Country Pop

Every now and then, a song will kick down the doors of the Grand Ole Opry House from the inside, and make a break for the world at large — here we've gathered the best of those Nashville fugitives, all of whom have made a great impression on the pop charts. Tammy Wynette gets us going with the fabulously emotional "Stand By Your Man" while Crystal Gayle sashays into the cocktail lounge with "Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue".

And we've saved some of the greatest country pop tunes for our Next Steps . . .

The songwriting here is so strong that many of these tunes would shine in any genre — it just so happens that they sound really fantastic dressed in country garb. Willie Nelson's version of the Elvis Presley hit "Always On My Mind" post-dates the Brenda Lee original by a decade, but has never felt fresher, while Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" fully justifies the grandeur of its string-laden production. Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" would famously return with Whitney Houston . . . savour the '74 stunner here.

There's an Aussie lass loose in Deep Cuts. Can you spot her?

Ever a country pop favourite, Kenny Rogers combines his knack for a great story with a silky melody on "Coward of the County" — the song's nugget of paternal advice ("Promise me, son, not to do the things I've done") has lodged itself in the minds of fathers the world over. Flying the flag for Australia is Kasey Chambers, who was born into a tradition of outback campfire singing and rubs shoulders with the Dixie Chicks and LeAnn Rimes here.

When a great country song finds its way into the pop charts, it's usually something pretty special, either because of its melody (Shania Twain's heavenly "You're Still the One"), its sensational lyric (we all loved Tammy Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E as much as DJ Terry Wogan, one of the country-pop die-hards who made it his mission to drip-feed these songs into our homes via the airwaves), or its sheer sense of mischief (C.W. McCall's "Convoy", with its ultra-butch lead and super-camp backing vocals). Billy Ray Cyrus, Elvis Presley, Olivia Newton-John, Johnny Cash . . . this is one mighty impressive lineup.