Keith Urban—a country music artist and guitarist—is a Grammy award winner who has won at least four Grammys in the entirety of his career for his transformative, unique work in the industry. He’s one of America’s biggest hitmakers, but is he the man behind the lyrics? Does he write his own songs?
As a singer-songwriter, Urban writes the majority of his songs with the exception of a few that are written by other artists. He is also credited as the co-writer on tracks by Rodney Atkins, Pat MacDonald, and Ty Herndon.
Keep reading below to learn more about some of the best hits that Urban has produced in his spectacular music career.
Keith Urban’s Best Hits
Urban’s career has spanned across multiple decades, and in that time he has been very busy with producing great music for his fans to listen to. He has released at least eleven albums and as many as 49 singles.
As is the case with most things, with hard work comes results and that has definitely been the case for Urban who has managed to produce a massive number of top 10 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Music chart. At least 39 of his singles have appeared in the top ten, with almost half of these being chart toppers.
Let’s take a look at some of his best chart topping hits.
“Making Memories of Us” from Be Here
As the third single from his 2004 album, Be Here, “Making Memories of Us” was Urban’s remake of Tracy Byrd’s single that appeared on her album The Truth about Men, and it quickly topped the charts and remained at the top of the charts for five weeks. It later became the song that he sang to the American-Australian actress Nicole Kidman on their wedding day in 2006.
Overall, the album that the single is derived from received mixed reviews. BBC’s Sue Keogh noted in her review that, “He’s a phenomenal guitarist, like Brad Paisley, but has a dangerous edge that comes from flicked blond hair, tight jeans and an infectious energy on stage. He’s the David Beckham of country music.”
“Better Life” from Be Here
“Better Life”—the fourth single from Be Here—was Urban’s seventh chart topping hit on the Hot Country Music chart and it spent six weeks at the top. With an upbeat tempo and lyrics plagued with optimism about the future, what’s not to like about this one?
“You Gonna Fly” from Get Closer
As the fourth single from his 2010 album Get Closer, “You Gonna Fly” is a chart topping hit that wasn’t written by Urban. It was, in fact, written by Preston Brust, Chris Lucas, and Jaren Johnston while Urban dealt with the production side.
In a 2011 interview with Taste of Country, of the songwriting process, Lucas recalled, “It was a fun write, and we came out with a great song! Keith took it to a whole other level.”
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” from Ripcord
Here we have another chart topping hit that wasn’t written by the legendary Keith Urban. It was instead written by a trio of artists including Steven Lee Olsen, Hillary Lindsey, and Clint Lagerberg.
“Blue Ain’t Your Color”—the fourth single from his 2016 album Ripcord—has been a massive commercial and chart success for Urban.
Out of the 36 weeks it spent on the Hot Country Songs chart, it spent almost half of that time at number one. The hit single additionally received a total of two nominations at the 59th Grammy awards for the Best Country Solo Performance for Urban, while his songwriters received a nomination for the Best Country Song.