Outsider.com posted a list of country hits you might not know are covers. Their list seemed a little skimpy to us, so we padded it a bit. Here are 10 songs that were originally done by someone else . . .
1. “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton. David Allen Coe did it first in 1981, and George Jones also did it in 1983.
2. “Millionaire”, another one Chris Stapleton did. The original by Kevin Welch came out in 2002.
3. “My Maria” by Brooks & Dunn. B.W. Stevenson’s version peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. Brooks & Dunn had a hit with it again in 1996.
4. “When You Say Nothing at All” by Alison Krauss. It was her first solo hit in 1995. But Keith Whitley went #1 with it first in 1988.
5. “Wagon Wheel” by Darius Rucker. Bob Dylan wrote the chorus in 1973, and Old Crow Medicine Show released it as a full song in 2004.
6. “Fancy” by Reba McEntire. It was a Top 10 hit for her in 1991. But Bobbie Gentry did the original way back in 1969.
7. “Callin’ Baton Rouge” by Garth Brooks. His version came out in 1993, but The Oak Ridge Boys originally released it in 1978.
8. “Whiskey River” by Willie Nelson. Johnny Bush had a hit with it in 1972. Willie covered it a year later. (And boy was it different than Willie’s version.)
9. “Pop a Top” by Alan Jackson. It was the lead single off his 1999 album “Under the Influence”. But it was originally a hit for Jim Ed Brown in 1967.
10. “Ol’ Red” by Blake Shelton. His version came out in 2002, but George Jones did it first in 1990.