What's the greatest country music single ever released?
That's a tough question, but journalists David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren have attempted to answer it in their new book Heartaches by the Number: Country Music's 500 Greatest Singles (CMF/Vanderbilt).
After reading this informative, thought-provoking collection of 500 essays, the reader is bound to have a deeper understanding of the collaborative nature involved in making a memorable single. The authors also do a masterful job of pointing out the thematic and musical connections between singles released throughout the history of this genre.
In the book's introductory section, the authors explain that their main task was to arrange the 500 singles in a compelling sequence, as opposed to ranking them according to aesthetic quality. So, the authors are not arguing that George Jones's "The Window Up Above" (No. 7) is necessarily a better single than Loretta Lynn's "One's on the Way" (No. 122) or the Osborne Brothers' "Rocky Top" (No. 396).
The book's No. 1 single is the 1971 hit "Help Me Make It Through the Night," which was sung by Sammi Smith, produced by Jim Malloy, and composed by Kris Kristofferson. The authors convincingly explain that it was the combined efforts of Smith, Malloy, Kristofferson, and the assembled studio musicians that made this one of the greatest recordings of all time.
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