To celebrate the serial hitmaker, BMI and EMI Music Publishing co-hosted a dinner on January 27 in Nashville and awarded him a plaque marking the occasion.

Pictured are (back row, l-r): BMI’s Jody Williams and Bradley Collins; EMI Music Publishing’s Laura Wright; BMI’s Mark Mason; wife Sarah Davidson; and BMI’s Leslie Roberts, Perry Howard, and Clay Bradley; (front row, l-r): EMI Music Publishing’s Tom Luteran and Ben Vaughn, Dallas Davidson; and EMI Music Publishing’s Missy Wilson. Photo by Eric England

Written By: Matt Bjorke with Roughstock

Joe Nichols started recording on a long-gone indie label called Intersound Records as a 19 year old somewhere in the mid-late 1990s.  He returned on a major label deal (the new Universal South Records) and has spent the past decade recording hits for the label (now merged with Show Dog Music to form Show Dog-Universal Music).  To celebrate his decade of hits, Joe and Show Dog-Universal have released Joe Nichols Greatest Hits a lean 10 song collection that offers up his biggest hits in an affordable package.

The album kicks off with “Gimmie That Girl,” a song which hit #1 on the charts late in the spring of last year and is immediately followed by the only other track from 2009’s Old Things Newalbum, the current single “The Shape I’m In.”  Both songs were written by the Peach Pickers, the hot songwriting collective of Dallas Davidson, Ben Hayslip and Rhett Akins.  They’re both immediate; radio-ready slices of ear candy that showcase Joe’s Haggard-esque voice in an easily digestible way.   “Gimmie” is the second-biggest hit of Joe’s career and is one of two Gold-selling singles for him, after his signature single “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,” a fun irreverent story song from 2005 that was written by John Wiggins (of 90s brother-sister duo John & Audrey Wiggins) and Gary Hannan.