Country Musicians With the Most Hits

The smooth sound of Joe Stampley produced singles success for the singer from Springhill, Louisiana, beginning in the early 1970s. Stampley has had 51 songs chart on the Billboard Hot Country Songs list. Among his successes are “Soul Song,” “Bring it on Home (To Your Woman), “All These Things,” and “Roll On Big Mama.”

Known as “The Gentle Giant” because the tall man from Floydada, Florida, had an easy-going manner, Don Williams reeled off 17 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart from the 1970s to the mid-1980s and was one of the most successful performers in country music in the ’70s. He landed his first country No. 1 in 1974 with the song “I Wouldn’t Want To Live If You Didn’t Love Me.” Other chart-toppers from the 1970s include “You’re My Best Friend” and “Say It Again.” Williams had one crossover success, “I Believe In You,” which reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Lynn Anderson first gained notoriety as a songwriter crafting such hits for Merle Haggard as “(All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers” and “The Fugitive.” The North Dakota native then went off on her own singing career and became a big star with hits that included “Rose Garden,” which went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. “Rose Garden” was one of her five chart-toppers on the Hot Country Songs list. In all, the Grammy winner had 18 songs chart in the Hot Country Top 10.

Dottie West became famous for creating a more sexy country singer persona that some fans found too provocative in the 1970s. Working with Chet Atkins, creator of the Nashville sound, West produced the single “Here Comes My Baby” that was nominated for three Grammys and won for Best Country & Western Vocal Performance – Female. That helped launch chart success on the Hot Country Songs chart, including five No.1 hits, among them “Every Time Two Fools Collide” with Kenny Rogers, “Are You Happy Baby,” and “A Lesson in Leavin’.”

West fell on hard times in the 1980s and filed for bankruptcy. Her attempt at a comeback ended tragically in 1991 when the car she was riding in flipped over and she later died from injuries.

The Alabama native known as the “The Southern Gentleman” posted his first (pre-Hot Country) Top 10 country hit in 1953, at the age of 25. Sonny James turned pop songs by artists like Roy Orbison, The Seekers, and The Chordettes into country tunes. He had 21 songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs between 1964 and 1974, three of them in 1968 — “A World Of Our Own,” “Heaven Says Hello,” and “Born To Be With You.”