In this week’s Country Update lead story, Billboard exclusively revealed the top all-time country songwriters as named in Record Research’s new book Joel Whitburn’s Top Country Singles 1944-2025, which will be published June 4.
Two modern songwriters — Ashley Gorley (“I Had Some Help,” “I Am Not Okay”) and Shane McAnally (“Body Like a Back Road,” “Mama’s Broken Heart”) — ranked No. 1 and No. 2 on Record Research’s first-ever study of the Top Country Songwriters 1944-2025, based on the Billboard charts. Billboard unveils the top 10 exclusively in this edition, while a full list of the top 40 appears in Joel Whitburn’s Top Country Singles 1944-2025, due to be published by Record Research June 4. The book arrives concurrently with the launch of the annual CMA Fest in Nashville.
– Tom Roland, Billboard