Most artists dream of having a song that fans connect with but on rare occasion, an artist puts out a song that winds up turning into the bane of their existence.
Some super popular songs that artists ended up regretting were Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”, Lorde’s “Royals”, and Oasis’ “Wonderwall”, but country music has a few of its own.
For fans that aren’t super tied into the industry, it’s understandable to be frustrated if you go to a show and the artist doesn’t play one or more of their most well-known tracks, but if you take a step back and think about it, it starts to make more sense.
Can you imagine singing the exact same song, night after night, for years on end? Everyone understands when someone says their job is boring because they do the same thing over and over again but for some reason we don’t view music in the same lens. Sure, you can say “Well, if it wasn’t for that song you may have never had the success you did” and that’s true, but we should respect the human aspect of our favorite artists as well.
Anyway, I’ll hop off my soapbox.
Here’s 5 songs that country artists regretted writing or releasing.
“You Can Have The Crown” – Sturgill Simpson
Even while he was recording it in the studio, Sturgill had a feeling he’d regret putting this one on High Top Mountain. During a performance from years ago, he spoke about how this one came to be and how the original intent was to satirize the “laundry list songs” coming out of Nashville at the time:
“There was this onslaught coming out of Music Row of what they call ‘laundry list songs.’ That’s where all these Music Row writers sit down in cubicles together and they try to write a hit song. There’s no underlying emotional value to it whatsoever. They had these laundry list songs basically consisting of two or three verses basically telling you how country they are which is about the most pointless thing I could ever think of.
I decided, just to take the piss, I’m going to write a laundry list song. So, I tried to squeeze in every token cliché I could think of that was still realistically applicable to my life. I was proud of myself.
We ended up going into the studio that day, unfortunately. … I didn’t really have any other songs I was sitting on that I was particularly excited about. So, I played it for Dave (Cobb) and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s great.’ And we cut it.
Later that night, sitting in the control room, I heard the playback and I thought, I’ll never forget, I was like ‘Well, there it is. There’s the song I’m going to wish I never wrote. Sure as sh*t, that’s the one everybody wants to hear.”
Not going to lie, I still like this one but won’t expect to hear Johnny Blue Skies play it if I get the chance to see him on tour.
“Sleeping On The Blacktop” – Colter Wall (Original 16 Brewery Sessions)
This one might really hurt the feelings of a lot of us Colter Wall fans…
Many of us first came to love Colter for his iconic Original 16 Brewery Sessions where he played “Sleepin’ On The Blacktop”, “Kate McCannon”, and “The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie”, but unfortunately, he doesn’t feel the same way about his performances.
He addressed them directly in a series of since deleted Tweets back in October of 2020:
“I’m glad folks still enjoy those brewery sessions from 2015. I can’t watch them without cringing. The vocals are very forced. I’m grateful for what their popularity has done for me, but I hope folks are able to accept that I simply don’t play/sing that way anymore.”
“Don’t get me started on the kick drum…”
“As per live shows, I always make a point to play at least a few songs from every record I’ve put out, along with the new stuff. I know a lot of folks prefer to older tunes. Honestly, just glad anyone likes any of them!”
This regret is different because he’s not necessarily saying the songs themselves are bad, just the way he was playing them. I will say that he didn’t play “Sleeping On The Blacktop” when I caught a show a few years back and his recent music is very much whimsical western ditties, so it seems the days of murder ballad Colter are long gone.
“February 28, 2016” – Koe Wetzel
Say it ain’t so, Koe…
This is a classic example of growing out of a song. While no one is accusing Koe Wetzel of not partying anymore, it’s understandable that a song he wrote in his early 20’s just doesn’t relate to his life now at 31.
On Rodeo Time Podcast, Koe said to Dale Brisby:
“To be honest with you, I’m so ready for that f***ing song to just be done… after I wrote it, I was like yeah. First four years, people were still digging it. But we still play it at shows and it’s like, what most people come to hear. The one song people come to hear.
And I’m like, f**k, bro. I’ll tell the guys all the time, ‘We’re going to scratch ‘February 28th’ tonight. They’re like ‘No, you can’t do that.’ But that damn song…
I mean, it’s a real song but now that I’m 31 and just kinda slowing it down a little bit more, I’m like, can we not play this song tonight, please.”
I’m seeing Koe this weekend and hope I get to scream about some Taco Bell. Fingers crossed this isn’t when he pulls the plug…
“Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” – Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
One of the all-time classics of the genre and the song that Waylon Jennings disliked the most.
Written by Chips Moman and Bobby Emmons, they pitched it to Waylon because his “name’s in it” and apparently that was good enough, though he noted in his 1996 book Waylon: An Autobiography:
“I knew it was a hit song, even though I didn’t like it, and still don’t.”
His drummer Richie Albright recalls another line Waylon said about the song:
“Just remind me when I’m picking singles from now on that I got to sing that motherf*cker every night.”
“Ocean Front Property” – Dean Dillon/George Strait
Okay, the King himself has never spoken disparagingly about this song but the guy who actually wrote it sure has.
Dean Dillon is one of the unsung songwriting heroes of country music. Some of the most iconic songs in genre history came (at least in part) from his mind, including “Miami, My Amy”, “The Chair”, and “Tennessee Whiskey”, but there’s another song that fans have long loved that he himself hated.
“Ocean Front Property” became the title track for George Strait’s 1986 album and soared to number one on the charts, but even the day the song was written, Dillon wasn’t a fan.
He told the story while playing at the Flora-Bama a few years back.
Dillon was in Nashville demoing a few songs for Strait and while he was in the booth laying down vocals for “The Chair” he noticed his co-writers Hank Cochran and Royce Porter were no where to be found:
“I was singing vocals on The Chair, I was in the vocal booth, headset on. I looked through the glass and I noticed Hank and Royce (Porter) were gone. I asked the engineer… “Where are they?” He said “Well, they’re over here in this other room writing a song I think.”
“I said, ‘Well not on my damn session they’re not, not without me.’”
So I laid the headphones down and I walk over there and swing that door open, and Hank acts like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. He goes “Dean! Listen to this idea Royce has got.” And they played me a little bit of it and he goes what do you think? I said “Man, that’s terrible.”
And then he goes, “Well, you want in on it or not?” And I knew better… I said “Alright, I’ll help you finish it.”
So we wrote the chorus and the last couple verses and we got done with it and he goes “Now what do you think?” And I said “I hate it still”
And the reason I did, people, is I was a serious songwriter. I did not want to be labeled a funny songwriter. I just did not care for that at all. So to this day, I still don’t care particularly for this song. But it made a sh*t pot load of money…”
Can’t argue with results I guess…
There’s rumors of other artists not liking some of their biggest songs, Kip Moore with “Something Bout A Truck”, Tyler Childers with “Feathered Indians,” and Eric Church with “Love Your Love The Most” come to mind immediately, but I’m sure there are plenty more.
If I was to guess, there’s way more of these stories out there than we know and maybe in time the truth will come out.
With that being said, be sure to appreciate all the music your favorite artists put out. They spend just as much time on the album cuts as the singles and deserve to have that effort be rewarded.