One Country Song Raises to The Top Every Year-Let's Take a Look

Country music was around way before 1948. Jimmy Rogers and the Carter Family were selling 78 RPM records in the 1920s. But Country music split off from "Hillbilly" music in the years after WWII. Billboard Magazine started a country chart based just on juke box plays from 1944 to 1948. After that "Country and Western" and eventually just "Country" had a chart of it's own. With the help of a great book, "Joel Whitburn's Top Country Singles", Here are the number one country tunes of each year.

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Merle Haggard once said he felt real country music stopped about 1975 so I have given a little leeway to that and listed the top tunes up to 1985. The top song of each year is based on a combination of most weeks at #1, most weeks in the top 10, most weeks in the top 40 and most weeks charted. Do you remember these?

1948 Bouquet of Roses - Eddy Arnold

1949 Slippin' Around - Jimmy Wakely & Margaret Whiting

1950 I'm Movin' On - Hank Snow

1951 Slow Poke - Pee Wee King

1952 The Wild Side of Life - Hank Thompson

1953 Kaw-Liga - Hank Williams

1954 I Don't Hurt Anymore - Hank Snow

1955 In the Jailhouse Now - Webb Pierce

1956 Crazy Arms - Ray Price

1957 Gone - Ferlin Husky

1958 City Lights - Ray Price

1959 The Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton