The George Strait Mount Rushmore – His top 4 songs of all time

George Strait was one of the biggest superstars to ever come out of country music. His music effortlessly walks the needle between country authenticity and universal catchiness that could capture the hearts of America. The CMA Awards plans to honor his greatness with the 2024 Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. Few artists are more deserving.

That’s why I want to tackle some of his best songs ever. Surprisingly, as a man who loves random album cuts, the list contains a compromise of four of his many hits. After some extensive thinking about the choices, here are the songs by Mount Rushmore or George Strait.

The four best George Strait songs of all time

“Amarillo by the Morning”

Nashville has been trying to understand why they adore Texas so much for decades. Often it can also come from complete strangers. An Oklahoman or a Tennessean talking about Texas culture as if they weren’t just a full-fledged tourist. It bothers me as someone who has been blessed with experiencing a lot of culture. You can tell when someone is faking the funk. It takes a true Texan to tell the difference and George Strait is the man for the job.

Much of what makes “Amarillo By Morning” so great lies in the musical tapestry. The wide blue sky, the light glow of the sun, the thick humidity, the wide open spaces, the breeze in the air. It all comes to fruition in the wispy guitars or the howling strings in the intro. You can see the sea of ​​cowboy hats at the fair he sings about, or the bull rider standing up after breaking his leg in Santa Fe. It’s one of Texas’ great love songs, basking in the freedom that the endless Texas roads provide.

“The Chair”

This was the last step I made on the list, between this and ‘A Fire I Can’t Put Out’. The strings and the throbbing desire are extremely infectious. However, I love “The Chair” in Dean Dillon and Hank Cochran’s writing. It frames the song with George Strait as a regular at this bar, letting a woman know she’s in her usual spot. However, it is a clever way to get her attention and spark an affair between the two of them. He edits all the romantic beats, comments on the music and makes the most mundane interaction seem as if the world stands still for a moment. All to turn back around and sheepishly admit, “Oh, I like you too, and to tell you the truth, that wasn’t my seat anyway.”

“Ocean Front Property”

Music can have a tendency to fall on its face when it’s trying to be funny. Often the songwriters get a little too long-winded or over-explain a premise. By the time they’re done, the punchline barely registers. It’s one reason why artists don’t transition into comedy. George Strait plays a good country goofball, though.

“Ocean Front Property” embraces its inner cheesiness and is fully committed to its own piece. The point is that George playfully lies about how he would be fine if he left this girl. He lays it on real thick and smug before throwing it back at her. If she doesn’t think he’s into it, he’s got more stupid things to sell her. The images of an oceanfront house in the desert are the kind of absurd punchline that only a crazy, dimwitted Texan could sell. You can imagine the giddiness on his face as he shouts, “If you buy that, I’ll throw in the Golden Gate for free.”

“All my exes live in Texas”

Undoubtedly George Strait’s best song. It shows his greatest qualities as an artist. This is his absolute funniest song, in which he flees the great state of Texas as a fugitive. Why? He can’t even risk running into one of his many exes. They are also becoming more and more absurd. Rosanna in Texarkana just wants him to “push her broom” and Eilieen in Abilene just thinks he’s great. Meanwhile, if he ends up in Galveston or Temple, he has a crazy wife and the police are on the hunt for George. It’s comical, but not too crazy. You’ll date a woman from Texas and you’ll learn well enough that it’s not that far-fetched.