Maybe in 1961 pop music was a little sleepy, as Bob Dylan suggested. Or maybe it was just catching its breath. The Brill Building songwriters were still turning out hits for the likes of Ben E King.

These three country songs all came out in the year 1961, and will always be considered country music classics.

Tehuan Harris is a news and features journalist at Collider, reporting and writing about all things music and reality TV (sometimes). She is a talented journalist and a natural storyteller who writes ...