Morgan Wallen is an American singer and songwriter. Having been born in Tennessee, Wallen is mainly popular for his country music. He rose to stardom after joining the 6th season of The Voice. His first album was released in 2015, called “Stand Alone” under Panacea Records. He then moved to another record label called Big Loud Record in 2016.
He’s one of the most recent names in country music, and if you’re a huge fan of this genre, you should try listening to his songs. Don’t worry. We’ll let you know what you need to put on your playlist. For your next Morgan Wallen Songs marathon, here are his best hits.
Best Morgan Wallen Songs
1. “Up Down”
The song “Up Down” is mainly about having a good time. It was written by CJ Solar, Michael Hardy, and Brad Clawson, which was then recorded by Morgan Wallen and the duo Florida Georgia Line. Wallen went on tour with the duo, and when he called them up asking for advice whether or not he should record his best friend Michael Hardy’s song, the duo said they wanted to meet with Wallen in the studio. It was then that the Florida Georgia Line was featured in the song.
Hardy, Solar, and Clawson all said that they just wanted to write a song about the “redneck lifestyle” of being on a boat and drinking beer. The song went on to be part of the Top Ten of the Country Singles charts, which then earned Wallen a gold record.
2. “Whiskey Glasses”
This next song from Wallen was written by Ben Burgess and Kevin Kadish, who is also the co-writer of “All About that Bass” and many more of Megan Trainor’s songs. “Whiskey Glasses” is about trying to drink away the pain of a breakup, something which Wallen believes that a lot of us have been through. However, the song also plays on the other meaning of “glasses,” which is something you wear on your eyes to see clearer.
“Whiskey Glasses” reached the top of the charts in two of Billboard’s country charts; Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs.
3. “More Than My Hometown”
“More Than My Hometown” is about a young couple from a small town, perhaps loosely based on Wallen and his girlfriend’s story. It was written by Wallen himself along with his best friend Michael Hardy, Ryan Vojtesak, and Ernest Keith Smith, who were also Wallen’s co-writers on his song “This Bar.” The song talks about the couple growing up in the same town but having different dreams in life.
The girl in the song wants to discover and travel the world or achieve something more, which we can see in the line,
“Yeah, you got a wild in your eyes that I just wasn’t born with”
Wallen, who plans to stay in the place he grew up in, then has to bid his girl goodbye because he doesn’t want to leave his hometown.
“But baby, this might be the last time I get to lay you down
Cause I can’t love you more than my hometown”
However, Wallen and the girl in the song have somewhat opposite positions in real life. It was his real-life girlfriend back then that stayed in Tennessee while Wallen moved to Nashville to pursue his career in music.
4. “7 Summers”
This is a heartbreaking song that talks about missing someone and not being able to move on from a past relationship, even though it’s been years since the two of you broke up. Shane McAnally was the one who thought of the title, and she, Wallen, and Josh Osborne wrote the lyrics, which was inspired by Wallen’s experiences in 2013. It was then produced by Joey Moi, who is also the producer of Wallen’s biggest hits like “Up Down,” “More Than My Hometown,” and “Whiskey Glasses.”
Before recording the song, Wallen tested out how the audience would receive it. He shared the first verse and the chorus on his social media, which then became famous on the internet, especially on TikTok. This was his second song to reach number one on the Country chart after “Whiskey Glasses.”
5. “Chasin’ You”
Morgan Wallen said that he knew he could sing, but he didn’t know if he could write songs. After moving to Nashville back in 2016, he met up with Craig Wiseman and Jamie Moore, and the three of them wrote the song. It was the first song Wallen wrote after leaving his hometown, which is why he says it’s rather special to him.
Additionally, it’s also about what he was going through at the time, and writing about it somehow helped him through the experience. After all, “Chasin’ You” is somewhat about losing his girl after leaving. The song talks about thinking about chasing someone from your past, like your ex, even though you are holding someone new.
6. “Sand in My Boots”
The song “Sand in My Boots” is about a beach fling that the persona thought would actually be a lasting relationship. It’s about a girl he met on the beach, and he wanted her to come with him to East Tennessee, which is Wallen’s hometown. However, the girl didn’t show up the next morning.
