response over the final chorus (which got it that year's Vocal Event award from the Country Music Association). Meanwhile, "Choices" was largely popularized due to controversy over the Country Music Association only allowing him to perform an abridged version of the song; Jones refused to even attend the telecast in protest, and when Alan Jackson caught wind of this, he also protested by cutting short his own performance to sing part of "Choices" himself.
  • "Finally Friday" was never a single (it was the B-side of "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair"), but it is a fairly popular song due to many country stations playing it during drive time on Fridays. The song was first recorded by Earl Thomas Conley in 1988.
• George Strait had a record-breaking 44 #1 hits on Billboard^note the oft-cited figure of 60 counts all U.S. country music publication charts, including Mediabase and the now-defunct Radio & Records and Gavin Report, but this massive total does not include a few of his cornerstone songs such as "Marina del Rey" (#6), "Amarillo by Morning" (#4), "The Cowboy Rides Away", "The Fireman" (both #5), "Murder on Music Row" (an Alan Jackson duet which was not even a single; #38), "Cowboys Like Us" (#2), "Troubadour" (#7), or "I Got a Car" (which, at #17, is tied with "Every Little Honky Tonk Bar" as the lowest-peaking of his singles to have been certified gold or higher). Also, among his #1 hits, the longest lasting at five weeks each are "Love Without End, Amen"... and "I've Come to Expect It from You" and "One Night at a Time", which remain nowhere near as popular in the long run as the likes of "You Look So Good in Love", "All My Ex's Live in Texas" (both one week), "I Cross My Heart" (two weeks), "Check Yes or No" (four weeks), "Give It Away", or "I Saw God Today" (both two weeks).
• Glen Campbell: On the country charts, "Gentle on My Mind" only got to #30 (and an even worse #44 upon its re-release), and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" only to #2. Both are far more famous than his first #1 on the country charts, "I Wanna Live", which never reached the same popularity as fellow chart-toppers "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "Rhinestone Cowboy", and "Southern Nights" (the latter two of which were also #1 on the Hot 100 and AC charts).
• Hank Williams Jr. has eleven #1 hits, none of which are "Family Tradition" (#4), "A Country Boy Can Survive" (#2), "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" (#10), or "There's a Tear in My Beer" (a Posthumous Collaboration with his father, Hank Williams; #7). They're certainly more famous than his first #1 hits, "Eleven Roses" and "All for the Love of Sunshine" (featuring the Mike Curb Congregation), which have long since been forgotten due to their massive Early-Installment Weirdness.
• Hank Williams III's only chart entry on the country charts was 2001's "I Don't Know". Although the song peaked outside of the Top 40 at #50, that was still considered to be a solid showing for an Alternative Country artist on mainstream country radio at the turn of the millennium. Hank III has since disowned the album that the song comes from and has not played "I Don't Know" live since it came out, to the point where his current fanbase may not even know it exists.
• Holly Dunn's two most famous songs by far are "Daddy's Hands" and "Maybe I Mean Yes". The former only got to #7, and the latter didn't even crack Top 40 quite possibly for the reason that it is among her most famous — she withdrew the song less than two months after its release, due to concerns from listeners that its lyrics condoned date rape, killing her career almost instantly. For comparison, Dunn had #1 hits with "Are You Ever Gonna Love Me" and "You Really Had Me Going", neither of which was as remembered.
• Hunter Hayes has two #1 hits. One is obviously "Wanted", and the other is not "I Want Crazy", which fell one spot short, but rather the far less remembered "Somebody's Heartbreak". Averted on the Hot 100, where "Crazy" is a very close second behind "Wanted" (#19 and #16 respectively).
• Jace Everett's only entry on Hot Country Songs was not "Bad Things", but rather its predecessor "That's the Kind of Love I'm In". "Bad Things" didn't even chart upon first release (due mainly to Epic Records closing its Nashville branch around the time of the single's release), but it was repopularized when it was chosen as the Real Song Theme Tune of True Blood a few years later.
• Jamie O'Neal had two #1 hits (and top 40 entries on the Hot 100) in 2001 with "There Is No Arizona" and "When I Think About Angels", neither of which is quite as popular as "Somebody's Hero" which only got to #3 four years later.
• Jason Aldean:
  • His debut single "Hicktown" is still one of his most famous songs, despite only reaching #10 on the country charts. Also, "My Kinda Party" only got to #2 on that chart because the Kelly Clarkson duet "Don't You Wanna Stay" started taking off prematurely, thus leeching airplay from "Party".
  • On the Hot 100, his two top ten hits were "Try That in a Small Town" (#1, whose success was primarily owed to No Such Thing as Bad Publicity), and "Dirt Road Anthem" (featuring Ludacris, #7). However, some may be surprised that his next-highest Hot 100 peaks after those are "Take a Little Ride" and "Burnin' It Down", both of which got to #12 on the Hot 100 (and #1 on the country charts). This is because both were lead singles that got huge first-week spikes before tapering off.
  • On the subject of "Try That in a Small Town", despite being his highest appearance on the Hot 100, it was not one of his several #1s on country radio; it peaked at #2, getting stuck behind both "Watermelon Moonshine" and "Thinkin' Bout Me".
• Jason Michael Carroll garnered tons of buzz for his debut single "Alyssa Lies". While it is his highest chart entry on Hot Country Songs at #5, it's not his highest Hot 100 ranking (it peaked at #64); that instead went to follow-up "Livin' Our Love Song" (#52), which ranked one rung lower on Hot Country Songs. Also, "Love Song" is his only gold single and not "Alyssa".
• Jeff Carson had exactly one #1 hit out of his three visits to the Top 10 — not his Signature Song "The Car" (#3), but rather the far lesser-known "Not on Your Love", which was also his only entry on the Hot 100. In fact, "The Car" was one of his four songs to peak in the Bubbling Under chart, but it is actually the lowest-peaking of the four.
• Zig-zagged with Jerry Reed. "East Bound and Down", his Signature Song from Smokey and the Bandit, only peaked at #2 on the country charts. It's certainly a more famous song than one of his #1 hits, "Lord, Mr. Ford" — but his other two #1 hits, "When You're Hot, You're Hot" and "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)" — are still well remembered. Also, "Amos Moses" was his highest placement on the Hot 100 at #8, but at country, it only got to #16.
