The 10 Best Lady Antebellum Songs of All-Time
There are many great singers and great bands with number one hits, but few have enough chart toppers to make an entire top ten list out of some of them. Lady Antebellum is one of those rare groups that seems to knock it out of the park regularly. Though you will still find most of this stellar group’s songs listed under Lady Antebellum, the group changed its name to Lady A in 2020. Unfortunately, the word Antebellum is tied to slavery, which they never wanted to be associated with, so it was a respectful change intended to make their stance on the issue clear. Whatever you call them, here are the top ten best Lady Antebellum songs of all time.
10. Bartender
Getting over your ex can be difficult. Fortunately, if you have good friends, they’ll help you get out of your headspace, and that often means getting dressed up and going out for a night on the town. Bartender is all about forgetting the past and getting lost in a few drinks and a night of dancing with your friends. Although drinking won’t make the past truly disappear, it can give you some relief for a while, especially when you have a good time and live in the moment.
9. Compass
One of the things that makes Lady A’s song Compass so special is that country music writers didn’t write it. Indeed, the trio’s delivery made the song a number one country hit but having a different perspective and style likely contributed to this song landing in the top fifty for the all-genre music billboard as well. According to The Boot, Compass was written by Mikkel Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Ammar Malik, Ross Golan, Daniel Omelio, and Emile Haynie during a writers camp where they all got together and worked on new ideas as a group.
8. Downtown
While most of Lady A’s songs are decidedly wholesome, Downtown is widely considered to be a nuanced song with a very distinct bawdy double entendre. The singer talks about a lover who never takes her ‘downtown’ anymore. Whether intentional or not, the lyrics definitely seem to be discussing fellatio.
7. Our Kind Of Love
Moving away from the nearly raunchy, Our Kind of Love is about as wholesome as it gets. There are a lot of songs about ‘going downtown’ these days, and not a few that are entirely explicit. Meanwhile, Our Kind of Love is about skipping stones on lazy summer afternoons and making faces at each other.
6. American Honey
It seems that most people are in a rush to grow up, but not in American Honey. This is a simple song about a sweet young woman who grew up slow, in a churchgoing community, and ended up ‘pure and sweet like American Honey.’ There’s no entendre here. The lyrics speak for themselves.
5. What If I Never Get Over You
Every country musician needs a good breakup anthem. For Lady A, that anthem is What If I Never Get Over You. Feeling brokenhearted about a failed relationship is as close to universal as feelings get. The sense of loss and sorrow are pervasive, and mourning that loss takes time for most people. The fear that bad feelings and depression won’t ever leave can be downright terrifying at times.
4. I Run To You
I Run To You is unique because it was the band’s first number-one hit. A willingness to openly speak out against prejudice and hate garnered the song lots of positive attention. Co-Writer Tom Douglas who worked with Lady A to create this song shortly after finishing a marathon himself, told American Songwriter, “This song has a pretty intelligent, mature lyric, and I think the guy on the barstool got it. Our experiences are pretty universal, and I think he wants to run from prejudice and pessimists just like I do. You don’t have to have an MBA from Harvard to feel that kind of thing; it’s all pretty universal.”
3. We Owned The Night
We Owned The Night is a quintessential song about the one who got away. We tend to see the past through proverbial rose-tinted glasses, coloring our memories with an idealized filter. Nevertheless, the singer clearly has fond memories of a woman from his past, and he wonders where she is now.
2. Just A Kiss
According to Taste of Country, Just A Kiss, “…sold over 211,000 digital copies in its first week, earning the No. 1 position on iTunes’ country singles chart.” Plus, the song debuted at No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. At the time, that was the highest debut for a country group in the chart’s 52-year history.
1. Need You Now
If you haven’t heard Need You Now, play this song right away. It doesn’t take much effort to see how Lady A won a Grammy for 2009’s Best Country Music Song. Moreover, it also won song of the year and album of the year. Need You Now is a beautiful, soulful country song that moves people to tears and brings up deep feelings. Plus, it gets stuck in your head. This is one of those career-making hits that no one ever forgets. Not only is Need You Now number one on this list, but nothing else even came close, which is saying a lot considering the sheer wealth of exceptional music this band puts out.
Final Thoughts
Lady A is a superb trio of singers with their fingers on the pulse of what people want from music. With hit after hit, they prove their prowess not only as country stars but as musicians in any genre. Since they got together in 2006, we’ve seen fifteen years of genuinely outstanding music from this band, and we’re looking forward to another fifteen. Once you finish this top ten list, please go check out some of their other billboard hits.
