Vchimp - If you don't like Sheryl Crow, you're not going to be too happy to hear this... she's reportedly working on a country album for release later this year. She's already said she thinks it sounds a lot more country than much of what is now played on country radio.
She's charted at country before, not only on Kid Rock's "Picture" but with her version of "The First Cut Is The Deepest." She and Jewel were at least easier to swallow when it came to country music than was Jessica Simpson.
I don't think "All I Wanna Do" (which is also my least favorite song by her) sounds very country at all. "If It Makes You Happy" also features a steel guitar (on verse two), and I don't think it sounds country either.
Tom Jones not only got "some country time" with "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow," he went to #1 on the chart.
Jimmy Buffett's "Come Monday" from 1974 sounds country to me, although "Margaritaville" - which was actually a Top 20 country hit - does not (to me at least, though it still gets some airplay on WYCD in Detroit - to be fair, though, WYCD plays quite a bit of music that is not country, and way too much Kid Rock for my tastes). Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" also made Top 20 country when it was current. A lot of Lightfoot's material sounds more authentically country than most of what's played on country today, especially songs like "Rainy Day People" from 1975.
Speaking of WYCD, I remember them playing Bonnie Raitt's "Something To Talk About" in the mid-1990s (the station was not around yet when the song was a current hit). It actually fit pretty well among all the other "Young Country" they played.
And WYCD has also played Ricky Nelson's "Travelin' Man" on their Sunday-morning oldies show. Did Nelson even chart country at all?