This was the first track in his album Dangerous. Half of the songs were about Wallen’s past relationships, while the other half was about the redneck lifestyle. Despite the song sounding as if it’s a real-life experience of Wallen, he actually didn’t write or even co-write it. It was written by Josh Osborne, Ashley Gorley, and his best friend Michael Hardy, who had the concept of the song saved in his phone for a long time.
Another country singer, Luke Bryan, also expressed his interest in the demo after Hardy had finished it. However, it was already a done deal with Wallen, which is why he was the one who got to record the studio version of it.
7. “Wasted on You”
Never one to shy away from wordplays like what we’ve seen in “Whiskey Glasses,” Morgan Wallen’s song “Wasted on You” also has two meanings. First, it’s about getting drunk and “wasted” because of not being able to get over his ex. The second meaning is about all of the things he “wasted” on his past lover, from time, money, miles on his Chevrolet, and even the matchstick he uses to light his cigarette to maybe reduce his emotional distress.
When Wallen moved to Nashville back in 2015, he got to know Katie Smith after a couple of years. The two of them started dating, but their relationship was rather rocky. Despite that, they got engaged, and Smith gave birth to a baby. However, they had broken up at this point. Wallen’s fans and listeners believe that “Wasted on You” is about Katie Smith.
8. “Somebody’s Problem”
This song was co-written with three of Wallen’s friends; Rodney Clawson, Jacob Durrett, and Ernest Keith Smith. “Somebody’s Problem” is a country love song that talks about meeting a girl at a party and falling in love at first sight. Wallen wonders why the girl does not have a man with her, and he then concludes that whoever the woman’s ex is must have probably seen flaws in her. However, Wallen thinks that the girl deserves better, and if she’s a problem for someone else, he’s certain she wouldn’t be a problem for him, and he will treat her better.
On the 5th day of December 2020, “Somebody’s Problem” reached number three on the Country chart. His song “Still Goin’ Down” was also on the chart, making him the first artist to debut two songs at the same time in the Top 10 ranking.
When the COVID pandemic hit the world in March 2020, Wallen already had about 100 songs which he would then filter for his Dangerous album. He went on to write six more songs, and “Somebody’s Problem” was the last one. It almost didn’t make it to the album, but Wallen loved it so much that he squeezed it in.
Funnily enough, the origin of the song is just a comment from his friend Ernest Keith Smith. When they were driving to a writing session, Wallen saw a pretty girl and said, “I wonder who that is,” to which Smith replied with, “I don’t know, but looks like somebody’s problem to me.”
9. “Spin You Around”
Wallen became famous for his laid-back songs. However, “Spin You Around” will really take you for a spin because it’s a more powerful take on Wallen’s musical characteristics. It also includes an electrifying guitar solo right on the song’s bridge.
The song is from Wallen’s album Stand Alone and is almost a mix of soft rock and country. It talks about meeting a girl and doing all that you can to make that girl fall in love. Unlike a lot of Wallen’s songs that talk about breakups, “Spin You Around” gives us a more blissful take on love.
10. “Cover Me Up”
“Cover Me Up” was originally recorded by Jason Isbell. However, Morgan Wallen’s take on it is also noteworthy. It’s a rather dark song, which first talks about distrust, paranoia, and even delusion, which are sometimes caused by alcohol addiction.
However, towards the latter parts of the song, we see the persona in ruins, while the girl he loves stays by his side and helps him through it all. It’s a song about overcoming your problems, straightening up, and being a better person for the one you love.
11. “Still Goin’ Down”
We mentioned earlier that his track “Somebody’s Problem” reached the Top 10 Country chart with another song. Well, it’s just a testament to how great the song is, which is why we also included it in this list of the best songs from Morgan Wallen. “Still Goin’ Down” is about Wallen’s life when he was still living in Sneedville, a relatively small town outside of Knoxville. Co-written with Charlie Handsome and Michael Hardy, Wallen talks about his roots.
Being from the south and growing up as the son of a Baptist pastor, Wallen sings;
“I’m from a small town, southern drawl crowd
We’re sippin’ clear, drinkin’ beer on a Friday night”
The first verse also explains his upbringing and how his 1,400-population hometown is so small that there’s little to no crime going on in the place that people don’t have to lock their doors.
“The way I talk, I guess I got it from my pops
Product of some kneelin’ down
In a town where the doors don’t lock”
If you want to learn more about where Wallen came from, check out our list of songs about Tennessee.
