The first round is in the books.
A ton of you sounded off on your favorite George Strait songs during the opening round of our George Strait Number Ones voting, and now we’ve got it narrowed down to 32.
But before we get back to voting, let’s take a look at some of the results from the opening round.
First, The Blowouts:
“One Night At a Time” really didn’t stand much of a chance against “Carrying Your Love With Me,” only managing to get 15% of the vote against one of King George’s biggest songs.
Likewise, “Blue Clear Sky” also got 85% of the vote against “I Know She Still Loves Me,” and “I Cross My Heart” scored 87% of the vote versus “So Much Like My Dad.”
The second-best performance of the round came from “You Look So Good In Love,” which pretty much destroyed “Right or Wrong” with 90% of the vote.
But the most dominant performance came from a song that wasn’t even a number one: “Amarillo By Morning,” which got a staggering 94% of the vote going up against “A Fire I Can’t Put Out.”
Just proves how stacked the King’s catalog really is.
The Nail-Biters:
The rest of the contests were quite a bit closer – some separated by only a few votes.
“The Chair” vs. “The Cowboy Rides Away” was a particularly tough matchup, but ultimately “The Cowboy Rides Away” (another song that wasn’t actually a number one) came out on top, bouncing one of George’s biggest hits early on in the tournament.
“Heartland” also had a rough draw having to go up against “Easy Come, Easy Go” so early on, and ultimately the theme song from Pure Country came up just short of moving on, with “Easy Come, Easy Go” getting 53% of the vote.
Quite a few people skipped over the matchup between “I’d Like To Have That One Back” and “The Man in Love With You,” so maybe it’s because those are two of his lesser-known number ones (imagine having so many #1 hits that some are “lesser known” than others), but the matchup was still one for the ages, with “The Man in Love With You” inching ahead at the last minute and moving on with just under 51%.
But the closest matchup, the one that had the most comments on social media from people agonizing over the decision, was between two of George’s biggest hits: “Ocean Front Property” vs. “All My Ex’s Live in Texas.” It really wasn’t even fair that these two had to face each other in the first round (but remember, the songs were seeded in chronological order).
At the end of the day, though, “Ocean Front Property” moved on by quite literally a handful of votes to secure its place in the next round.
Round of 32
So that’s the first round. And it ain’t getting any easier from there.
We’ve already seen that every vote counts, so you’re going to want to get those votes in if you want to see your favorite stay alive in this one.
Voting for the second round is open until 11:59 PM central time on Friday, and just like before, you can vote as many times as you want.
Let’s get to voting:
