Country music has had several intentional crossover hits. It's understandable when artists unashamedly wanted to tap into their celebrity status to reach a wider audience. But there are others who firmly planted their roots in country music, but still had success with other genres.
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We picked four times country crossed over to other genres, and shocked everyone.
1. "Love in the First Degree" by Alabama
When Alabama released "Love in the First Degree" in 1981, the group had already had several hits at country radio. They already had success with "Tennessee River," "Why Lady Why," and more. So when Alabama dropped "Love in the First Degree," they had no idea that the song would become a Top 5 hit at pop radio as well.
Alabama went on to have a few other songs that found a place on other charts besides country. Still, they remained true to the kind of artist they wanted to make.
"We're country first and crossover second," Gentry says (via
Classic Country Music Stories). "If crossovers come, that's great. But we would rather have a No. 1 country song than get lost in the middle of the country and pop charts."2. "Breathe" by Faith Hill
It's hard to think of an artist who had more crossover success, at least for a period of time, than Faith Hill. When Hill released "Breathe" in 1999, she had already had a few hits that crossed over, including "This Kiss" and "Let Me Let Go." But nothing came even close to the massive success of "Breathe," which spent an astonishing 17 weeks at the top of the Adult Contemporary chart.
Unfortunately, the success of "Breathe" wasn't enough to keep Hill from continuing her career in country music, or in any genre. Hill's last studio album, Fireflies, was released in 2005. She has since deleted her social media accounts.
3. "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line
"Cruise" is Florida Georgia Line's debut single, released in 2012, and what a single it was for the duo. The song became a multi-week No. 1 single on the country charts, spending 26 weeks on the pop charts as well.
Florida Georgia Line didn't plan on having a crossover hit, but they definitely tapped into their expanded audience once they realized how much the song was resonating with the rest of the world. In 2013, they released a remix of "Cruise" with rapper Nelly.
4. "Need You Now" by Lady A
Not only did Lady A not expect "Need You Now" to be a crossover hit, they almost didn't even release the song at all. The trio released "Need You Now" as the title track of their sophomore record. Written by the three band members along with Josh Kear, "Need You Now" won Lady A multiple Grammys, and was a No. 1 hit at both country and pop charts.
"This is something that Capitol can hold over our head forever. Because, we came in there and we showed them all of these songs," Kelley says (via The Boot), recalling playing music for their record label for their next album. "And I said, 'Well, I've got a couple of other ones, too. I don't think that you're going to think they're that great, but it's worth showing you.' It was just a little acoustic guitar thing, and everybody's ears perked up. The engineer came on and they said, 'You need to give that one a shot.'"
