Any seasoned country executive can tell you that there’s a certain secret sauce that goes into making a radio hit.

A catchy hook, a relatable lyric, a little twang … and well, if you throw in a few mentions of beer, trucks and mama, that won’t hurt, either.

But even though country radio has a pretty tried-and-true rule book, there are several artists out there who threw out all the rules — and still wound up with a big ol’ hit on their hands.

Two of the artists on this list earned massive chart hits with left-turn, out-of-genre covers.

Another did the same with a song that’s roughly three times as long as most of the hits that get consistent radio airplay.

Some singers took on daring subject matter that challenged country music’s more conservative ears, or sent heartbreak ballads to radio in the summertime — a combo that isn’t supposed to work, but it sure did in these cases.

One duo even scored their very first hit by taking some shots at the most popular country superstars of the day!

Read More: The Weirdest, Wackiest Country Music Album Covers

Another band still managed to notch a modest hit at a time when they were arguably the most vilified names in the genre.

We’ve got no idea why these unlikely songs managed to do so well commercially and on the charts. But whether you love these songs or think they’re massively overplayed, you can’t deny that these artists know how to keep fans on their toes.

And that’s a good thing. If notching a big smash hit at radio was as simple as just ticking off the boxes and plugging in the formula, the format would be boring, for listener and artist alike.

Hey, some rules were always made to be broken.