• Jimmy Buffett has two #1 country hits and an additional Top 10, but none of these are his Signature Song "Margaritaville" — that only got to #13. However, it is his biggest hit on the Hot 100 at #8. His two #1 hits, though featured credits that came very late in his career (Alan Jackson's "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" in 2003, and Zac Brown Band's "Knee Deep" in 2011), are well-known songs in their own right. However, the same can't be said of his third Top 10 entry, his 2004 cover of "Hey Good Lookin'" as a Massive Multiplayer Crossover featuring Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, and George Strait, which zoomed to #8 because of its star power before quickly falling from public consciousness.
• Jo Dee Messina's longest-lasting #1 hit and highest Hot 100 entry is "That's the Way" (four weeks at #1 on the country charts, #25 on the Hot 100). That song is nowhere near as famous as the likes of "Bye, Bye" (two weeks at #1 on country, #43 Hot 100), "I'm Alright" (three weeks at #1 on country, #43 Hot 100),^note the previous two are the pair of Phil Vassar-penned hits that sent her career into high gear in 1998 and still remain her most popular songs overall "Bring On the Rain" featuring Tim McGraw (one week at #1 on country, #36 on the Hot 100), or "My Give a Damn's Busted" (Covered Up Joe Diffie) (two weeks at #1 on country, #63 Hot 100). Also remaining far more popular in the long run are her 1996 debut "Heads Carolina, Tails California" and her 1999 cover of Dottie West's "Lesson in Leavin'", both of which only got to #2 (the latter spent seven weeks at the #2 position, all seven of them behind the year's biggest country music hit, "Amazed").
• The only song for which most people remember Jo-El Sonnier is his cover of Richard Thompson's "Tear-Stained Letter", which he took to #9 in 1988. Its peak is two spaces lower than the now-forgotten "No More One More Time".
• Joe Diffie's most popular song in terms of downloads and recurrent airplay is "John Deere Green". It is not one of his five #1 hits, having only reached #5. The #3 "Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)" is also quite popular, certainly more so than his debut release "Home" or "If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)". Also, his only Top 40 hit on the Hot 100 was 1999's "A Night to Remember", which fell well after his hit-making days and stood out due to the Later-Installment Weirdness of being a ballad instead of one of his trademark up-tempo novelties.
• John Anderson had five #1 hits in his career. Four of them were obvious: his Signature Song "Swingin'" (also his only Hot 100 entry), plus "Black Sheep", "Straight Tequila Night" (which sparked a Career Resurrection in 1992 after a nearly six-year dry spell), and "Money in the Bank". The first of the five was "Wild and Blue", the predecessor to "Swingin'", which is nowhere near as well-remembered as "She Just Started Liking Cheatin' Songs" (#13), "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday)" (#4), or "Seminole Wind" (#2).
• John Conlee had seven #1 hits in his biggest hit making period ranging 1978-1989, but none of them were his Signature Song "Rose Colored Glasses", which only hit #5. To a lesser extent, "Friday Night Blues", "Miss Emily's Picture" (both #2), and "I Don't Remember Loving You" (#10) are pretty famous despite not hitting #1 either — at the least, more famous than "In My Eyes", "As Long as I'm Rockin' with You", or "Got My Heart Set on You", which did hit #1.
• John Denver has topped both the country and Hot 100 charts multiple times, but "Take Me Home, Country Roads" did neither — it only got to #2 on the Hot 100 and #50 on the country charts. "Rocky Mountain High" also got to #9 on the Hot 100 and didn't make the country charts at all, but it's still not unheard of to hear the song on a country station.
• John Michael Montgomery has had three Top 40 hits on the Hot 100. Two of those three ("The Little Girl" and "Letters from Home") are unsurprising as they rank among his biggest hits, despite coming very late in his career. But would anyone guess that the first of the three was not one of his biggest mid-90s hits such as "I Swear" (which came close at #42), but rather the forgotten "Hold On to Me" from 1998? At country, all of his #1 hits are fairly well remembered except for "If You've Got Love", which quickly fell from public consciousness, while his #4 debut "Life's a Dance" and the #2 country peak of "Letters from Home" are far more enduring.
• If the name John Wesley Ryles is ever brought up for anything other than his extreme prolificacy as a session vocalist, it's most likely for his 1968 debut single "Kay", which got to #9. No one remembers his higher-charting "Once in a Lifetime Thing", which hit #5 in 1977.
• Johnny Cash:
  • He averts this on one hand, as many of his signature songs, including "Ring of Fire", "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues" and "A Boy Named Sue", reached #1 on the country charts (with the latter being his biggest hit on the Hot 100, reaching #2). His cover of "Hurt", however? That didn't get any higher than #56. Other signature songs of his that didn't top the charts include the June Carter Cash duet "Jackson" (#2), "I Still Miss Someone" (never a single in its own right, it was the B-Side to "Don't Take Your Guns to Town"; while many other artists covered it, Cash's version is First and Foremost), "Cry! Cry! Cry!" (#14), "Ragged Old Flag" (#31), and "Delia's Gone" (didn't chart).
  • Speaking of his cover of "Hurt", the original by Nine Inch Nails reached #8 on modern rock compared to Cash's cover only reaching #33. Today, while the Nine Inch Nails version is still well-known, it's the Cash version that's the most enduring; "That song isn't mine anymore", indeed.
• Josh Turner's "Long Black Train" remains one of his biggest hits despite only reaching #13. Also, "Time Is Love" was the top country song on the 2012 Billboard Year-End charts, despite only peaking at #2 on the airplay charts.
• The Judds:
  • One of their most famous songs is "Love Can Build a Bridge", which only got to #5. It's certainly more remembered than "Maybe Your Baby's Got the Blues" or "Change of Heart", which did top the charts.
  • Wynonna Judd's Breakup Breakout in 1992 netted her four #1 hits. Amazingly, three of those four were her first three solo releases ("She Is His Only Need", "No One Else on Earth", and "I Saw the Light", all from 1992), all of which are still well remembered. The fourth was not "A Bad Goodbye" (duet with Clint Black which reached #2) or "Tell Me Why" (#3), but rather the lesser-known "To Be Loved by You" in 1996, by which point her star power had already faded considerably. Similarly, her highest solo Hot 100 entry, at #70, is "What the World Needs", much later in her career, in 2003.
