A Lynyrd Skynyrd classic has returned to the music charts more than 50 years after it was first released. “Sweet Home Alabama” is the No. 1 song on Billboard’s Rock Streaming Songs chart for the week ending July 18, marking its 242nd week total on the digital song chart.
Coming off of the Fourth of July weekend, the 1974 Southern rock classic is in the top spot on a list that includes other “American” songs, such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “American Girl” and Don McLean’s “American Pie.”
Known as one of Skynyrd’s signature songs, “Sweet Home Alabama” originally appeared on the 1974 album Second Helping. It became the band’s only Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, originally peaking at No. 8 on October 26, 1974.
Written by Ed King, Ronnie Van Zant, and Gary Rossington, "Sweet Home Alabama" has since been declared the official song for Alabama State Tourism. Former Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist King once told Classic Rock magazine, “It’s one of the finest feel-good tunes of all time. It picks you up when you’re feelin’ blue. The state of Alabama should’ve been using it long ago.”
“Sweet Home Alabama” is known for its upbeat guitar riff, catchy keyboards, and lyrics about pride in the South. But it also famously name-checked Neil Young’s song “Southern Man” and became widely known as a diss track in the 1970s. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s frontman Ronnie Van Zant later clarified that the song wasn’t meant to be an attack on Young.
“We wrote ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ as a joke,” Van Zant once said, per Rolling Stone. “We didn’t even think about it. The words just came out that way. We just laughed like hell and said, ‘Ain’t that funny.’ We love Neil Young. We love his music.”
While it went on to become one of the band’s most enduring songs, “Sweet Home Alabama” didn’t take long to write.
King told Classic Rock the original song took 30 minutes to write, and the guitar solos were added in.
“I used to sleep with my guitar next to the bed,” he shared. “The night after we wrote ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ I had a dream in which I played both the short and long solos. I immediately woke up, got the guitar and started playing what I’d seen in the dream. At rehearsal the next day, I just plugged the solos into the spots where we had rehearsed them, and they fit perfectly.”
Fifty-two years after its release, "Sweet Home Alabama" remains one of the most important songs in Lynyrd Skynyrd's history and a fan favorite forever.
Related: ‘70s Rock Classic Named One of the ‘Top Songs of 1976’ Failed to Chart 50 Years Ago—But It Became an American Anthem
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