It’s the Grand Ole Opry’s 100th birthday, but country music fans are the ones getting the gift.
The Opry is releasing “Opry 100: Country’s Greatest Songs,” a double album packed with legendary performances and fresh star-studded covers that will have fans hitting repeat.
This isn’t your average greatest-hits compilation. We’re talking Dolly Parton teaming up with Patty Loveless and Marty Stuart for “I Will Always Love You,” Luke Combs tackling “Tennessee Whiskey,” and Reba McEntire delivering a fiery “Fancy.”
Basically, it’s like the Opry said, “What if we made the perfect country playlist? And then actually did it.
Legends, Fiddles, New Twists and Goosebumps Fill ‘Opry 100’
The track list is a jaw-dropper of country classics both original and re-imagined.
You’ve got Marty Robbins and Marty Stuart dueling on “El Paso,” Patsy Cline melting hearts on “Crazy,” and The Charlie Daniels Band turning the Opry into a barn-burning fiddle showdown with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
If you’ve ever been to an Opry show where this song closes out the night, you know the energy is electric. “Sometimes the ovation would start before Charlie even finished the intro,” Opry historian Dan Rogers said. “That’s how powerful it was.”
No Opry album billing itself the “greatest” would be complete without Loretta Lynn singing “Coal Miner’s Daugher” or Johnny Cash crooning “Ring of Fire.”
And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to hear the late, great George Jones paired with Alan Jackson to break hearts all over again with “He Stopped Loving Her Today?”
Vince Gill teams up with Patty Loveless for his emotional classic he just performed with Lainey Wilson at the Emmys, “Go Rest High on That Mountain.” According to Songfacts, Vince has expressed his amazement at the song’s impact, saying, “I wrote this song, and I didn’t have any idea if anybody would want to hear it, or like it,”
Carrie Underwood belts “Jesus Take The Wheel” like it’s still 2005, and Old Crow Medicine Show teams up with Dom Flemons, Billy Strings, and Molly Tuttle for a grand finale that ties the whole collection together.
Fans Get to Pick the Number One Country Song of All Time
The album is just one of the ways the Opry is celebrating its milestone birthday.
And it’s just a sampling of the list of the 100 greatest country songs of all time curated by the Grand Ole Opry with input from fans and music insiders.
The Opry released it’s list in six sections over the summer. The first featured 18 classics from the 1930’s through the 1960’s.
The second list featured 19 songs from the 1970’s that earned their place in country music history.
The third list focused on 80’s country, with the 19 songs that defined the era.
The fourth took on the golden age of 90’s country with 17 more songs added to the list.
The fifth list focused on the turn of the century, 2000-2010, adding 14 more songs to the list of 100.
And the sixth and final list added the last 11 songs from artists that own the country airwaves right now.
From those lists, the Opry is asking die-hard country fans to make a tough choice. Fans now get to vote in crowning the greatest country song of all time. You can cast a vote every day through November 10 from a list of 100 classics. If you want to weigh in, you can do that here.
“Opry 100: Country’s Greatest Songs” drops November 7. You can pre-order a cd or album here.
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