Top 5 Country Songs That Make You Want To Kick Up Your Boots

The top 5 country music songs for Line Dancing

5,6,7,8! Right arm left arm right palm left palm cross your arms hands on the head now to the waist shake those hips turn! Congratulations, you just completed a line dance! There is a good chance you have done this one before, its called the Macarena! Or maybe you have done the Cha-Cha-Slide! Both are forms of line dances! A line dance can be defined as a choreographed dance with a repeated sequence of steps in which a group of people dance in one or more lines or rows and executing the steps at the same time. So yes, even those of you that claim you "can't dance" can step onto the dance floor for this one.

Although line dancing is closely associated with country music now, it originated from folk and contra dancing. These dance styles were different than the ones today because they involved dancing specifically with a partner. Don't worry these line dances I am about to are all for an individual so you don't have to worry about tripping on someone else's feet. In the early 1970's line dancing went country! People began to pull on their boots and dance the night away at their local country and western dance halls and clubs.

Below is a list of five of the best line dancing songs. No matter what dance hall you choose to go to, they are bound to play a couple of these songs because they pull a huge crowd onto the dance floor. A link to the tutorial for the dance is included so follow along and you will be a pro in no time.

1. Boot Scootin’ Boogie- (1990) Brooks & Dunn

Line Dance Name: Boot Scoot

Best Tutorial: https://youtu.be/gsWZBLzawjc

"Boot Scootin' Boogie" is a classic line dancing song! Boot Scootin' Boogie was written by Kix Brooks and recorded first by country music group Asleep At The Wheel, then shortly after by Brooks & Dunn. This song is said to have renewed an interest in line dancing through the United States. This might be due to its relatable content. The song is about a hard-working guy who likes to go to his favorite honky-tonk bar to unwind and dance, so the song was a natural fit. The song literally encourages people to go out and dance. Bill Blader was the original choreographer of this dance. He "started teaching the line dance in Vancouver, where it was also known as the "Vancouver Boogie." It quickly spread to every bar, even those that weren't only playing country music. Boot Scootin' Boogie and Country Girl Shake both had this effect which helped each song draw in a diverse audience leading to the song and line dances popularity.

2. Achy Breaky Heart- (1992) Billy Ray Cyrus

Line Dance name: Achy Breaky

Best Tutorial: https://youtu.be/JbHBbFIFH2o

Like every awkward high schooler, Billy Ray Cyrus was “too bashful to get on the floor at high school dances.” Maybe it was his mullet that helped over come this fear but his hit song “Achy Breaky Heart” hides his shy high school self and breaks out the dancer in him. This song became the most popular and prominent of the United States line dancing craze of the early '90s. Cyrus was not the first to perform “Achy Breaky Heart.” It was originally called “Don’t Tell My Heart” by the Marcy Brothers. Billy Ray took it to a crossover pop and country sound in 1992 which led it to reach number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and top the Hot Country Songs Chart.

The music video not only shows off Billy Ray’s mullet but also features bits of the line dance. Similar to “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” the music video for “Achy Breaky Heart” shows them doing the line dance. One of the reasons these line dances both had so much success was because MTV began playing music videos in the early 80’s. In this new form of entertainment people could listen to music and also watch the video. This could draw in people that just liked the song but saw the video and learned the line dance or assist those that wanted to learn the dance. The Achy Breaky Line Dance is still done in dance halls all around the United States today.

3. “Watermelon Crawl”- (1994) Tracy Byrd

Line dance name: The Crawl

Best tutorial: https://youtu.be/kGlIz1pATCg

Have you ever tried red wine made from watermelons? If you answered yes, then hopefully you listened to the narrator of Tracy Byrd’s 1994 hit “Watermelon Crawl” and did not drive home. This song is all about doing a dance called “The Watermelon Crawl” instead of driving home drunk from the annual Watermelon Festival. Apparently people don’t go for the watermelon. They go for the booze. In the moment drinking alcohol and dancing sounds like a great idea but usually you’ll see the videos of yourself the next day and think otherwise! This line dance is fairly simple and it’s a classic at dance halls. The Crawl incorporates a dance move called “the grapevine.” Some like to have fun with it and add in some additional hips and turns too. These moves can also be seen in the song we are going to be talking about next, “Footloose.”

4. Footloose- (2011) Blake Shelton

Line dance name: Slappin’ Leather

Best Tutorial: https://youtu.be/CXTfOJD3qYo

If you haven’t seen the movie Footloose (2011) you are truly missing out. Blake Shelton covered the song “Footloose” in 2011 for the remake of the 1984 film about the role of dancing in the small town in Oklahoma. Originally co-written and recorded by Kenny Loggins the song “Footloose” was released in January 1984 and remained at number one on the US Billboard hot 100 for three weeks. The remake of the movie “Footloose” brought this song to back into the limelight. “There are two ways to bring back a song: one is to try to make it your own,” Blake Shelton told The Boot, “and in this instance, you have to remove yourself from it and step into the role of what’s best for the movie and that particular scene.”

The Slappin’ Leather line dance is not the line dance that is shown in the movie Footloose (2011). The movie is mostly known for a different line dance to Big & Rich’s “Fake I.D.” Slappin’ Leather became the line dance for the title track due to its fun energy. The reason it is called Slappin’ Leather is because you slap your hand to your leather boot 3 times in a row each time you turn to a new wall. For anyone that has seen the movie they can agree that the song plays a vital role in the final scene and makes you want to get up and dance yourself.

5. Country Girl Shake- (2011) Luke Bryan

Line Dance: Country Girl Shake

Best Tutorial: https://youtu.be/VPOD4pm0r4I

Luke Bryan wrote “Country Girl (Shake It For Me) and had no idea the response he’d get. After listening to some hip hop songs Bryan was inspired to write something that “some kids like that will want to rock at their pool party or play at a honkytonk” (Song Facts). Just like “The Watermelon Crawl” this song did just that. According to Marco Club Connection, in 2011 it was the biggest song in country dance clubs beating out Blake Shelton’s Footloose.

Many believe that this line dance was created by his fans because the song is clearly stating what Luke Bryan wants this girl to do. “Get up on the hood of my daddy’s tractor / Up on the tool box, it don’t matter / Down on the tailgate, girl I can’t wait / To watch you do your thing.” Every girl listening to this song dances their heart out because they can hear the voice of Luke Bryan telling them to do so. Luke Bryan has even allowed girls to jump on his stage to demonstrate the line dance. If that is not a reason to learn the dance, then I don’t know what is.

I hope the above information and given tutorials has encouraged you to at least try one line dance. After you get the steps down for one line dance, it makes the others so much easier to pick up. Many line dancing steps are repetitive in other songs but in different orders and at different speeds. So what are you waiting for, get to boot scootin'.