• Juice Newton's "Angel of the Morning", "Queen of Hearts", and "Love's Been a Little Bit Hard on Me" only got to #22, #14, and #30 respectively on the country charts, but all three remain very popular due to their much better showings on the Hot 100 and AC charts.
• June Carter Cash, longtime wife and collaborator of Johnny Cash, cut several songs both independently and with her husband. Many of them hit the country charts, including two that went to #2, but only one hit the top 40 of the Hot 100. Surely that one Top 40 hit was "Jackson", right? Nope, that song didn't cross over; it was a cover of "If I Were a Carpenter".
• K. T. Oslin's 1987 Breakthrough Hit "80's Ladies" only got to #7, but was one of her most famous songs at the time, even netting her the CMA award for Song of the Year. Despite its Unintentional Period Piece, it's somewhat better remembered than any of her #1 hits.
• Kathy Mattea had four #1 hits. While three of them are fairly well known (her Signature Song "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses", plus "Come from the Heart" [the actual origin of the phrase "dance like nobody's watching"], and "Burnin' Old Memories"), the fourth is not "Where've You Been" (#10), "Love at the Five and Dime" (#3), "Walking Away a Winner" (also #3), or "455 Rocket" (#21), but rather the far more obscure "Goin' Gone", which was the first of the four. It is for this reason that Mattea provides the main page quote.
• Keith Urban has had several #1 hits, but this total does not include "Stupid Boy" (#3), "Cop Car" (#8), or the Carrie Underwood duet "The Fighter" (#2). Also, "Better Life" is tied with "Somebody Like You" as his longest-lasting #1 airplay hit at six weeks, but the former is nowhere near as popular as the latter in terms of downloads, sales, or recurrent airplay. Meanwhile on the Hot 100, his highest peak is not one of his big pop/AC crossovers like "You'll Think of Me" (#24) or "Making Memories of Us" (#34), but rather the #16 peak of the much lesser-known "Kiss a Girl". This is because that song got a one-week sales spike due to Urban performing the song with Kris Allen on a season finale of American Idol, and it otherwise lingered in the mid-50s.
• Keith Whitley racked up five #1 hits and five more Top 10 hits in his career, with several of his songs being posthumously released after his sudden 1989 death from alcohol poisoning. While four of those #1 hits remain beloved classics ("Don't Close Your Eyes", "When You Say Nothing at All" [later re-popularized by Alison Krauss & Union Station and known overseas via its cover by Ronan Keating], "I'm No Stranger to the Rain", and "It Ain't Nothin'"), this leaves the question as to what the fifth of those #1 hits was. It was not "Miami, My Amy" (#14), "Ten Feet Away" (#9), "I'm Over You" (#3), or even the Earl Thomas Conley duet "Brotherly Love" (#2), but rather the far less popular "I Wonder Do You Think of Me", which was coincidentally his first posthumous release. (The B-side, "Brother Jukebox", was Covered Up by Mark Chesnutt.)
  • Like "Finally Friday" in the George Jones entry above, "Quittin' Time", which was never a single, has been played during drive time on Fridays on several country stations.
• Kenny Chesney zig-zags this in that his two longest-lasting #1 Hot Country Songs hits at seven weeks — "The Good Stuff" and "There Goes My Life" — are both among his most popular, while other popular cuts such as "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" (#11), "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" (#2), and "I Go Back" (#2) didn't reach the top. His cover of Mac McAnally's "Back Where I Come From" also remained a fixture of his set list for many years despite having never been a single (McAnally's original got to #14 on the country charts in 1990). The story is different on the Hot 100, where his highest peaks are "Out Last Night" and "The Boys of Fall" (#16 and #18 respectively), both of which were lead singles that quickly faded from public consciousness (with the latter also benefiting from a brief sales spike at the start of American high school football season).
• Kenny Rogers largely averts this, as "The Gambler", "Lady", and "Islands in the Stream" (featuring Dolly Parton) are hands down his biggest hits, and the latter two were among a very small number of songs to reach #1 on the country, Hot 100, and AC charts. However, the former's #16 peak on the Hot 100, while still impressive, is outranked by the far lesser known "She Believes in Me", "You Decorated My Life", "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" (featuring Kim Carnes), "I Don't Need You", "Share Your Love with Me", and "What About Me?" (featuring Carnes and James Ingram). Conversely on the country charts, "Sweet Music Man" is still a beloved and oft-covered song despite only reaching #9, "The Greatest" is well known despite only peaking at #26, and his rendition of "Mary, Did You Know?" featuring Wynonna Judd is one of the most famous renditions of that song, despite never hitting top 40.
• The Kentucky Headhunters' highest chart entry was not their Signature Song "Dumas Walker" (which only got to #15), but rather the song after it, their #8-peaking cover of Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me". In 1993, frontmen Ricky Lee and Doug Phelps split to form the duo Brother Phelps, which outpeaked all of the Headhunters' singles that year with the #6 "Let Go"; however, that song was quickly forgotten due to that duo's different sound and short life (the duo split in 1995 when Doug rejoined the Headhunters).
• Kip Moore averts this overall, as his signature "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck" was his only country #1 and lone top 40 hit on the Hot 100. His only country #2 and closest attempt at a second top 40 hit (#41) was 2013's "Hey Pretty Girl". Nowadays, however, if you hear a Kip Moore song that isn't "Truck" on country radio, it's most likely not gonna be "Pretty Girl", but rather a song that peaked lower, such as "Beer Money" (#3 country, #51 Hot 100), "More Girls Like You" (#4 country, #66 Hot 100), or "Last Shot" (#6 country, #53 Hot 100).
• Lacy J. Dalton's most famous song by a long shot is "16th Avenue", which got to #7. However, two songs ("Takin' It Easy" and "Everybody Makes Mistakes") outpeaked it.
• Lauren Alaina's highest entry on the Hot 100 is not her Breakthrough Hit "Road Less Traveled" (#67) nor her guest appearances on Kane Brown's "What Ifs", (#26) HARDY's "ONE BEER" (which also features Devin Dawson; #33), or Dustin Lynch's "Thinking 'Bout You" (#30)^note Only the album version features Alaina; the radio version features MacKenzie Porter. On charts, the song is credited as "...featuring Lauren Alaina or MacKenzie Porter", but rather her debut single "Like My Mother Does", which got to #20 on the Hot 100 due to initial buzz following her coronation as the runner up on American Idol Season 10. Averted on Country Airplay, where "Road Less Traveled", "What Ifs", "ONE BEER", and "Thinking 'Bout You" all went to #1.
