A long history of being criminally underrated… in many ways, Eric Church is a bit of an enigma in country music. Oftentimes, he strays away from what many would consider to be classic hallmarks of the genre, including but not limited to rare uses of fiddle in many of his songs and the outright refusal to use steel guitar on many of his songs post Sinners Like Me. Despite this constant urge to push the limits and reinvent his sound, Church has remained not only one of the best artists in the genre over the two decades but also one of the most important, influencing megastars like Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs as well as alternative country standouts such as Carter Faith, Charles Wesley Godwin, Colby Acuff and more. When you actually take a look at his career accolades, it’s not quite as robust as you might think. Sure, he finally won his long-awaited CMA Entertainer of the Year Award in 2020, along with a double-up Album of the Year win at the ACMs and CMAs for Chief years before. With that being said, however, he’s never been an awards show darling like Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson or Miranda Lambert. Looking at his overall career chart-wise, it’s even more shocking. Despite being recognized as one of the best and most influential country artists of the 21st century, the “Springsteen” singer only has seven solo #1 hits on both of Billboard’s country charts (Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay). It should be noted that he has 11 in total if you count his four collaborative #1 singles: “The Only Way I Know” with Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean, “Raise ‘Em Up” with Keith Urban, “Does To Me” with Luke Combs and most recently, “Man Made A Bar” with Morgan Wallen. Even if you boost the total with collaborations, it still feels shockingly low for an artist of Church’s stature. Of course, you can chalk most of it up to him not playing the radio game, focusing on albums over singles and generally doing whatever he wants artistically, but it still had me thinking about which tracks were the most slept-on from a chart-perspective. Without further ado, here are the 10 most shocking songs from Eric Church that never went #1. “Round Here Buzz” For all intents and purposes, “Round Here Buzz” has been one of Church’s most popular songs to date, having over 130 million streams on Spotify alone, a 2x platinum certification from the RIAA and constant placement on his setlist night in and night out. Despite this, it fell just short of going #1, peaking at #2 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. In case you were wondering what blocked it, it was Russell Dickerson’s “Yours” (out of all the songs…) Peak Chart Position: #2 (Country Airplay) “Like A Wrecking Ball” Another track that has remained quite popular over the years, “Like A Wrecking Ball” is another Top 10 most-streamed song for the Chief that never got the love it deserved upon its release. Despite a 3x platinum certification, it only peaked at #6 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Peak Chart Position: #6 (Hot Country Songs) “Homeboy” More than likely, “Homeboy’s” low chart placement (#13 on Hot Country Songs) can be blamed on it being the lead single from Chief before it caught fire with its preceding singles, “Springsteen” and “Drink In My Hand.” Either way, #13 feels shockingly low considering it’s still a setlist staple for Church til this day. Peak Chart Position: #13 (Hot Country Songs) “Desperate Man” Being the lead single off his Grammy-nominated album of the same name, I’ve always viewed “Desperate Man” as one of the Chief’s most underrated radio singles. The Rolling Stones-inspired track may have been too rock-inspired for the boyfriend-country era in 2018, however, only peaking at #8 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Peak Chart Position: #8 (Hot Country Songs) “Heart On Fire” To me, “Heart On Fire” seemed like a guaranteed #1 hit for Church. Coming off the heels of his last solo #1, “Hell of a View,” it had a summertime vibe that felt perfect for radio at the time. Despite this, it didn’t receive much love on either Billboard chart, peaking at #12 on Hot Country Songs and #5 on Country Airplay. Peak Chart Position: #5 (Country Airplay) “Kill A Word” Given the timely nature of the song’s release near the 2016 presidential election, it felt like “Kill A Word” was another track that was destined to go #1. Despite its timely nature and popularity til this day, it only peaked at #6 on Country Airplay. Peak Chart Position: #6 (Country Airplay) “Like Jesus Does” As Chief’s final single, “Like Jesus Does” served as the album’s only love ballad to go to radio, and it has all the makings of a mainstream country hit. But much like “Kill A Word,” it also only peaked at #6 on Country Airplay. Peak Chart Position: #6 (Country Airplay) “Love Your Love The Most” Church has gone on record saying that “Love Your Love The Most” was his best attempt at trying to play the radio game and releasing a more cookie-cutter song to radio. Though it seemed like a good plan on paper, and “Love Your Love The Most” wipes the floor with most of country radio, the track shockingly only peaked at #10 on Hot Country Songs in 2009. It did, however, become his first Top 10 hit. Peak Chart Position: #10 (Hot Country Songs) “Creepin'” Coming directly off the heels of “Springsteen” and “Drink In My Hand,” “Creepin'” was Chief’s fourth single. Despite being a fan-favorite, one that has stood the test of time, the track was probably a bit too eclectic for radio and wound up peaking at #5 on Country Airplay. Peak Chart Position: #5 (Country Airplay) “Russian Roulette” Though this falls a bit into honorable mention territory due to it never being released to radio, “Russian Roulette” was always envisioned to be a single off his first installment of the 2021 triple album, Heart & Soul. There was only one catch: the word Russian. Just a day before he was planning on releasing the track to radio, Russia invaded Ukraine, and if you can remember at the time, stores were pulling Russian vodka and anything associated with Russia from their shelves, bars were renaming “White Russians,” and pretty much the entire world (for the most part) was condemning Russia and their attack. All of a sudden, anything that mentioned Russia was off limits – and Church had to pull the song. This recently came to light this past October at a show in Grand Rapids, where he recalled his disappointment at not being able to send the song to radio: “This next song we’ve not done on this tour. It was my favorite song off the Heart project, ‘Heart & Soul.’ It was going to be a radio single, I think it’s a hit. And the night before we were going to release it, THE night before, Russia invaded Ukraine, and all of a sudden, anything that had Russia in it was not awesome. So I always send this out to Vladimir. He can f–king spin on it.” Incredibly understandable, but it’s a shame the track never got its shot, given it had #1 hit written all over it. Peak Chart Position: N/A And honestly, that’s just some of them… The entire Sinner Like Me album, including singles “How ‘Bout You,” “Two Pink Lines,” “Sinners Like Me,” and “Guys Like Me” failed to crack the Top 10. Another radio-friendly song from Carolina, “Hell On The Heart,” topped out at #10, the title track and lead single to The Outsiders hit #6, and “Cold One,” which should’ve fit right in with the bro-country drinkin’ tunes of 2014, couldn’t get past #20 on the country charts. And there’s even more… We all know that mainstream country radio leaves a lot to be desired, but one look at Eric Church’s discography, and his chart success, and well, it’s downright criminal.The post 10 Eric Church Songs That Shockingly Never Went #1 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.