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From the late '80s through the 2020s, these are the top-charted songs in one of the biggest careers in all of music.
7/16/2026
Garth Brooks performs at State Farm Stadium on March 23, 2019, in Glendale, Ariz. John Medina/Getty Images
Garth Brooks has long occupied a rare place in music: not simply as a country superstar, but as an artist whose songs, albums and concerts have reached a scale few performers in any genre have matched.
Billboard began documenting that phenomenon from the start. Brooks made his Hot Country Songs chart debut in 1989 with “Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old),” then amassed 10 top 10s and seven No. 1s by the end of 1991 alone. His totals have since grown to 92 chart entries, 36 top 10s and 19 No. 1s, including “The Dance,” “Friends in Low Places,” “The Thunder Rolls” and “Shameless” — songs that didn’t just define his career but became part of country music’s foundation. He has also reached the Billboard Hot 100 nine times, led by — surely surprisingly — the No. 5-peaking “Lost in You,” released under his turn-of-the-century Chris Gaines alter ego.
Those hits powered something even larger. Brooks has earned 200 million RIAA-certified album units, and he remains the only artist with 10 diamond-certified albums. He also boasts 17 No. 1s on Top Country Albums and nine on the Billboard 200.
His 1996-98 Garth Brooks World Tour sold 4.9 million tickets and still ranks as the best-selling country tour in Billboard Boxscore history. And there was Central Park, where in 1997, he performed for nearly 1 million people (an estimated 980,000, according to the New York City Fire Department).
That level of demand has endured. Brooks’ 2023-25 Las Vegas residency grossed $137.7 million and sold 306,000 tickets across 72 shows, and he is now preparing to return to the road once again.
Brooks reflected on his career in an interview in 2020, when he was honored with Billboard’s Icon Award. “The Shawshank Redemption says it best: ‘A good thing never dies,’ ” he mused. “So the whole thing is, capture the music the first time, so hopefully this music will stand up when it gets a chance.”
Below, Billboard counts down Garth Brooks’ 50 biggest chart hits — the songs at the center of one of the biggest and most enduring careers in popular music.
Garth Brooks’ 50 Biggest Billboard Hits chart is based on performance on Billboard’s weekly Hot Country Songs chart through the July 18, 2026, ranking. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower ranks earning less. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.
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“Why Ain’t I Running”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 24
Hot Country Songs peak date: May 3, 2003 -
“Shallow,” with Trisha Yearwood
Image Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images for NARAS Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 27
Hot Country Songs peak date: June 26, 2021The pair, which married in 2005, first performed the ballad from 2018’s A Star Is Born during a March 2020 concert on Facebook Live that drew 3.4 million views and reportedly crashed the platform. The response led the couple to record a studio version, giving Brooks another Hot Country Songs entry more than three decades after his chart debut.
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“Katie Wants a Fast One,” with Steve Wariner
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 22
Hot Country Songs peak date: Oct. 28, 2000 -
“Where Your Road Leads,” with Trisha Yearwood
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 18
Hot Country Songs peak date: Oct. 31, 1998 -
“Do What You Gotta Do”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 13
Hot Country Songs peak date: March 4, 2000 -
“When You Come Back to Me Again”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 21
Hot Country Songs peak date: July 15, 2000 -
“Beer Run,” with George Jones
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 24
Hot Country Songs peak date: Nov. 10, 2001 -
“Squeeze Me In,” with Trisha Yearwood
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 16
Hot Country Songs peak date: March 23, 2002 -
“The Change”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 19
Hot Country Songs peak date: May 18, 1996Written years before the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the song took on new meaning in its aftermath. Brooks’ video honored the victims and rescuers, pairing footage from the tragedy with the song’s meaning of hope and resolve.
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“Dive Bar,” with Blake Shelton
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 17
Hot Country Songs peak date: March 7, 2020 -
“Thicker Than Blood”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 18
Hot Country Songs peak date: Sept. 28, 2002 -
“Workin’ for a Livin’,” with Huey Lewis
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 19
Hot Country Songs peak date: Feb. 16, 2008 -
“Ask Me How I Know”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 13
Hot Country Songs peak date: Dec. 9, 2017 -
“We Shall Be Free”
Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia Brooks and Stephanie Davis wrote the song as a plea for racial and social justice in response to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Despite resistance at some country radio stations, it became one of the most distinctive hits in Brooks’ catalog. In 2020, he told Billboard that its message is simply, “C’mon, man, see past the walls and love each other.”
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“It’s Your Song”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 9
Hot Country Songs peak date: Nov. 28, 1998 -
“Wild Horses”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 7
Hot Country Songs peak date: Feb. 17, 2001 -
“One Night a Day”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 7
Hot Country Songs peak date: July 23, 1994Legendary session musician Jim Horn played saxophone on the jazz-leaning recording, but Brooks learned the part so he could perform it himself in concert.
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“Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 8
Hot Country Songs peak date: July 15, 1989Brooks’ debut single, which he cowrote, announced both the singer and one of his heroes. Its now-famous Chris LeDoux name check introduced countless listeners to the rodeo champion, who had already built a substantial following by recording and releasing his music independently.