• LeAnn Rimes had exactly one #1 country airplay hit in her career. Surely it was her debut smash "Blue" right? (Nope, #10.) Her take on "How Do I Live"? (Didn't even hit the country top 40; Trisha Yearwood's version was the bigger hit there.) "Can't Fight the Moonlight" from Coyote Ugly? (Just barely fell short of the country top 60.) The only time she topped the country charts was with her third release, "One Way Ticket (Because I Can)", one of her few singles that did not cross over and is thus more obscure now. This is averted on the Hot 100, where the #2 peak of "How Do I Live" is her best showing.
• Lee Greenwood had seven #1 singles on the country radio charts, none of which were "God Bless the U.S.A." (#7). On the Hot 100, this is averted, as it was Greenwood's only Top 40 hit there seventeen years after release.
• Lila McCann had two Top 10 country hits with "I Wanna Fall in Love" in 1998 and "With You" a year later, but neither is even remotely as famous as her debut single "Down Came a Blackbird" which only got to #28. "With You" goes double as it was her only Hot 100 entry.
• Zig-zagged with Little Big Town. "Boondocks" remains one of their most famous songs despite only getting to #9, most likely due to it being their Breakthrough Hit. Also, "Girl Crush" only got to #3 on the Country Airplay charts, but topped Hot Country Songs and is their biggest hit on the Hot 100 — and one of the most successful crossover hits of the '10s (even though it was never actually a radio crossover).
  • On Country Airplay, four of their songs outpeaked "Girl Crush". While their two #1s, "Pontoon" and "Better Man", remain popular recurrents, their two #2s, "Tornado" and "Day Drinking", aren't as much, to say the least.
• Little Texas had only #1 hit in their career. Surely it was one of their rocking up-tempo songs like "God Blessed Texas" (#4) or "Kick a Little" (#5), or even the well-known ballad "What Might Have Been" (#2), right? Nope, it was "My Love", a now-obscure midtempo and their only hit during their tenure with Warner (Bros.) Records with keyboardist Brady Seals singing lead instead of usual lead singer Tim Rushlow. Averted on the Hot 100, where "God Blessed Texas" and "What Might Have Been" were their two highest entries.
• Lorrie Morgan had three #1 hits. Two of them are "Five Minutes" and "What Part of No", both of which remain well-known. The third was not "Something in Red" (#14), "Watch Me" (#2), or "Except for Monday" (#4), but rather the far lesser-known "I Didn't Know My Own Strength". Also, her only Hot 100 entries are "Go Away" and "Maybe Not Tonight" (a duet with Sammy Kershaw), neither of which is particularly well known in comparison to any of her bigger hits.
• Despite being his Breakthrough Hits, Luke Bryan's "Do I" and "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" only got to #2 and #4 respectively. The latter is his most commercially successful single, having been certified 8x platinum by the RIAA. Airplay-wise, "That's My Kind of Night" is also not one of his many #1s, falling short at #2, but it is his second-highest Hot 100 entry at #15, one spot below "Play It Again".
• Maren Morris has four #1 country hits. One of these is her late 2019-early 2020 hit "The Bones". The other three are "I Could Use a Love Song", "Girl", and her featured credit on Thomas Rhett's "Craving You", none of which had the staying power of her debut single "My Church" which only got to #9 but remains her best-selling song. "Craving You" and "Girl" also outpeaked "My Church" on the Hot 100 (#39 and #44 vs. #50).
• Mark Chesnutt had eight #1 hits, none of which was "Bubba Shot the Jukebox" — that only got to #4. Conversely, when's the last time anyone remembered "I Just Wanted You to Know", "Gonna Get a Life", or his cover of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", all of which did hit #1? (The Aerosmith cover goes double, as it was also his only Top 40 hit on the Hot 100.)
• Martina McBride had five #1 hits, none of which were her Breakthrough Hit "My Baby Loves Me" (#2), her Signature Song "Independence Day" (which stalled at #12 due to some stations balking at its Domestic Abuse themes), "Concrete Angel" (#5), or "This One's for the Girls" (#3, although it did get to #1 on the AC charts), "Anyway" (#5), or "I'm Gonna Love You Through It" (#4). Instead the honors go to "Wild Angels", "A Broken Wing", "Wrong Again", "I Love You", and "Blessed", of which only "A Broken Wing" seems to have endured to the same degree as her other most famous songs. "I Love You" in particular stands out, as it's her longest-lasting #1 at six weeks and holds her highest Hot 100 ranking of #24 despite not having the staying power of her other successful songs.
• Mary Chapin Carpenter had but one #1 hit in her career with "Shut Up and Kiss Me", which, while fairly memorable in its own right, is not as well-known as the #2 "Down at the Twist and Shout" and "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", or the #4 "I Feel Lucky" and "Passionate Kisses". Averted on the Hot 100, where "Passionate Kisses" is her highest showing at #57.
• This trope is all over the place with Miranda Lambert on the country charts. "Kerosene" only got to #15, "Gunpowder & Lead" to #7, "Automatic" to #3, and "White Liar" and "Mama's Broken Heart" to #2^note although the latter three all got pushed to #1 on Mediabase. Conversely, "Heart Like Mine" does not rank among her most famous songs despite hitting #1. This is also true on the Hot 100, as the Carrie Underwood duet "Somethin' Bad" got to #19 thanks to a download spike from the combined name recognition, but it ultimately failed to leave an impact comparable to, say, "Mama's Broken Heart" (one spot lower) or her biggest hit overall, "The House That Built Me" (#28).
• Montgomery Gentry topped the country charts five times, but none of those five were "Hillbilly Shoes" (#13), "She Couldn't Change Me" (#2), "My Town", "Speed" (both #5), "Gone" (#3), or "Where I Come From" (#8), all of which are far more famous than "Back When I Knew It All" or "Roll with Me", which did top the charts. "Gone" and "Where I Come From" also happen to be their only gold-certified singles.
  • Montgomery Gentry had four top 40 entries on the Hot 100, but "Something to Be Proud Of", one of their more famous #1s on country, fell short at #41. Conversely, one of those top 40 hits was the aforementioned "Roll with Me".
