"Stand Beside Me," Jo Dee Messina (1998)

A tough broad's anthem

Peak: #1 on the country chart (#34 on the Hot 100)
Streams: 7.4 million

Jo Dee Messina got the weirdest career boost in 2022. That’s when Cole Swindell released “She Had Me at Heads Carolina,” a Möbius strip of a song that puts new lyrics to the tune of “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” Messina’s breakthrough hit. And here’s the thing: Swindell’s song is about a guy who falls in love with a woman he sees singing “Heads Carolina, Tails California” at a karaoke bar. So he’s adapting her music to tell his story. The implication is that Jo Dee’s original is the most powerful country tune of all time.