Top 10 Sheryl Crow Songs: Deep Tracks

Sheryl Crow has been one of the most successful artists in the music industry for over the past 23 years. With a bucket full of hits singles and Grammy Awards, Sheryl Crow has become one of this world’s most cherished artists. However, great artists do not just release hit singles, they release albums full of substance. Fans won’t find any filler on a Sheryl Crow album.

In the old days of 1970s FM radio, artists like Sheryl Crow would have received airplay on album-oriented rock stations. However, Sheryl Crow’s career became established long after the album-oriented radio format disappeared. While FM radio has paid great attention to her hit singles, it has ignored her deep album tracks. This list takes a look at some of Sheryl Crow’s finest songs that were never released as singles. Since Sheryl Crow has been releasing albums that have shown great artistic growth, we spread out our choices over her entire body of work.

# 10 – Free Man

It was tough to pick a song off Sheryl Crow’s first album Tuesday Night Music Club because just about every song on that album received substantial airplay as that record was a huge hit. However, echoing the concept of the great 45 rpm non-album B Sides established by artists like Bruce Springsteen, and Elton John, Sheryl Crow released some great ones early in her career. Our pick to start out our Top 10 Sheryl Crow Songs Deep Tracks list is the B side to “Every Day Is A Winding Road.”

The song was also released on import versions of her second album. In the old days, a B side was dedicated to a 45 rpm vinyl record.  Regardless, of which release you may find it on, Sheryl Crow’s “Free Man,” is one killer track. (Another couple of great B Sides from the early days were the songs “Reach Around Jerk,” and “Volvo Cowgirl 99”)

# 9 – Love Is A Good Thing

With the huge success of Tuesday Night Music Club, there must have been intense pressure to follow up on that Grammy Award winning album. Three years later in 1996, Sheryl Crow released an album that showed tremendous growth as a songwriter. The album simply titled Sheryl Crow would spawn five hit singles. It was one of those albums that fans consistently spun in their CD players.

Thirteen songs of pure pop perfection!  It was tough to pick a Deep Track from this record because every track is extraordinary. So, we picked two from this album. Our first pick was the 1970s groove-oriented “Love is a Good Thing.” Just take a listen, you know we are right! And by the way, the lyrics to this song got the album banned from Walmart for a while because of the Walmart Gun purchase reference  Good for you Sheryl!

# 8 – Riverwide

The song “Riverwide,” was released on Sheryl Crow’s third album entitled The Globe Sessions. The song “Riverwide,” was a wide departure from the pop-oriented rock music that filled the first two Sheryl Crow Albums. Once again Crow demonstrated continued musical growth in both her songwriting and singing. While The Globe Sessions album still contained he big-sounding pop rock hits that we all loved, the song “Riverwide,” contained elements of blues, Led Zeppelin style licks, and mid-western phrasing that defined possibly some of Sheryl Crow’s Missouri roots.

# 7 – Our Love is Fading

One of our favorite Sheryl Crow albums was her 2010 album 100 Miles From Memphis. The first single released from the album was the track “Summer Day.” However, it’s the album’s opening number “Our Love is Fading,” that just kills it. Young musicians need to watch this video and learn from it. This is musicianship! This is the real deal!

# 6 – We Oughta Be Drinkin’

This one just feels like the sequel to “All I Wanna Do.” We are not sure if that was the intention, but it’s got that same happy-go-lucky groove that people loved from the first big hit. The song was released on Sheryl Crow’s spectacular country-themed record Feels Like Home. The album was released in 2013.  I thought this was a very underrated album. Sheryl Crow composed some of the best songs of her career for this record. She seemed very inspired by the country music setting surrounding this album.

# 5 – Superstar

Once again, Sheryl Crow demonstrated on this great track her 1970’s inspired roots. The electric piano was such a prominent sound during the early Sheryl Crow years. Its featured prominently throughout this great track. The hot intro leads the listener into a grooving verse that explodes into a dynamic chorus that just bleeds 1970s soul. You can hear echoes of the Rolling Stones in the rhythm. And that ain’t a bad thing!

# 4 – Wildflower

If you were raised in the 1960s or 1970s, the one band that you could not help being inspired by was The Beatles. The title track from Sheryl Crow’s Wildflower album is a divine acoustic performance wrapped in slow heart-warming strings that pay homage to the 1960s. On the track “Wildflower,” Sheryl Crow sings at the top of her register in a bittersweet voice that resonates well with the lyrical identity of the song. Wildflower was a moment in time that showed the definite maturation of a great artist.

# 3 – Diamond Road

In 2002, Sheryl Crow released the album C’mon, C’mon. The record featured what we believe may be the greatest pop single of the 2000s. Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up The Sun,” was just pop perfection and simply defined an artist that had grown up in the 1970s listening to the music of The Beatles and Elton John. However, since this is the Top 10 Sheryl Crow Songs Deep Tracks list, the song is simply disqualified.

Nonetheless, from an album filled with pop gems, we have chosen Sheryl Crow’s “Diamond Road,” as our deep track. The song also featured Stevie Nicks on backup vocals. As far as the song “Diamond Road, “goes, many fans were surprised that this golden nugget, or should we say diamond, was never released as a single. It’s such a great song.

# 2 – Easy

Well for this great song, we are going to make one exception to our rule of no singles on this list. We reason that because the song only reached the 74th spot on the Billboard Pop Music charts, we can include it as one of the lesser-known songs in the Sheryl Crow catalog. And it’s a shame that it was not a big hit because it is a fantastic track.

The song “Easy,” was the lead-off single from Sheryl Crow’s 2013 Nashville album Feels Like Home. It’s amazing that the older Sheryl Crow gets, the more beautiful she looks, and the more wonderful she sounds

# 1 – God Bless This Mess

Sheryl Crow’s “God Bless This Mess,” was the lead-off track from her 2008 Detours album. The song’s audio on the album was compressed to simulate an old-time recording. It was done that way possible to present a message that has had to be repeated time and time again throughout history. This was Sheryl Crow’s protest song and it could not have come at a better point in time in 2008. We won’t get into the politics here, but Sheryl Crow’s performance of this song defined the soul of an artist that cared deeply for humanity and could not stay quiet. This one was as deep as it gets.

Updated August 3, 2023

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