Dixieland Delight
| "Dixieland Delight" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Alabama | ||||
| from the album The Closer You Get... | ||||
| B-side | "Very Special Love" | |||
| Released | January 28, 1983 (U.S.) | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | 1982 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length |
3:57 (single edit) 5:23 (album version) | |||
| Label | RCA | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ronnie Rogers | |||
| Producer(s) | Harold Shedd and Alabama | |||
| Alabama singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Dixieland Delight" at CMT.com | ||||
"Dixieland Delight" is a song written by Ronnie Rogers, and recorded by American country music band Alabama. It was released in January 1983 as the lead-off single from Alabama's album The Closer You Get....
Background and writing
Songwriter Ronnie Rogers, who previously had hits with Ed Bruce, Dave Dudley, Tanya Tucker and others, recalled to country music journalist Tom Roland that the idea for "Dixieland Delight" came to him when he was driving down Highway 11W, a Tennessee road in Rutledge, Tennessee.[1] The song's first line ("Rollin' down a backwoods, Tennessee byway; one arm on the wheel") soon led into an image of the main character's other arm wrapped around his girlfriend and - with a long, hard work week at an end - envisioning a weekend of fun and relaxation with her.
When Alabama recorded the song in 1982 for The Closer You Get, it differed substantially from the acoustic demo cut by Rogers.[1]
Content
The song's title refers to the girlfriend of the singer. Later in the song, Rogers conjures up images of various forest animals (e.g. a white-tailed buck and a red-tailed hawk) and how they bring peace to him, before returning to how the main character plans to become intimate with his girlfriend ("Home-grown country girl, gonna give me a whirl") during their weekend outing.
The song picks up the tempo somewhat with a fiddle bridge before a reprisal of the refrain.
Music video
A music video was filmed for the song, and was directed by David Hogan. It has aired on CMT, TNN and Great American Country.
In popular culture
The song was known to be played at all Alabama football home games but was dropped in 2015 after complaints about derogatory additions to the lyrics by some fans. It would be reinstated in 2018 for the Crimson Tide's contest against the Missouri Tigers, with a plea from university officials to not sing the modified version.[2]
Single and album edits
The original album version was edited by nearly 1½ minutes for release as a single. The differences include:
- A shorter introduction (about half of the intro is excised).
- Shorter fiddle bridges; the second one almost immediately goes into the final reprisal. Also, a slower guitar riff is edited out before the tempo picks up for the segue leading into the first fiddle bridge.
- An earlier fade out (not quite halfway through the first verse reprisal).
The single edit is included in several of Alabama's greatest hits collections, including For the Record. The full-length album version is included on the band's second greatest hits album.
Chart performance
Released in January 1983, "Dixieland Delight" became Alabama's ninth No. 1 song on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart.[3] To date, "Dixieland Delight" remains one of the group's most popular songs.
| Chart (1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[4] | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 |
References
- 1 2 Roland, Tom, "The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits" (Billboard Books, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1991 ( ISBN 0-82-307553-2)), p. 349-350
- ↑ Dave Wilson (October 13, 2018). "Best of Week 7: Alabama is on 'Dixieland Delight' watch". ESPN. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
- ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 18.
- ↑ "Alabama Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
See also
- Morris, Edward, "Alabama," Contemporary Books Inc., Chicago, 1985 ( ISBN 0809253062)