Some songs are best heard in a group. While there are those tracks that can be enjoyed while alone in a bedroom or on your headphones working out, there are also songs that are meant to be taken in among a crowd. They’re fun, well-known, and foster a big sing-along.
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Here below, we wanted to explore three such tracks. A trio of tunes from the genre of country music that are best belted with a big group of friends—either lifelong or brand new. Indeed, these are three timeless country songs to sing along to.
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“Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd from Second Helping (1974)
As soon as that bouncy, familiar guitar lick comes in on this song, you know you’re about to sing. Big wheel keep on turnin’ / carry me home to see my kin. And then there’s the beloved Ooooo, oooo, ooooo! Indeed, this southern rock classic is one for the ages. It’s a song about home, about the heartland. And whether or not you’re actually from the south, everyone can take a moment to bask in the feeling for the near five minutes this song provides. On the track, lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant sings,
In Birmingham, they love the governor (boo, boo, boo!)
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me, uh-uh
Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth
Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama (oh, my baby)
Lord, I’m comin’ home to you (here I come, Alabama)
Speak your mind
“Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks from No Fences (1990)
This is a signature song if there ever was one. One of country legend Garth Brooks’ best-known tracks, it’s become a standard not just for its subject matter—who among us doesn’t have a few friends in low places—but for the very satisfying vocal line when you get to the word low and your voice drops down as if it’s picking something up from the floor. Sung by one of the most successful country stars of all time, this song like a light shone on high for all of us down below. Sings Garth Brooks,
Blame it all on my roots, I showed up in boots
And ruined your black tie affair
The last one to know, the last one to show
I was the last one you thought you’d see there
And I saw the surprise and the fear in his eyes
When I took his glass of champagne
And I toasted you, said, “Honey, we may be through
But you’ll never hear me complain”
‘Cause I’ve got friends in low places
Where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases my blues away
And I’ll be OK
Yeah, I’m not big on social graces
Think I’ll slip on down to the oasis
Oh, I’ve got friends in low places
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver from Poems, Prayers & Promises (1971)
Maybe the most fun chorus in all of country music, the country roooooaddss, take me hoooooome opens the crowd pleaser and then it kicks into another gear with to the plaaaceeee I BELONG! West Virginia never sounded so sweet as it does in this classic country track. It’s got to be one of the most popular songs to play on jukeboxes across the country and almost immediately whenever it comes on, people look up from their glasses or their pool games and begin to sing with John Denver,
Almost Heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads
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Photo by Tammie Arroyo/AFF-USA/Shutterstock
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