Alabama: Difference between revisions

 

The band had a humble start in 1977 with "I Wanna Be with You Tonight" on the GRT label, which only managed a #78 peak on the charts. When GRT declared bankruptcy and went out of business before they could release a follow-up single, the cousins learned that a contractural clause forbade them to record for another label. The band worked for more than a year to raise funds to buy out their contract, touring the south in a beat-up van. Finally, in the late spring of 1979, they landed at MDJ Records, where they recorded their first new material in two years. Included were the songs "I Wanna Come Over" and "My Home's In Alabama."

The band's momentum slowed a bit come the 1990s, despite its biggest No. 1 hit in 1990 with "Jukebox in My Mind." Although its last No. 1 hit came in 1993 with "Reckless," Alabama continued to chart consistently within the Top 10 until the end of the decade. Album sales, however, began to slip, and the crossovers just weren't coming on as strongly (save for a collaboration with 'N Sync on "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You"). Alabama charted its last Top 40 hit in 2001 with "When It All Goes South" and then effectively retired following a 2003 tour. Two albums of inspirational music followed in 2006 and 2007, and Owen released a solo album in 2008. Alabama is currently semi-retired, with Cook, Gentry and Owen occasionally coming out to do new projects, including a song for a [[Waylon Jennings]] tribute and a guest appearance on [[Brad Paisley]]'s "Old Alabama", both in 2011.

 

* [[Album Title Drop]]: ''Just Us'' is title-dropped on "Tar Top".

* [[The Band Minus the Face]]: Averted with Owen's self-titled album, if only because the band is in semi-retirement anyway.

* [[Christmas Songs]]: "Christmas in Dixie" is one of the best-known country music Christmas songs ever. Not surprisingly, the band included it on ''several'' Christmas albums. "Angels Among Us" was ostensibly a Christmas song (it was released in 1993 with a Christmas song on the B-side, and typical of country Christmas songs at the time, re-charted for the next couple Christmases), but there's nothing particularly Christmas-y about it except for it taking place in winter.

* [[Garfunkel]]: Mark Herndon. He never sang lead at all (certainly justified, as he has a hearing impairment). He didn't appear at all on the 1997 album ''Dancin' on the Boulevard'' (although he did appear on the album cover), and quit in the 2000s after a lawsuit.

* [[Green Aesop]]: Rather obviously in "Pass It On Down:"

Leave it and pass it on down }}

* [[Kids Rock]]: A kids' chorus appears on both "Pass It On Down" and "Angels Among Us". One kid is noticeably off-key in the latter.

* [[Signature Song]]: "My Home's in Alabama," "Love in the First Degree," "Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)," "If You're Gonna Play in Texas," "Jukebox in My Mind," "Christmas in Dixie," "Angels Among Us"... let's just say they had a lot of 'em.

* [[Song Style Shift]]: "Dixieland Delight" and "Mountain Music" are the best known two.

* [[Sweet Home Alabama]]: Countless songs about the South, such as "Dixieland Delight," "If You're Gonna Play in Texas," "Song of the South," "High Cotton," "Southern Star," "Born Country," etc. Subverted with "The Cheap Seats," which is set in a "middle-size town in the middle of the Middle-west."

** Incidentally, the band covered "Sweet Home Alabama" on the [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]] tribute album ''Skynyrd Frynds''.

[[Category:Alabama]]

[[Category:Music]]