• Neal McCoy has had two #1 hits. One was obviously "Wink", and what was the other? Was it "The Shake" (#5), "They're Playin' Our Song" (#3), or his 2005 comeback "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" (#10)? Nope, it was "Wink"'s predecessor "No Doubt About It", which also happened to be his first major chart hit (everything prior had gotten no higher than #26). "No Doubt" and "Beer Goggles" are also his highest Hot 100 rankings at #75 each.
• Nitty Gritty Dirt Band avert this overall, as their three #1 hits on the country charts, especially "Fishin' in the Dark", are all well-known. However, other iconic songs such as "Stand a Little Rain" (#5), "High Horse" (#2), "Workin' Man (Nowhere to Go)" (#4), and "Dance Little Jean" (#9) do not share those honors. But "Mr. Bojangles" did not hit the country charts at all, and "An American Dream" only got to #58; despite this, both were smashes on the Hot 100 (at #9 and #13 respectively).
• Another artist with multiple chart hits, but only one #1, is Pam Tillis. Surely that #1 hit was "Maybe It Was Memphis", which is by far her most famous song? Nope, that only got to #3 in 1991; the comparatively lesser-known "Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)" was her lone chart-topper in 1995. Also, "I Said a Prayer" and "Please" were her only solo songs to get anywhere near the Hot 100, despite those songs also being lesser-known.
• Patsy Cline had two #1 country hits: "I Fall to Pieces" and… her signature "Crazy", right? Nope, it was actually "She's Got You". While "Crazy" only got to #2, it was her highest peak on the Hot 100 at #9.
• Patty Loveless topped the country charts five times, but none of those was her most famous song "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye", which only got to #3. And while three of her five #1 hits are still fairly popular ("Blame It on Your Heart", "You Can Feel Bad", and "Lonely Too Long"), one would be surprised to find that the others are the far less known "Timber, I'm Falling in Love" and "Chains", both from 1989. This is because the latter two were from her comparatively lesser-known tenure with MCA Records, whereas her greatest commercial success came after she underwent vocal cord surgery and moved to Epic Records in 1993. "I Try to Think About Elvis", also from her Epic era, proved more popular in the long run despite only reaching #3.
• Phil Vassar had two #1 hits, neither of which was "Love Is a Beautiful Thing" (Covered Up Paul Brandt), which only got to #2. The chart-topping honors go instead to "Just Another Day in Paradise" (probably his second-most popular song) and "In a Real Love", the latter of which is nowhere near as popular as "Six-Pack Summer" (#9), "Last Day of My Life" (#2)^note which did hit #1 on Mediabase, or even "I'll Take That as a Yes (The Hot Tub Song)" (which only got to #17).
• Porter Wagoner had two #1 hits, neither of which was "Green Green Grass of Home" (#4) or "The Carroll County Accident" (#2). Averted on the Hot 100, where the latter was his only chart entry.
• Randy Travis:
  • His second Warner (Bros.) Records single "1982" remains one of his most famous despite only getting to #6. Its predecessor "On the Other Hand" is a subversion, as it only hit #67 on its first release, but the label chose to rerelease it on the success of "1982"... and the re-release became his first #1 hit.
  • Given that his first three albums (Storms of Life, Always & Forever, and Old 8×10) remain his most famous by a long shot, it's surprising that "I Won't Need You Anymore" from Always & Forever never seemed to rise to the same pantheon as the other chart-toppers off that set of albums. Likewise, "Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart" was his longest-lasting #1 at four weeks (and his first #1 after the change to Nielsen SoundScan), but it seems to have fallen into the same abyss as nearly anything else post-Old 8×10. Had SoundScan existed in The '80s, it's extremely likely that songs such as "Forever and Ever, Amen" (hands-down his Signature Song) or "I Told You So" would've had extremely long runs at the top.
  • "What'll You Do About Me" was never a single or even a B-side, but his version of the song is the most popular by far, eclipsing charted versions by Steve Earle, The Forester Sisters, and Doug Supernaw (along with non-single versions by John Schneider and McGuffey Lane).
• Rascal Flatts:
  • Their cover of Tom Cochrane's "Life Is a Highway" (from the soundtrack to Cars) only got to #18 on the country charts, but remains one of their most popular songs. It also has their second-highest Hot 100 ranking at #7, only one space lower than their Signature Song "What Hurts the Most". Its low country peak is because, like Clint Black's version of "Desperado", it was never officially a single (at the time, "My Wish" was the current single on country radio), while the high Hot 100 placement was due almost entirely to downloads fueled by the movie. Also, their longest lasting #1 on the country charts is not "What Hurts the Most" (four weeks), but rather their cover of Marcus Hummon's "Bless the Broken Road" (five weeks), which is probably their third best known song but isn't quite as famous overall. Back on the Hot 100, "Bless the Broken Road" was surpassed by "Take Me There", "Mayberry", "These Days" and "My Wish".
  • Conversely, their debut single "Prayin' for Daylight", which only got to #3, is far more popular than many of their #1 hits such as "Here Comes Goodbye" and "Take Me There". Those two go double, as they are also the band's third- and fourth-highest ranking hits on the Hot 100, and "Take Me There" is tied with "What Hurts the Most" as their second longest-reigning #1 hit on the country charts. However, "Take Me There" and "Here Comes Goodbye" were both lead singles that got massive early interest before petering out.
• Reba McEntire has a massive catalog of hits, including 25 that hit #1, but many would be surprised to find that the total excludes several keystone songs such as "Only in My Mind" (one of only two singles that she ever wrote, it topped out at #5), her covers of Bobbie Gentry's "Fancy" (#8) and Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" (#12), "She Thinks His Name Was John" (which stalled at #15 because many stations refused to play a song about a woman dying of AIDS), "I'm a Survivor" (later the Real Song Theme Tune to her sitcom Reba, it peaked at #3), or her duet version of "Because of You" (#2). Also, her highest Hot 100 placement goes to the now largely obscure "What Do You Say" from 1999 (#31 on the Hot 100, #3 country). Finally, two of her biggest #1 hits came in the 21st century, by which point her musical output was more sporadic due to other commitments, and she was largely considered too old to be a consistent radio draw: "Consider Me Gone" (2009) is her longest-lasting #1 hit at four weeks thanks to the charts stagnating over the holiday season, and the other is "Turn On the Radio" (2010).
