George Strait is Billboard’s No. 1 ranked artist on their top 25 list for country music artists from the last 25 years.
The list headed by Strait includes Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire and Garth Brooks in the top 5. Billboard compiled the list to celebrate country music’s big week with the CMT Music Awards and Billboard’s Country Summit. They combed the Top Country Albums and Billboard Hot Country Songs charts to come up with a ranking of the top 25 country music artists from the past 25 years, from 1985 to 2010.
Strait is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and holds several Billboard all-time records. He has had 44 No. 1 hits on the Hot Country Songs chart. It is the most from any artist over the 64 year history of the chart. In September 2006 Strait became number one when his single “Give It Away” hit No. 1, becoming his 41st overall, moving Conway Twitty, previous record holder, into the No. 2 spot. Strait has also had 82 singles in the top 10. He is in second place behind Eddy Arnold who had 92 top 10 hits. Strait is the only musician in Billboard history to have top 10 singles thirty years in a row (1981-2010).
Billboard’s ranking for Top Country Artists 1985-2010 was based on actual performances on the charts Top Country Albums and Hot Country Songs for the time period of January 5, 1985 to May 29, 2010. The inverse point system used to rank the artists gives greater weight to weeks spent at No. 1, while weeks on the lower part of the chart earn less value.
