Artist · chart history · #666 in indie & aaa artist polls
Merle Haggard
Solo artist Oildale United States US country singer, guitarist, fiddler & songwriter
Merle Haggard is an artist from Oildale. Merle Haggard has 11 chart appearances on 6 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Mama Tried”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #348. The station that charted Merle Haggard most often is WFPK (Louisville, KY), with 6 appearances.
Merle Haggard came out of Oildale and sang like a man who had earned every word. His early years were hard ones, and he had criminal convictions and a prison sentence behind him before the country career got going. Once it did, he became a central pioneer of the Bakersfield sound, lean and hard-twanging, singing, writing, playing guitar and fiddle, with the Strangers behind him and Capitol among his labels.
His songs were about working people, and over more than five decades he racked up 38 number-one country hits. Some cut hard against the anti-war mood in some of the popular music of the day, "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me" above all. "Mama Tried" became a country standard, and rock radio's countdowns have made room for it too.
The honors piled up: the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977, the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994, the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 1997, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, and a Kennedy Center Honor and the California Hall of Fame in 2010. He died on his birthday, April 6, 2016.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Merle Haggard on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mama Tried | 4 | #348 | – | – | |
| 2 | Okie From Muskogee | 1 | #138 | – | – | |
| 3 | A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere | 1 | #424 | – | – | |
| 4 | Sing Me Back Home | 1 | #934 | – | – | |
| 5 | Swinging Doors | 1 | #1132 | – | – | |
| 6 | Working Man Blues | 1 | #1211 | – | – | |
| 7 | Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down | 1 | #1926 | – | – |
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1119 | Mama Tried | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2023 | 138 | Okie From Muskogee | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places |
| 2007 | 716 | Mama Tried | WTMD Top 897 Songs of All Time |
| 2006 | 669 | Artist ranking | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Artists (2006) |
| 2004 | 420 | Mama Tried | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) |
| 2001 | 348 | Mama Tried | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 424 | A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 934 | Sing Me Back Home | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1132 | Swinging Doors | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1211 | Working Man Blues | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2001 | 1926 | Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
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