Trisha Yearwood’s ‘Powerful Thing’ Named Country’s “Happiest Song”
The survey analyses a combination of lyrics and musical tone based on metrics supplied by Spotify and Genius.
Country music fans looking for some feelgood music to help them through the troubled times of the coronavirus lockdown now have some “statistical” help.
A “happiness index” of hits of the last 60 years has been published by Buzz Bingo, and the winner in the country genre is…Trisha Yearwood’s ‘Powerful Thing.’ The song, written by Al Anderson and Sharon Vaughn, was a top ten country single in early 1999. It scored 67.85 on the index.
The somewhat quirky survey analyses a combination of lyrics and musical tone based on metrics supplied by Spotify and Genius. It embraces songs that figured on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1958 and 2019. The overall “winner” of the survey was soul giant Wilson Pickett’s 1967 R&B hit version of Bobby Womack’s song ‘I’m In Love.’ That was followed by Chubby Checker’s ‘Lovely, Lovely’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Pride and Joy.’
Broken down by genre, Yearwood’s song, from her Where Your Road Leads album, came top in the country section. An upbeat, simple celebration of true love, its lyrics include the lines “More than three words and a diamond ring, it can open up the heavens, make the angels sing…our love, baby, is a powerful thing.” It reached No. 6 country and No. 50 pop.
‘Powerful Thing’ was followed in the new index of happiest country songs by Lucy Hale’s 2014 single ‘You Sound Good to Me.’ Then came Eddie Rabbitt’s 1981 No. 1 ‘I Love a Rainy Night,’ Ronnie Dove’s ‘Happy Summer Days’ (1966) and Roger Miller’s ‘Walkin’ In The Sunshine’ (1967).
If you’re already wondering what country’s saddest-ever song is by the same measurement, it’s another surprise. The track in question is Glen Campbell’s ‘Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry,’ his version of Al Dexter’s country No. 1 from 1944. An early Capitol single by Campbell in 1962, it missed the country chart but reached No. 76 on the Hot 100.
You can access all of the Buzz Bingo data, and search songs by genre, decade and other filters, by clicking here.
Listen to the best of Trisha Yearwood on Apple Music and Spotify.
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