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“She’s Gonna Make It”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 2
Hot Country Songs peak date: March 7, 1998 -
“You Move Me”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 3
Hot Country Songs peak date: Nov. 7, 1998 -
“It’s Midnight Cinderella”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 5
Hot Country Songs peak date: Sept. 7, 1996 -
“In Another’s Eyes,” with Trisha Yearwood
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 2
Hot Country Songs peak date: Nov. 1, 1997After years of singing harmony on each other’s songs, Brooks and Yearwood finally recorded a duet. Their performance earned them the 1998 Grammy for best country collaboration with vocals.
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“Wrapped Up in You”
Image Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Stagecoach Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 5
Hot Country Songs peak date: Jan. 26, 2002 -
“Papa Loved Mama”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 3
Hot Country Songs peak date: May 16, 1992The song nearly missed being included on Ropin’ the Wind. Brooks and songwriter Kim Williams finished its bridge just before recording it, then bumped another song from the album to make room.
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“American Honky-Tonk Bar Association”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Dec. 4, 1993 -
“Standing Outside the Fire”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 3
Hot Country Songs peak date: March 26, 1994 -
“That Ol’ Wind”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 4
Hot Country Songs peak date: Dec. 28, 1996 -
“To Make You Feel My Love”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Aug. 1, 1998Brooks took the Bob Dylan song to No. 1 after recording it for the soundtrack to the 1998 film Hope Floats. Yearwood contributed a version to the film as well, giving the then-future couple two interpretations of the same ballad on one album.
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“Two Piña Coladas”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: May 9, 1998 -
“Learning To Live Again”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 2
Hot Country Songs peak date: April 3, 1993Written by Don Schlitz and Stephanie Davis, the ballad chronicles tentativeness about a prospective relationship — “this learning to live again is killing me,” Brooks all but concedes in the chorus. It appears on Billboard’s ranking of Schlitz’s biggest chart hits, published in tribute to the late Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer.
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“Not Counting You”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 2
Hot Country Songs peak date: April 7, 1990 -
“Good Ride Cowboy”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 3
Hot Country Songs peak date: Dec. 31, 2005 -
“The Beaches of Cheyenne”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: March 16, 1996 -
“Callin’ Baton Rouge”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 2
Hot Country Songs peak date: Oct. 22, 1994“Callin’ Baton Rouge” has become one of Brooks’ defining live songs, particularly in Louisiana. When he performed it before more than 100,000 fans at LSU’s Tiger Stadium in 2022, the crowd’s reaction registered on a university seismograph.
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“Rodeo”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 3
Hot Country Songs peak date: Oct. 5, 1991Larry Bastian originally wrote “Rodeo” as “Miss Rodeo,” from the perspective of a woman competing with the sport for a man’s devotion. After unsuccessfully pitching the song to female singers, Brooks reversed the point of view and recorded it nearly a decade after its original demo.
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“The River”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: July 25, 1992 -
“Longneck Bottle”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (three weeks)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Dec. 20, 1997 -
“She’s Every Woman”
Image Credit: Margaret Norton/NBC via Getty Images Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Oct. 21, 1995 -
“That Summer”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: July 3, 1993 -
“More Than a Memory”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Sept. 15, 2007The song made Billboard history by becoming the first title to debut at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs. (“Stations broke with longstanding programming philosophies,” Billboard noted that week, as Brooks was emerging from a several-year career hiatus.) The achievement was especially striking in 2007, when the chart was based solely on radio airplay, which generally requires songs to climb gradually.
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“Somewhere Other Than the Night”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Jan. 16, 1993 -
“Shameless”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (two weeks)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Nov. 16, 1991Billy Joel wrote and first recorded “Shameless” for his 1989 album, Storm Front. Brooks’ treatment took it to No. 1 for two weeks, illustrating the pop and rock reach that was always part of his musical makeup.
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“The Dance”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (three weeks)
Hot Country Songs peak date: July 14, 1990Brooks has long identified “The Dance” as the song that best represents him and the career that followed. His second No. 1, the Tony Arata-written composition spent three weeks atop Hot Country Songs and became one of the defining ballads in modern country music.
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“Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: April 6, 1991 -
“Ain’t Going Down (Til the Sun Comes Up)”
Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (two weeks)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Sept. 18, 1993Brooks made the song a literal showstopper during a 1993 concert at Texas Stadium, closing the show with it while soaring above the crowd on a specially designed harness.
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“If Tomorrow Never Comes”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (one week)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Dec. 9, 1989 -
“Friends in Low Places”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (four weeks)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Oct. 6, 1990Brooks first encountered the song when he sang a writer’s demo and immediately asked Earl Bud Lee and Dewayne Blackwell to hold it for him. Mark Chesnutt also recorded it and released it as an album cut, but Brooks’ version became an essential country singalong, made even rowdier live by its third verse.
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“The Thunder Rolls”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (two weeks)
Hot Country Songs peak date: June 22, 1991“The Thunder Rolls” gained an even darker ending onstage through an additional verse omitted from the hit recording. That violent final turn has become a fan favorite in Brooks’ live performances.
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“What She’s Doing Now”
Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (four weeks)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Feb. 15, 1992 -
“Unanswered Prayers”
Image Credit: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images Hot Country Songs peak position: No. 1 (two weeks)
Hot Country Songs peak date: Jan. 12, 1991Brooks drew “Unanswered Prayers” from a real encounter with an old high school flame while attending a football game with his then-wife. The song, which he co-wrote with Pat Alger and Larry Bastian, was included on his second album, No Fences. It became his fourth Hot Country Songs No. 1, and, in this ranking, the biggest hit of his career.
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