12. “Dangerous”
Morgan Wallen says “Dangerous” is one of those songs about regret. It’s a letter to himself about trying to be a better man and avoiding getting overly drunk that sometimes leads him to dangerous scenarios. In May 2020, Wallen was arrested in Nashville for disorderly conduct and public intoxication. He and his friend Ernest Smith wrote the song a few weeks after the incident.
While the song is entirely about the arrest, Smith and Wallen added a little twist by writing that the persona was going through a heartbreak.
The song perfectly captures the essence of the album, which was about Wallen’s experiences, the lessons he’d learned, and the things he wanted to tell himself. This led him to make “Dangerous” the title track of the album.
13. “865”
It’s not unusual to have numbers in a song’s title, and Wallen’s “865” is proof of that. It’s about drinking to forget a past lover but leading the persona to drunk dial his ex. The title is from a phone number, which we see in the last two lines of the chorus,
“I know I told you I wouldn’t call, and I tried
But this bottle tastes like 865 (409-1021)”
865 is a real area code, which is what you dial if you’re trying to call a number in Knoxville. 865 (409-2021), on the other hand, is a number for a US company called TelePunch. The title was supposed to be 919, which is the area code for North Carolina. However, when songwriters John Byron and Blake Pendergrass presented it to Wallen, the latter suggested that they change it to 865 because he wanted it to feel more personal and “homey” to him since Wallen came from a small town outside Knoxville. Wallen later apologized and said, “Whoever owns that number [865 (409-20210], I’m really sorry.”
14. “Livin’ the Dream”
Ironically, this song is not as optimistic as you think it would be. It’s a rather brutally honest take on the negative effects of stardom. In 2020 alone, Wallen got arrested, was pulled from a supposed performance on SNL, and revealed he has a son. That’s why he thinks stardom is not always as grand as people assume it is.
“Another day, another venue
There’s trouble to get into”
He says that he’s extremely happy for all the blessings he has received so far, but he’s not always happy. Wallen then went on to say that “Livin’ the Dream” is a song he and his friends co-wrote coming from the “not always happy” part.
15. “Warning”
Written by Ernest Smith, Charlie Handsome, and Ashley Gorley, “Warning” is about giving into temptation and hooking up with a girl. The persona in the song says that things like late-night phone calls, driving to the girl’s place, and buying her a bottle of whiskey should come with a warning that it’s going to be a heartbreak.
Wallen gave his fans a preview of the song via an Instagram post. It was a snippet of the song’s acoustic version, and Wallen asked his fans whether or not the song should be part of his Dangerous album.
16. “Only Thing That’s Gone”
In this song, Wallen enlists the help of another country singer, Chris Stapleton, whom he admires. Wallen sends a few Dangerous tracks to Stapleton and asks if there’s anything from them that he thinks he could be part of. Stapleton then said “Only Thing That’s Gone” stood out, so he recorded it in the studio and song on the chorus and the second verse. Since the song was recorded during the early months of the pandemic, the two of them never actually met while recording the song.
“Only Thing That’s Gone” is about a brokenhearted man drinking in a bar, trying to forget his sorrows.
17. “Silverado For Sale”
Nothing says “country music” than when you’re talking about trucks and love stories. Well, Wallen’s “Silverado For Sale” mixes these two in the song. This track is about how the persona is selling his truck to buy a ring for the girl he wants to marry. The chorus of the song is what the persona want to say in the ad for the Chevrolet Silverado, and how the truck will give the next owner a chance to spend the best moments with his girl.
18. “This Bar”
Early in this article, we mentioned how Wallen and his friends wrote “More Than My Hometown.” The same friends also wrote the last song on this list, “This Bar.” We believe it’s the best way to end this list, as this song talks about how Wallen’s experiences shaped his life and made him who he is today. Whether these experiences are good or bad doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, all of these experiences provided him with valuable life lessons, and who doesn’t love songs about growing up, right?
Conclusion
Morgan Wallen is one of the best country singers you could listen to right now. He sings straight from the heart and writes honestly, based on anything and everything that he experiences. Whether you’re going through a heartbreak or having fun, whip out this list of the best Morgan Wallen songs and listen to the man himself all day long.