The Greatest American Songwriters: Ashley Gorley
Most songwriters in America, and in the world in general, struggle and stumble to climb up that daunting wall of success. For most of us, we’re told “No” like it’s our first name. Many songwriters do end up successful. Some get a big hit. Some get some sync play on TV, or some album cuts. Though then you find a once-in-a-lifetime songwriter like Ashley Gorley.
Born in 1977, Gorley’s still a very young man though has had more songwriting success than any ten people you could find and combine. Gorley has 55 number-one hits. That’s fifty-five songs that went to #1 on the Billboard charts. There are no words in the English language to adequately explain just how incredibly impressive–and unprecedented–that is. Gorley’s a man with his finger on the pulse of what the country music fan-base wants, and he delivers time and time again.
Far beyond Gorley’s amazing 55 number-ones, he also has hundreds upon hundreds of album cuts for a wide range of different artists. If you’ve seen a trendy country music t-shirt lately, odds are pretty good the graphic used might be from one of his hit songs.
Ashley Gorley was born in Kentucky, and he exploded onto the scene in 2009, winning a prestigious Songwriter of the Year award. Soon after, he started stacking the hits. He also opened his own publishing company, Tape Room Music, which features a range of talented artists who combined have a total of 24 number-one hits recorded.
In total, Gorley has won an astounding 16 separate Songwriter of the Year awards and continues this momentum in 2021. Good music continues to flow from Gorley again and again.
While it took until 2009 for Gorley to win an award, he had written his first hit by 2005, with “Don’t Forget to Remember Me,” which was a smash for Carrie Underwood and really started to usher in a new era of country music, especially where country music radio was concerned.
When it comes to the greatest American songwriters, Ashley Gorley is up there with the best who ever lived.
