4 of the Most Skippable Songs on Great Country Albums

Finding a perfect country album is like finding a needle in a haystack. Records from some of the best artists the genre has to offer will often have at least one track that I don’t need to hear. Sometimes, they kill the vibe of the record. Other times, they just seem like songs that should have been scrapped altogether. Even some of my favorite country albums have a skippable song or two.

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The skippable songs below come from some of my favorite albums from country artists I adore. However, no matter how much I enjoy these records, I find myself wishing the artists had decided to leave at least one song off.

[RELATED: 4 Cringeworthy Country Songs That Somehow Became Hits]

1. “We Had It All” by Waylon Jennings on Honky Tonk Heroes

Honky Tonk Heroes is by far my favorite Waylon Jennings album. Nine of the album’s ten tracks were written by either Billy Joe Shaver or co-written by Jennings and Shaver. It would be a perfect Outlaw Country album if not for one skippable song.

Fortunately, “We Had It All” is at the end of the album. So, it’s easy to skip and doesn’t throw off the vibe of the record. Penned by Donnie Fritts and Troy Seals, the song just doesn’t fit. After nine songs of thumping bass and Telecaster twang, the album closer features a string section and slick “Nashville Sound” production.

2. “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Mark Chesnutt from I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing

Mark Chesnutt’s I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing is a rock-solid ’90s country album. It’s full of honky tonk barn burners and steel guitar-soaked heartbreak tunes. However, the album opener and title track sticks out like a sore thumb. Where the rest of the album is country to the core, this skippable song is saccharine sweet pop. I’m not the only one who feels this way. Chenutt hated the song, and George Jones took him to task for recording it.

3. “I Love” by Tom T. Hall from 20^th Century Masters: The Best of Tom T. Hall

It feels like sacrilege to say that a country legend like Tom T. Hall wrote or recorded a skippable song, but here we are. “I Love” originally appeared on For the People in the Last Hard Town, but I usually encounter it while listening to the 20^th Century Masters best-of collection. It’s a cute song and it has its place, but I can’t help but feel like it doesn’t belong among Hall’s best work.

4. “Ring of Fire” by Dwight Yoakam from Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.

Okay, hear me out. “Ring of Fire” is a killer song and Dwight Yoakam is among my favorite country artists of all time. Furthermore, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. is one of my favorite albums. I just don’t like Yoakam’s version of this Johnny Cash classic. Maybe its because I heard the cover after listening to the original for years. Either way, this collision of country legends is, in my opinion the sole skippable song on an otherwise flawless album.

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