If there's a genre that has songs meant to be sung along to, it's country music. For decades, artists have been releasing well-crafted songs, with choruses meant to be shared by the listener. With that in mind, we picked four of the catchiest country choruses of all time.
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1. "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus
If there's a more catchy chorus in country music than Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart," it likely hasn't been written yet. Cyrus had a mega-hit with this debut single, out in 1992.
It wasn't long after the song was released that fans around the world were singing, "But don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart / I just don't think he'd understand / And if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart / He might blow up and kill this man."
The song kickstarted Cyrus' career, making him an overnight superstar.
"When I played it in the club, it just felt like a hit," Cyrus says of the song, written by Don Von Tress (via People). "People just packed the dance floor."
"I left there that night going, 'Man, that song!' I couldn't quit singing it," he recalls. "Even in my sleep, I think I was hearing it going around in my head. And I was in love, like it was everything I had waited for. Like every right turn, every wrong turn, everything in my life had led me to that moment."
2. "Friends In Low Places" by Garth Brooks
Few artists have a song that fans are still singing 35 years later, but Garth Brooks certainly has one. When Brooks released "Friends In Low Places" in 1990, he could have never predicted that the song would still be a mainstay at his shows, or become the name of his own downtown Nashville bar decades later.
"'Cause I've got friends in low places," Brooks sings. "Where the whiskey drowns / And the beer chases my blues away / And I'll be okay / Yeah, I'm not big on social graces / Think I'll slip on down to the Oasis / Oh, I've got friends in low places."
"This town has been amazing to me," Brooks says. "I know my bank account when I got here. I know where I was in my life when I got here, and I know where I'm at now. I'm looking at lower Broadway going, 'It's not the fact that Garth Brooks is missing, but 'Friends In Low Places' is missing down here, quite arguably maybe one of the most successful songs ... in country music."
"I've said this before, and I'll say it again," he continues. "'You can like Garth Brooks. You can not like Garth Brooks, either way. Chances are you've probably sang 'Friends In Low Places' at a wedding or something with everybody else."
3. "Jolene" by Dolly Parton
When Dolly Parton wrote "Jolene," released in 1973, it was a message to a female bank teller, who was flirting with her husband, Carl Dean. The name was from a red-haired little girl who attended one of Parton's shows.
"One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl — she was probably 8 years old at the time," Parton told NPR. "And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me ... for an autograph. I said, 'Well, you're the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?' And she said, 'Jolene.' And I said, 'Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene. ... That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I'm going to write a song about that.'"
Indeed, the chorus of "Jolene" says "Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene / I'm begging of you, please don't take my man / Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene / Please don't take him just because you can." Fortunately, although "Jolene" is based on a version of real-life events, Parton's husband, Carl Dean, was never tempted to waver, in spite of the bank teller's forwardness.
"It's really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one," Parton says.
4. "Chattahochee" by Alan Jackson
Alan Jackson wrote "Chattahochee" with Jim McBride, releasing it in 1993. The song celebrates Jackson's love of the actual Chattahochee River, although fans all over the country found themselves singing along to the catchy chorus.
"Yeah, way down yonder on the Chattahoochee / Never knew how much that muddy water meant to me / But I learned how to swim and I learned who I was / A lot about living and a little 'bout love," Jackson sings in the country music hit single.
"I learned right quick that everybody has a Chattahoochee," Jackson says (via Country Thang Daily). "It might be called something else, or might not even be a river at all, but the story was something people could relate to in their life, wherever they were from."
