Patty Loveless – “Don’t Toss Us Away” +3 (Interesting production on this track).Michael Martin Murphey – “From The Word Go” +3.Roy Orbison – “You Got It” 0 (+2 for Pop though).Oslin – “Hey Bobby” 0 (Sorry, way too sleepy in the production and that “do you want to huh, huh” line just annoyed the crap out of me) – “There’s A Tear In My Beer” +4 (As an actual song it’s a +3, but considering the magic that went into this I have to give it its due.) Billy Joe Royal – “Tell It Like It Is” -1 (His voice and the overall feel of this just don’t work for me).Shenandoah – “The Church on Cumberland Road” +3.Vern Gosdin – “Who You Gonna Blame It On This Time” +3.

George Strait – “Baby’s Gotten Good At Goodbye” +3.Keith Whitley – “I’m No Stranger To The Rain” +4.Once again, I am still wading through a ton of chart requests so this week’s chart is dedicated to reader Scotty J! This means that the highest possible score for this week is a +125 and the lowest possible score is a -125. Since this chart came before 1990, I only have access to the top 25 songs. This week I will take a look at the top 30 songs of the Billboard Country Airplay Chart from April 8, 1989. To see the full list of the top 30 country airplay songs for this week, click here. The goal of this exercise is to evaluate the past pulse of mainstream country music and determine if it was better or worse compared to now.

The grade I would give it determines its Pulse score. These will then be tallied up for an overall score, or pulse of the past top 30 songs, with the highest possible score being a +150 and the lowest possible score being a -150. The grading format I use each week is every song will receive one of the following scores: +5, +4, +3, +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5. Each week, I take a look at the Billboard Country Airplay Chart from years ago and grade the top 30 songs. This is the Past Pulse Of Mainstream Country Music.

Billy joe royal songs list