She’s sung vividly about domestic violence, and even rape, as on her 2009 song “Maggie Creek Road.” The track, which appeared on her 2009 “comeback” album Keep On Loving You (though she had only been silent as a solo artist for six years), tells the haunting story of a rape survivor compelled to fight off her daughter’s would-be rapist.
It charted after receiving organic radio play, compelling MCA to promote the slightly taboo track as a single. In 1994, she became one of very few mainstream country artists to publicly address the AIDS crisis with her song “She Thinks His Name Was John,” about a woman who contracts the disease after a one-night stand. In spite of country music’s well-earned reputation for conservatism – and Reba McEntire’s status as one of the biggest names in the genre – she is not shy about taking some risks. Ten years later, they reunited for “Cowgirls Don’t Cry,” which became Reba’s 56th top-10 country song – breaking a Dolly Parton record – and is also exactly the kind of straightforward, ever-so-slightly vintage country that’s remained remarkably timeless. Their 1998 single “If You See Him, If You See Her,” which brought genuine twangy mournfulness to the by-then-cliché power ballad format, was one of Reba’s few late ‘90s #1s, spending two weeks atop the chart. It wound up earning her a Grammy – her first – for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.Ĭountry crooners Brooks & Dunn also proved worthy foils to McEntire’s spotlight-stealing voice. The streak started with pop-driven stand-by-your-man ballad “Whoever’s In New England,” which turned heads for a few different reasons: it marked McEntire’s first music video (filmed on location in Boston), and its Northeastern subject matter made it somewhat unusual for a country song. Before back-to-basics country became McEntire’s calling card, she’d flexed her songwriting chops for only the second time on the smart, funny “Reasons” (1983) which shows she can do understated bluegrass just as effectively as the vocal showcases that make up the majority of her catalog.īy the late ‘80s, a Reba McEntire song was as close to a sure thing as you could find in country music – from 1986 to 1988, she only had two singles that didn’t hit #1. “One Promise Too Late,” released in 1987, was another decidedly traditional single that still managed to dominate the country charts. McEntire is not as laser-focused on authenticity as purists may have hoped, but she’s consistently returned to classic Western swing and bluegrass sounds throughout her career. She’d recorded plenty of rootsy material on previous album cuts, but “Blue” allowed her to publicly pledge her allegiance to “real” country. The 1984 track, and its acclaimed home album My Kind Of Country, placed McEntire in league with the mostly-male faces of country’s burgeoning neo-traditionalist movement, including Ricky Skaggs, George Strait and Randy Travis.
1, she flaunted the flexibility she’d found with a defiant twang: McEntire accompanied herself with soaring bluegrass-inspired harmonies, and used a band chock full of traditional country sounds like pedal steel guitar, fiddle and banjo. On “How Blue,” her third Hot Country Songs No. After six albums with Mercury and little of the mainstream success she sought, Reba moved to MCA in search of more creative control. Mining country history was key to McEntire’s commercial and critical breakthrough. Instead, get to know Reba McEntire through this list of some of her best songs. But the accolades don’t really tell her story. At the time of the writing, McEntire currently holds or is tied for almost every country chart record for women artists, and three Grammys stand out on shelves laden with CMA, ACM and AMA awards. She’s simply been consistently good and successful for such a long time that looking at her biggest hits or a few select albums doesn’t quite do her remarkably varied career justice.Īrmed with a meaty, bright voice and a perfect country origin story – she was signed after a label rep heard her singing the National Anthem at a rodeo – the Oklahoman has churned out country hits that run the gamut from vintage Western swing to bluegrass to rock and pop-inflected crossover to R&B covers without much of a break for multiple decades.
1 songs on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, there are few obvious entry points. It’s rare that an artist is so prolific and successful that figuring out where to begin listening to their music is a nearly insurmountable challenge, but with Reba McEntire, who has 25 No.