Rocky Top

"Rocky Top"
Single by Osborne Brothers
from the album Yesterday, Today, and the Osborne Brothers
B-side"My Favorite Memory"
ReleasedDecember 25, 1967
RecordedNovember 16, 1967
StudioBradley's Barn, Mount Juliet, Tennessee
GenreBluegrass, country
Length2:35
LabelDecca
Songwriter(s)Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
"Rocky Top"
Single by Lynn Anderson
from the album I'm Alright
B-side"Take Me Home"
ReleasedApril 1970
RecordedMay 1969
StudioRCA Victor (Nashville, Tennessee)
GenreBluegrass
Length2:39
LabelChart
Songwriter(s)Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
Producer(s)Slim Williamson

"Rocky Top" is an American country and bluegrass song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant in 1967 and first recorded by the Osborne Brothers later that same year. The song, which is a city dweller's lamentation over the loss of a simpler and freer existence in the hills of Tennessee, is one of Tennessee's eleven official state songs[1] and has been recorded by dozens of artists from multiple musical genres worldwide since its publication. In U.S. college athletics, "Rocky Top" is associated with the Tennessee Volunteers of the University of Tennessee (UT), whose Pride of the Southland Band has played a marching band version of the song at the school's sporting events since the early 1970s.[2][3]

The Osborne Brothers' 1967 bluegrass version of the song reached No. 33 on the U.S. Country charts, and Lynn Anderson's 1970 version peaked at No. 17 on the U.S. Country charts and No. 33 in Canada.[4] In 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ranked "Rocky Top" number seven on its list of 100 Songs of the South.[5]

  1. ^ "State Songs". tn.gov. Archived from the original on February 21, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  2. ^ Bill Williams, Our Stories: Rocky Top[permanent dead link]. WBIR.com, November 19, 2008. Retrieved: September 20, 2009. [dead link]
  3. ^ "Rocky Top". Tennessee Volunteers Fever. August 21, 2013. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  4. ^ "RPM Top 50 Country Singles – August 8, 1970" (PDF).
  5. ^ Bryan Perry (producer), Shane Harrison, Sonia Murray, Nick Marino, and Soyia Ellison, 100 Songs of the South Archived July 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved: September 20, 2009.