• Red Sovine had three #1 hits. Two of them were obviously the sentimental trucker songs "Giddyup Go" and "Teddy Bear". The third had to be the hitchhiker ghost story "Phantom 309", right? Nope, that only got to #9. His first #1 hit was a duet version of "Why Baby Why" with Webb Pierce; although its release blunted the chart run of George Jones' original version of the same, and although a later rendition by Charley Pride also hit #1, "Why Baby Why" is still seen as Jones's song First and Foremost.
• Restless Heart avert this on the Hot Country Songs charts, as all six of their #1 hits are well-remembered. But on the Hot 100 and AC charts, it's a different story. Their highest Hot 100 ranking and second-highest AC ranking go to 1992's "When She Cries", their first release after the departure of lead singer Larry Stewart, and their only #1 on the AC charts was the also Stewart-less "Tell Me What You Dream" (featuring Canadian smooth jazz saxophonist Warren Hill) one year later. Neither song was well-remembered in the long run, at least not compared to "I'll Still Be Loving You" (their third-highest AC ranking and only other Top 40 on the Hot 100).
• Before he focused his efforts on songwriting, Rhett Akins had two top 10 hits, one of which got all the way to #1. It was not the still frequently-played "That Ain't My Truck", but rather the much lesser known "Don't Get Me Started". Additionally, neither song was his closest to getting into the Hot 100; that would be the even lesser-known "More Than Everything".
• Rodney Atkins' highest ranking on the Hot 100 at #23 does not belong to either of his signature songs, "If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" (#33) and "Watching You" (#36) ^note which were also the Billboard Year-End top country songs of 2006 and 2007 respectively, making him one of the only artists to get that honor two years in a row, but rather to 2011's "Take a Back Road", his final hit song, by which point his star had faded considerably. Meanwhile on the country charts, he's had three other #1 hits for a total of six — and none of those six is fan favorite "Farmer's Daughter", which only got to #5, though the far lesser-known "It's America" from 2008 is one of them.
• Roger Miller only had two #1 hits in his career. "King of the Road" is obviously his most famous song, and "Dang Me" to a lesser extent, but many would be surprised to find that other keystone songs such as "Chug-a-Lug", "England Swings" (both #3), "Husbands and Wives" (Covered Up by Brooks & Dunn, whose version outpeaked Miller's on the country charts, #5 vs. #1), "Old Toy Trains" (didn't chart), and "Whistle Stop" didn't chart as well — in fact, "Whistle Stop" only got to #86 on the country charts^note to put this in perspective, the chart was shrunk to 75 positions in 1990, and 60 in 2001, but remains popular due to its appearance in Robin Hood (1973) (and much later, for being Sampled Up in the viral "Hampsterdance"). "Old Toy Trains" is at least justified in that it was a Christmas single.
• Ronnie Milsap's "Stranger in My House" does not rank among his many #1 hits, despite being among his most popular. It ended up stalling out at #5, because some stations objected to its hard-rock guitar solo, and either cut it out of the song or refused to play it entirely. "Prisoner of the Highway" is also a popular cut despite only reaching #6 and being out of print for several years. Also, his longest-tenured #1s, at three weeks each, are "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Only One Love in My Life", and "My Heart". While the former is still well-known, the latter two aren't nearly as popular as "Smoky Mountain Rain", "Any Day Now" (both spent one week topping country and also topped the AC charts), "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me" (two weeks; also his highest Hot 100 ranking at #5), "Pure Love", or "What a Difference You've Made in My Life" (both also spent one week).
• Roy Clark's only #1 hit was not "Thank God and Greyhound", which only got to #6, but rather the far more obscure "Come Live with Me".
• Sammy Kershaw's most popular song is "Queen of My Double Wide Trailer", which only got to #7 — a peak he outperformed seven times. Even Kershaw himself admits that the song alone was responsible for making its corresponding album go platinum, despite that album also containing his only #1 hit, "She Don't Know She's Beautiful".
• Sawyer Brown has three #1 hits, but none of them were "Drive Me Wild" (#6), "All These Years" (#3), "The Walk" (#2), or their covers of George Jones' "The Race Is On" (#5) and Dave Dudley's "Six Days on the Road" (#13) (curiously, the originals of both are also examples for the original artists). Their first #1 hit, "Step That Step", is largely ignored due to massive Early-Installment Weirdness, as most of their hits in The '80s were bubblegum country-pop that generally did not stand up as well as their more substantial post-1990 material (with "The Walk" generally seen as the Growing the Beard moment). The formermost song averts this on the Hot 100, where it was their only chart entry.
• Shania Twain has several instances on the country charts. Her longest-tenured #1 hit is "Love Gets Me Every Time", which spent five weeks at the top solely because it was the lead single to Come On Over. It would have nowhere near the staying power of other big hits such as "Any Man of Mine" (spent two weeks at the top) or "You're Still the One" (one week). Several other iconic songs didn't even get to #1 at all, including "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" (#11), "From This Moment On" (#6), "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" (#4), and "That Don't Impress Me Much" (#8) — all far more popular in the long run than quickly forgotten #1 hits such as "You Win My Love", "No One Needs to Know", or "Honey, I'm Home", none of which crossed over ("You Win My Love" at least got to #8 on Bubbling Under).
  • In her native Canada, she had 13 songs top the country chart, but "That Don't Impress Me Much" and "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" both fell short at #2. Similarly, her only chart-topper on the Canadian Hot 100 is the much less iconic "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!" from 2002.
• SHeDAISY seems to be best known for their 1999 debut "Little Good-Byes" (#3), plus their comeback songs "Come Home Soon" (#14) and "Don't Worry 'bout a Thing" (#7) in 2004-05. However, none of these is their highest peak; instead, that honor goes to the lesser-known "I Will... But" in 2000. Somewhat averted on the Hot 100, as both the formermost and lattermost songs are their highest-peaking at #43.
• Southern Pacific's most famous songs are "Any Way the Wind Blows" (#4), "Reno Bound" (#9), and their cover of Peter and Gordon's "I Go to Pieces", all of which peaked lower than the lesser-known #2 "New Shade of Blue" from 1988. In fact, the "I Go to Pieces" cover only got to #31. This is likely because the latter was recorded A Cappella, making it extremely polarizing to radio yet all the more memorable for it (the band had sung the song a cappella in concert for years prior to doing a studio version).
