Top All-Time Country Songwriters Revealed In New Record Research Book

Name the top two songwriters in the history of the Billboard country charts — go ahead.

Is Willie Nelson one of them? Nope.

Dolly Parton? Nope.

Hank Williams? Still nope.

Kris Kristofferson? Not quite.

Two modern songwriters — Ashley Gorley (“I Had Some Help,” “I Am Not Okay”) and Shane McAnally (“Body Like a Back Road,” “Mama’s Broken Heart”) — ranked No. 1 and No. 2 on Record Research’s first-ever study of the Top Country Songwriters 1944-2025, based on the Billboard charts. Billboard unveils the top 10 exclusively in this edition, while a full list of the top 40 appears in Joel Whitburn’s Top Country Singles 1944-2025, due to be published by Record Research June 4. The book arrives concurrently with the launch of the annual CMA Fest in Nashville.

Gorley and McAnally benefit from longevity and volume — both have consistently seen their names in parentheses on the country charts for more than 15 years — but also from their era. The study weights Billboard’s Country Airplay charts more heavily than the multimetric Hot Country Songs, but the latter chart still has allowed more titles to burst into public consciousness for short windows through its inclusion of streaming data. Songs featured on major new albums, or that benefit from some cultural event, tend to make a splash on that list, and McAnally and Gorley have had a number of those, in addition to hits that emerge through more traditional, longer-term patterns. That trend is indebted to the democratization of music that analysts predicted in the early stages of the industry’s digital age.

“I think this chart actually reflects that,” says Record Research partner Vinnie Freda, who played a key role in rejuvenating the company. “Because of the impact of streaming services, there tends to be less of a curation that takes place compared to, say, the 20th century. The consumer has a little bit more of a say.”

Only two of the top 10 all-time writers were also artists from start to finish in their career, a fact that will likely not surprise many Nashville publishers or country music professionals. But it might come as a shock to consumers. (Full disclosure: I’ll be moderating a panel June 6 during CMA Fest built around the full top 40 list with Freda, Gorley and McAnally).

The list’s two artist-writers, Bill Anderson (No. 4) and Merle Haggard (No. 10), developed the kinds of careers that at least two of the other top 10 writers originally targeted. Bob McDill (“Gone Country,” “Good Ole Boys Like Me”), who ranked No. 3; and Rhett Akins (“Dirt On My Boots,” “Honey Bee”), No. 9; had artist aspirations early on but discovered writing better suited them.

Also in the top 10 are Harlan Howard (“I Fall to Pieces,” “Why Not Me”), No. 5; Billy Sherrill (“Stand by Your Man,” “The Most Beautiful Girl”), No. 6; Craig Wiseman (“Live Like You Were Dying,” “Summertime”), No. 7; and Tom Shapiro (“You Look Good in My Shirt,” “Wink”), No. 8.

Top Country Singles 1944-2025 is the first title released since Record Research was rejuvenated. The company produced a string of essential chart references — generally recognized as the “Whitburn books” — that presented artist chart histories compiled across many of Billboard’s authoritative charts. Programmers, journalists, industry pros and intense music geeks all used them to do their jobs and/or settle scores. But Record Researchstruggled following Whitburn’s death in 2022, and when the company sent an email to customers in May 2025 saying it needed help, Freda — a Universal Music Group and Warner Music vet who’d been a customer since 1982 — stepped forward with plans to revive it.

As work on the Country Singles book began, KCCS Productions president Nan Kingsley (who oversees the estate of late broadcaster Bob Kingsley, host of Bob Kingsley’s Top 40) and Results Global co-head John Zarling suggested expanding that product with songwriters’ chart histories. The idea resonated with Freda.

“I’ve always felt that songwriters were [the] unsung heroes of the business,” Freda says. “And generally, country has always respected songwriters more than any other genre.”

Freda picked CMA Fest as the ideal time to publish the new Country Singles book. It fit the timeline as the company plotted a release date, and it was also an event that involves many of the genre’s artists and executives, in addition to attracting its most avid fans.

“Perhaps my biggest problem at the company is the demographic of my customers is generally 50 and above,” Freda says. “If you talk to somebody [that] age or older, and you say ‘Joel Whitburn,’ they immediately know what you’re talking about. If you talk to a 30-year-old, they’re like, ‘Who the hell was Joel Whitburn?’ Generally, our audience are certainly anyone in radio, record label people and any other kind of collector or nerd out there. They’re on our customer list.”

But Freda hopes to expand that base, both with books and a reinvigorated online offering. Record Research jumped into a subscription service around the mid-2000s, but it lasted only a year or two.

“They were a bit ahead of their time,” Freda says. “The technology was not yet in a place where it was a very good experience for the consumer.”

Freda plans to reintroduce the digital product in a year or so, with artificial intelligence helping to make the site more fluid. It would include games and trivia that would make it more interactive.

Other offerings on the horizon include a new iteration of the Hot Country Albums book, which hasn’t been updated since 2007, and a producer section that will highlight the chart histories and rankings of the figures behind the glass. The songwriter and producer information, if all goes to plan, will also be featured in other genres as Record Research celebrates the music lists that reflect the culture.

“Charts are not a replacement for what’s the best song out there,” Freda says. “The greatest song of all-time isn’t the song that went to No. 1 on the chart necessarily, but what I think chart positions represent are memories. A song that spends 10 weeks on a chart tends to be more in the collective memory of our society than a song that spent one week at 34.

“As human beings, we are nothing more than a collection of memories, and so that’s why it’s just fun to read the charts.”

When Eric Church Had A ‘Hell Of A View’ From The Top Of The Chart

The singer created his rebel ‘Soul’ entry in a single day in the mountains of North Carolina.

Most people visit a restaurant for a meal.

For Eric Church, it might be the site of a creative endeavor.

In January 2020, he settled in with his band at the Artisinal restaurant on the North Carolina side of the Smoky Mountains for a month of music-making. The goal was simple: write and record a new song each day until he built up enough material for three albums: Heart, & and Soul. The latter would include “Hell of a View,” which topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated May 29, 2021.

“Hell” became an exercise after Church and his co-writers got their steps in one morning. Casey Beathard (“Homeboy,” “Don’t Blink”) returned from his walk with an idea about a couple living and loving on the edge, and he developed the initial lines with Monty Criswell (“Bottle Rockets,” “Handle On You”). Church joined in once he got back from a run.

After they finished writing it, they recorded the song that day with drummer Craig Wright miked up in the wine cellar. Producer Jay Joyce (Miranda Lambert, Brothers Osborne) finished “Hell” overnight when Church and the rest of the musicians went to bed.

Released to country radio via PlayMPE on Oct. 20, 2020, it arrived at the top of Country Airplay in its 29th week on the list; it also peaked at No. 2 on the multimetric Hot Country Songs.

Track 5 on the Soul album — issued April 20, 2021, by EMI Nashville — “Hell” was certified gold by the RIAA that June and went double-platinum on July 17, 2023.