3 Country Songs From the 2000s That Are Already Classics

When country music fans think of classics, they might automatically think of songs by artists like Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and other former icons. But there are plenty of songs released in the last 25 years that are already beloved and proven to stand the test of time. We picked three country songs from the 2000s that are already classics.

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“Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood

“Before He Cheats” was released by Carrie Underwood in 2006. The song, written by Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins, is on her freshman Some Hearts album. It became an immediate hit for Underwood and remains one of the biggest success stories, even after almost 20 years.

“Before He Cheats” also showed off Underwood’s feisty side, with her literally taking a bat to her cheating boyfriend’s truck. Although Underwood made it her own and still performs it in her live shows today, the revenge-filled tune was actually written with another artist in mind.

“At the time, Gretchen Wilson was going in to record,” Tompkins recalls to The Boot. “After her first record, everybody wanted to have a song on that second record. And I was trying to think of edgy stuff. I never would’ve thought that Carrie Underwood would record it!”

“Red Solo Cup” by Toby Keith

“Red Solo Cup” is a feel-good song released by Toby Keith in 2011, on Keith’s Clancy’s Tavern record. The light-hearted tune is one of the few songs Keith released that he didn’t write. “Red Solo Cup” is written by Brad and Brett Warren, better known as the Warren Brothers, along with Jim Beavers and Brett Beavers. In fact, “Red Solo Cup” is the only song on Clancy’s Tavern that Keith didn’t write. It proves that it must be a really, really good song if he was still willing to record it.

One of Keith’s most noteworthy songs, none of the writers had anything to do with Keith making the song his own.

“Our songplugger, Nathan Nicholson, played ‘Red Solo Cup’ for Trailer Choir,” Brett Warren recalls to American Songwriter. “The singer of Trailer Choir said, ‘I love this song’. He called me and Brad and said, ‘This is the greatest song ever written. Can I play it for Toby?’ And I said, ‘Sure, play it for him. He’ll love it. But he won’t cut it.’ So two weeks later, I get a call from Toby’s manager saying, ‘We’re cutting ‘Red Solo Cup’.’ We had nothing to do with that.”

“Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw

There may not be a more poignant song out in the last 25 years than Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying”. The song, written by Craig Wiseman and Tim Nichols, came out in 2004. It is the title track of McGraw’s eighth studio album.

“Live Like You Were Dying” came to McGraw while his father, Tug McGraw, was battling terminal cancer.

“It showed up and was sent to me in the middle of my father’s diagnosis of glioblastoma brain cancer and going through all of his treatments,” McGraw remembers (via Taste of Country). “He stayed at my cabin out at the farm. And we were spending a lot of nights out there with my uncle and my brother, just hanging out, listening to music, and watching football games. We spent a couple of weeks there before he passed away in the bedroom there in the cabin.”

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