• The Statler Brothers had four #1 hits, but none of them were "Flowers on the Wall" (#2), "Bed of Rose's" (the #9 Trope Namer for This Bed of Rose's), "Do You Remember These" (#2), "The Class of '57" (#6), "I'll Go to My Grave Loving You" (#3), "The Official Historian on Shirley Jean Berrell" (#5), "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott" (#22), their cover of Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou" (#3), or "More Than a Name on a Wall" (#6). In addition, three of their four #1 hits — "Elizabeth", "My Only Love", and "Too Much on My Heart" — came in The '80s, a period of Later-Installment Weirdness that saw Jimmy Fortune replace Lew DeWitt on tenor vocals and occasional songwriting duty. Their only #1 hit with DeWitt, "Do You Know You Are My Sunshine", is still somewhat remembered, but not to the extent of the above-mentioned songs. "Flowers" averts this on the Hot 100, where it is their only top 40 hit at #4.
• Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road" didn't even chart on the country format, although it did peak at #10 on Mainstream Rock Tracks. Despite this, it's one of his most famous songs alongside "Guitar Town" (his highest-charting country hit at #7), it's a staple of classic-country and alternative country playlists, and is overall better-known than his only other Top 10 country hit, "Goodbye's All We've Got Left".
• Steve Wariner's list of #1 hits does not include "Kansas City Lights" (#15), his cover of Bob Luman's "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers" (#4), nor any of his solo singles from his brief Career Resurrection lasting from about 1998-2000: "Holes in the Floor of Heaven", "Two Teardrops" (both #2), or his re-recording of "I'm Already Taken" (#3, 60 spots higher than the original). By comparison, "You Can Dream of Me", "Life's Highway", and "Where Did I Go Wrong" did hit #1 but did not endure in the long run. Averted on the Hot 100, where "Two Teardrops" and "I'm Already Taken" were his only solo entries.
• Sturgill Simpson's Signature Song "Turtles All the Way Down" didn't even chart (which would be quite the feat for such a psychedelic-sounding, philosophically deep song). His only entry on Hot Country Songs is a 2016 cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom", which jumped in at #48 due to downloads but did not receive airplay on country radio (in fact, he has never entered the Country Airplay chart).
• Four of Sugarland's biggest hits — their debut single "Baby Girl", along with "Something More", "Stay" and "Stuck Like Glue" — all only got to #2 on the charts, and all are certainly more famous than "Settlin'"^note which, in a meta-example, managed to receive the exact same amount of airplay as the also-forgotten "Stand" by Rascal Flatts did that week; the #1 position went to Sugarland since their gain in airplay from the previous week was greater, "Already Gone", or "It Happens". "Stuck" averts this on the Hot 100, where it has their highest placement at #17.
• Suzy Bogguss' most famous songs are her covers of Ian Tyson's "Someday Soon" and Nanci Griffith's "Outbound Plane", which only got to #12 and #9 respectively. She had five songs match or outpeak the latter, with her highest ranking going to the somewhat lesser known #2 "Drive South" (itself a cover of a song first recorded by its writer John Hiatt, and then later by the Forester Sisters, featuring the Bellamy Brothers).
• Tanya Tucker's breakthrough hit "Delta Dawn" remains one of her most iconic songs despite only reaching #6. "Texas (When I Die)" and "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane" are also among her most downloaded songs, with respective peaks of #5 and #2. Also, her only Top 40 pop hit was "Lizzie and the Rainman", which is nowhere near as popular as the likes of "Delta Dawn" (#72), "What's Your Mama's Name" (#86), or any of her popular country releases from her 1986-94 comeback period (none of which crossed over at all, the closest being "It's a Little Too Late" at #112).
• Terri Clark's two #1 hits stateside are "Girls Lie Too" and "You're Easy on the Eyes", the latter of which is nowhere near as popular as the likes of "I Wanna Do It All" (#3), "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" (#5), "Better Things to Do" (#3), "Now That I've Found You", or "I Just Wanna Be Mad" (both #2). What makes this all the more unusual is that "Girls Lie Too" itself only got to #1 because of chart manipulation, but it remains one of her most popular songs anyway. Overall averted on the Hot 100, where "I Just Wanna Be Mad", "Girls Lie Too", and "I Wanna Do It All" were her three highest peaks.
  • In her native Canada, Clark achieved five country #1s: One was "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", but the other four? Not "Better Things to Do" (#3), "Now That I've Found You", "Girls Lie Too" (both #2), "I Just Wanna Be Mad", or "I Wanna Do It All" (the Canadian country chart didn't exist when the latter two songs were released). Rather they were the aforementioned "You're Easy on the Eyes", as well as "If I Were You", "Emotional Girl", and "In My Next Life", the lattermost of which was released in 2007 and was her highest peak on the Canadian Hot 100 at #66, due in part to the chart not existing before 2007.
• Toby Keith:
  • "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action", "Wish I Didn't Know Now" (both #2), and "Stays in Mexico" (#3) are among his more popular songs despite none of them reaching #1 — at the least, certainly more popular than "Me Too", "Love Me If You Can", or "She Never Cried in Front of Me".
  • "Red Solo Cup" only got to #9 on the country charts, but it is his highest Hot 100 peak at #15.
• Trace Adkins' most famous song by far is "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk", but it's not among his highest-charting at country (he has four #1 country hits, and "Badonkadonk" only got to #2, having been blocked by "Jesus, Take the Wheel"). It isn't even his biggest hit on the Hot 100, where its #30 peak is eclipsed by the #12 peak of "You're Gonna Miss This" (which did get to #1 at country and was such a huge hit largely because Adkins was on The Celebrity Apprentice at the time of its release). Other extremely popular songs of his that did not make the summit include his Breakthrough Hit "Every Light in the House" (#3), "I'm Tryin'" (#6), "Hot Mama" (#5), "Rough & Ready" (#13; also his first gold single), "Songs About Me" (#2), "Arlington" (which got to #16 before he withdrew it over listener concerns that its lyrics about dead soldiers were reminiscent of current events), or "Just Fishin'" (#6).
• Tracy Byrd had two #1 hits, none of which are "Watermelon Crawl" (#4), "The Keeper of the Stars" (#2), or "I'm from the Country" (#3). Instead, the honor goes to "Holdin' Heaven" (1993) and "Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo" (2001; also his only top 40 on the Hot 100). "Drinkin' Bone" is also one of his most popular recurrents despite only reaching #7, due in part to its extremely short play-length of 2:12.
