Which Songs Have Gotten the Most Chair Turns on ‘The Voice’? (VIDEO)

Dan Clarendon October 9, 2023, 1:00 pm

'The Voice' blind auditions — Greg Gayne/NBC

The coaches of The Voice — and the fans watching from home — have heard hundreds of hopefuls try out for the show with their spins on songs made famous by other artists. But which of those songs have gotten the most chair turns?

With Season 24 upon us, researchers from ActionNetwork.com compiled those stats after reviewing more than 1,000 blind auditions from the NBC singing competition’s first 23 seasons. Here are those hit audition selections, as well as fun facts about their origin stories.

“Angel From Montgomery” by John Prine: 12 chair turns

Prine told Bluerailroad in 2012 that he came up with this song after imagining a middle-aged woman who feels older than she is. “I had this really vivid picture of this woman standing over the dishwater with soap in her hands, and just walking away from it all,” he said. “She lived in Montgomery, Alabama, and she wanted to get out of there. She wanted to get out of her house and her marriage and everything. She just wanted an angel to come to take her away from all this.”

“All I Want” by Kodaline: 10 chair turns

“I think it’s a very emotional tune with a strange structure where the bridge is actually the biggest part of the song,” Kodaline lead singer Steve Garrigan observed to SongwriterUniverse in 2015. “I remember writing it after going through the intense experience of a really bad breakup — about the longing for someone that lingers. That intensity came across in words and sounds, and for whatever reason, people have found a strong connection to it.”

“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” by Bob Dylan: 10 chair turns

Dylan wrote this song in the early 1960s amid a separation from ex-girlfriend Suze Rotolo, according to AllMusic. “A lot of people make it sort of a love song — slow and easy-going,” Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff wrote in the liner notes, AllMusic adds. “But it isn’t a love song. It’s a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better. It’s as if you were talking to yourself.”

“Dream a Little Dream of Me,” written by Gus Kahn: 10 chair turns

Lyricist Gus Kahn and composers Fabian Andre and Wilber Schwandt came up with this song in the 1930s, three decades before it became a hit for The Mamas & the Papas. “[Kahn] always tried to keep his lyrics simple,” Kahn’s son, Donald, told NPR in 2000, “but he also said that young men and women do not know how to say ‘I love you’ to one another, so we say it for them in 32 bars.”

“A Song for You” by Leon Russell: 9 chair turns

Russell was trying to write a standard when he penned “A Song for You,” as American Songwriter reported in 2016 — and session vocalist Jaime Babbitt, Russell’s former backup singer, thinks he succeeded. “I think ‘A Song for You’ is a standard, like an Irving Berlin or Cole Porter song, absolutely,” Babbitt said to the magazine at the time. “[Russell] told me he wrote it in about 10 minutes. To me, he was a songwriter to his very core. Even the way he spoke was picturesque and evocative and succinct, like a poem, like a great song.”

“Best Part” by Daniel Caesar & H.E.R.: 9 chair turns

H.E.R. revealed to YouKnowIGotSoul in 2017 that “Best Part” came out of a run-in with Caesar in the recording studio. “That was our first time meeting, and he was like, ‘I’m a fan of your music,’ and I told him I was a fan of his music, too,” she said. “We just picked up our guitars, and we started talking. That’s how ‘Best Part’ came to be. We ended up in the studio until 4 a.m. It was really organic.”

“Bless the Broken Road” by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: 9 chair turns

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released this song in 1994, and Rascal Flatts took it even higher a decade later. “You don’t actually always love something that people record of yours … [but] when I heard that recording, I was just like, ‘Man, that’s like waiting on a fastball,’” The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Marcus Hummon said of the Rascal Flatts version, talking to WTOP in 2022. “Those guys just killed it, and Gary [LeVox] sang so beautifully, and they didn’t overproduce it; you can hear all of the parts. To this day, it’s just one of those recordings that was sort of a magic recording.”

“Gravity” by John Mayer: 9 chair turns

“This is the most important song I’ve ever written; it’s a time capsule song. I will listen to it every day of my life if I need to. It’s, honest to God, the most important song I’ve ever written in my life, and it has the fewest words,” Mayer said of “Gravity” at a 2005 concert, per American Songwriter. “This is a song about making sure you still love yourself, making sure you still have your head on, making sure you still say no the way your mom would say no. And I will need it every damn day of my life because it’s easier to mess up than it is to stay here.”

“If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys: 9 chair turns

The idea for “If I Ain’t Got You” came together after the 2001 death of R&B artist Aaliyah. “It was such a sad time, and no one wanted to believe it,” the singer-songwriter recalled, per Complex. “It just made everything crystal clear to me — what matters, and what doesn’t.” (Keys also revealed to Stereogum that she tried to give the song to fellow Voice coach Christina Aguilera.)

“Skinny Love” by Bon Iver: 9 chair turns

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon explained to Pitchfork in 2011 what the phrase “skinny love” means. “You’re in a relationship because you need help, but that’s not necessarily why you should be in a relationship,” he elaborated. “And that’s skinny. It doesn’t have weight. Skinny love doesn’t have a chance because it’s not nourished.”

“When I Was Your Man” by Bruno Mars: 9 chair turns

Mars co-wrote this track with Andrew Wyatt of the indie rock band Miike Snow. “When we started the record, I was like, ‘I’m never singing another ballad again,’ but that came from the gut — it’s the most honest, real thing I’ve ever sung,” the singer reflected in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone. “When there are no safe bets, that’s when I feel my blood move.”

The Voice, Season 24, Mondays and Tuesdays, 8/7c, NBC