If you were around in the early 1990s, you’ll remember how massive line country dancing became. After years of being considered the naffest thing on the planet, it suddenly became the number one way to fill a dance floor. 30 years later, people are still stomping their feet to their favorites boogies. Here’s our pick of the 10 best country music line dance songs of all time.
10. Sugarland – Down in Mississippi
In 2006, Sugarland asked, “What’s a poor girl got to do just to have some fun?” Line dance, obviously. Released as the fourth and final single from the album Twice the Speed of Life, Down in Mississippi quickly earned a reputation as a girls’ night out anthem, inspiring every country lady with a pair of cowboy boots and a southern fried attitude to hit the dance floor and shake their booty. It spent 20 weeks on the Hot Country Songs chart, peaking at number 17. It also scored the band a No. 1 hit on the Bubbling Under Hot 100.
9. Wynonna Judd – No One Else On Earth
The lyrics might make you want to cry, but try telling your feet that. When the beat kicks in on Wynonna Judd’s No One Else On Earth, it would take a cold, cold heart not to hit the dance floor. Released in August 1992 as the third single from Judd’s self-titled debut album, its unstoppable groove took it all the way to the No.1 spot on the Hot Country Songs chart. It stayed there for a full four weeks, making it one of only four songs to do so in 1992. Coincidently, two of the other three (Boot Scootin’ Boogie by Brooks & Dunn and Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus) also happen to have made our list.
8. Tracy Byrd – Watermelon Crawl
You wouldn’t think a song about a watermelon festival in a small town in Georgia would be the kind of tune to make you get up and boogie, but then again, not every watermelon festival has “got hundred gallons of sweet red wine/Made from the biggest watermelons on the vine.” Just remember though, “if you drink, don’t drive, do the watermelon crawl.” Released in July 1994 as the second single from Tracy Byrd’s album No Ordinary Man, it peaked at number 4 on the country charts and at number 81 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
7. Vince Gill – What the Cowgirls Do
If there was ever any doubt about what the cowgirls do, this little ditty by Vince Gill set the record straight. Country girls get in line and dance. With its snappy licks and effortless groove, it sailed to number 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart on its release in July 1994.
6. Shania Twain – That Don’t Impress Me Much
When Shania Twain’s That Don’t Impress Me Much comes on the jukebox, you know you’re only seconds away from a barroom blitz. From the first twang to the last, it’s utterly irresistible. Released in December 1998 as the seventh single from Twain’s third studio album, Come On Over, it gave the singer one of her biggest ever hits when it peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and at No. 7 on the Hot 100.
5. Trace Adkins – Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
According to Wikipedia, the inspiration for Honky Tonk Badonkadonk came when its writers, Dallas Davidson, Randy Houser, and Jamey Johnson, were watching a young woman dance at a club. Houser came up with the title (which includes the slang term for shapely buttocks – Badonkadonk) and within an hour, the song was finished. Shortly after, Trace Adkins released it as the third and final single from his album Songs About Me, where it promptly soared to No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
4. Luke Bryan – Country Girl (Shake It For Me)
As countryliving.com says, Luke Bryan’s shamelessly catchy hit Country Girl (Shake It For Me) is guaranteed to have everyone moving and shaking to the beat. Written by Dallas Davidson and Bryan about “a country girl getting up there getting a little wild,” it tapped into the emerging Bro-Country movement successfully enough to take Bryan to No. 22 on the Hot 100 and No.2 on the Hot County Songs chart in March 2011.
3. Steps – 5,6,7,8
In 1997, British pop band Steps proved the US didn’t have a monopoly on line dance boogies when they released 5,6,7,8, a foot-stomping mash-up of techno-pop and country that saw every tween and every teen (and quite a few older people who really should have known better) get in formation and slide. It was as cheesy as a block of cheddar, but it still managed to become an international hit, scoring the band their third biggest selling single in the UK, peaking at No.1 in Australia, and reaching the top 5 in Belgium and New Zealand.
2. Brooks & Dunn – Boot Scootin’ Boogie
As wideopencountry.com says, right from the start, was destined to be a classic of country line dancing. Released in 1992 as their fourth single as a duo, it helped bring line dancing to a whole new audience. In 2019, the pair released an updated version that proved just as much of a hit on the dancefloor as the original.
1. Billy Ray Cyrus – Achy Breaky Heart
Miley’s dad certainly knows how to fill a floor. If any song is going to make shrinking violets get their grove on, it’s Achy Breaky Heart, a song that made line dancing, if not exactly cool, then at least mandatory for anyone with a booty and a will to shake it. Some people have called it the most awesomely bad song ever made, but we bet even its biggest critics can’t resist tapping their feet to the beat. Released in 1992 as Cyrus’ debut single, it became a huge crossover hit, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Hot Country Songs chart.