• Tracy Lawrence averts this on the country charts, as all of his #1 hits are very well-known despite one of them ("Find Out Who Your Friends Are") coming a good eleven years after his other ones. However, he plays this straight on the Hot 100 where his only top 40 entry is the now-obscure "Lessons Learned", a song not nearly as famous in the long run as "Sticks and Stones" (didn't enter the Hot 100) or "Alibis" (only got to #72 there).
• Travis Tritt had five #1 hits on the country charts, a total that includes the well-known ballads "Anymore", "Best of Intentions", and "Foolish Pride", plus the now obscure "Help Me Hold On" and "Can I Trust You with My Heart", but omits far more notable songs such as "Put Some Drive in Your Country" (#28), "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" (#13), "Take It Easy" (#21; the song came from the same covers album that provided Clint Black's rendition of "Desperado"), and a handful of #2's: "I'm Gonna Be Somebody", "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)", "The Whiskey Ain't Workin'" (a duet with frequent collaborator Marty Stuart, and Stuart's highest chart peak), and "It's a Great Day to Be Alive" (which is his most-downloaded song on iTunes, as well as his second-highest Hot 100 entry at #33, six spots below "Intentions"). The displacement of "Put Some Drive In Your Country" is most obvious in the fact that it was on his Greatest Hits Album while the Top 5 hits "Nothing Short of Dying" and "Lord Have Mercy on the Working Man" were not (although the latter may be due to it being a Massive Multiplayer Crossover). His collaboration with Little Feat on "Bible Belt" is also a very popular cut despite not being released as a single, due to it appearing in My Cousin Vinny.
• Trick Pony's only Top 10 hit was not "Pour Me" (#12), but rather the somewhat less-remembered "On a Night Like This".
• Trisha Yearwood had five #1 hits. The total includes her debut single "She's in Love with the Boy" and 1994's "XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl)", both of which still rank among her most famous. However, no one would imagine that the other three are "Thinkin' About You" (the follow-up to the latter), "Believe Me Baby (I Lied)", or "Perfect Love", none of which are nearly as well-known as "Walkaway Joe" (featuring Don Henley), "The Song Remembers When", "How Do I Live" (her version was bigger at country, while LeAnn Rimes' version was bigger at pop), or "In Another's Eyes" (duet with Garth Brooks), all of which only got to #2. "Georgia Rain" also proved more popular in the long run than its mere #15 peak would indicate.
• Ty Herndon has had three #1 hits, of which only one reached the Top 40 of the Hot 100. It was not his 1995 breakthrough debut smash "What Mattered Most" (#90), but rather the less-remembered "It Must Be Love" (featuring an uncredited guest vocal from Sons of the Desert) in 1998.
• Tyler Farr's only #1 hit on Billboard was not his Signature Song "Redneck Crazy", but rather the lesser known "A Guy Walks Into a Bar" one year later. This is because both "Redneck Crazy" and its successor "Whiskey in My Water" got last-minute airplay pushes to hit #1 on Mediabase which did not translate as well on Billboard; both songs only got to #3 there. However, "Redneck Crazy" is his only Top 40 on the Hot 100.
• Vince Gill may be the most extreme example of this. His most famous song by a long shot is the #14 "Go Rest High on That Mountain" — which he outpeaked a staggering THIRTY-TWO times (twenty-eight solo entries and four featured singles, one of which was the Massive Multiplayer Crossover "Forever Country" credited to "Artists of Then, Now, and Forever"). And while none of his #1 hits are obscure (four solo, three as a guest artist, again counting "Forever Country"), many other famous songs such as "When I Call Your Name", "Whenever You Come Around" (both #2), and "Look at Us" (#4) are not among them. He also plays this straight on the Hot 100, where his only solo entries are "Tryin' to Get Over You", "Whenever You Come Around", "If You Ever Have Forever in Mind", and "Feels Like Love", but it's the latter two which hold the highest rankings of #60 and #52 despite being far more obscure songs. His only Top 40 entries on the Hot 100 are featured credits: an appearance on longtime wife Amy Grant's "House of Love" (an Ambiguously Christian pop song that failed to leave much of an impact overall) and "Forever Country".
• Western Flyer's most popular song by a long shot was their 1995 single "Cherokee Highway", which didn't even chart; their only top-40 hit was the now obscure "What Will You Do with M-E?" one year later. This displacement is likely because "Cherokee Highway" attracted tons of publicity for its extremely dark anti-violence Prejudice Aesop, but at the expense of any airplay from a stereotypically conservative audience.
• The Wilkinsons are an interesting case. Both in their native Canada and in the United States, they're known almost exclusively for their debut single "26 Cents". While it is their only Top 10 hit on the U.S. Hot Country Songs charts (#3) and a #1 on the RPM Country music charts in their homeland, it is not their highest hit on the U.S. Hot 100. Instead, it was outpeaked there by the largely forgotten follow-up "Fly (The Angel Song)", which ranked higher on the Hot 100 by two spaces (#53 to "26 Cents"'s #55).
• Willie Nelson had two #5 songs on the Hot 100, but neither was "On the Road Again", which only got to #20. They were "Always on My Mind" and "To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before" (the latter a duet with Julio Iglesias).
• Zac Brown Band is a weird example. On their native country format, they aren't even close to being a one-hit wonder. Nor are they a one-hit wonder on the Hot 100, as they've managed multiple Top 40 hits. On the rock charts? Their only success was "Heavy Is the Head", featuring Chris Cornell. To rock audiences, it's the only song they can name despite the fact that it never charted on Hot 100. However, country audiences are mostly oblivious to "Head", due to it not being made for that format ("Homegrown" was the active country single and Hot 100 hit at the time). Ironically, "Head" is now considered the signature song for its parent album Jekyll + Hyde because of Cornell’s feature, its inclusion on the WWE 2K16 soundtrack, and for being a unique song for the band.
  • Meanwhile on the country charts, they sent 14 songs to the top, none of which were "Whatever It Is", which fell short one spot. Their longest-lasting #1 hit at four weeks is "Keep Me in Mind", which is nowhere near as famous as "Chicken Fried", "Toes", "Colder Weather" (all three spending two weeks), or "Knee Deep" (one week); it was one of many songs in the 21st century that held its position for so long due to the charts stagnating over the holiday season.