| Lynyrd Skynyrd is from Jacksonville, Florida.
They wrote this as a tribute to the studios at Muscle Shoals,
Alabama, where they recorded in 1971. The studios gained fame during
the '60s and '70s when it became the vogue thing for bands to record
there. Artists like Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, and all the big
Southern Rock groups recorded there. "The Swampers" were a group of
studio musicians who worked there, acting as the backup band for the
solo artists. That's where Skynyrd got the line: "Muscle Shoals has
got The Swampers." (thanks, David - Charlotte, NC) |
| One of the verses is an attack on Neil Young:
"I hope Neil Young will remember a southern man don't need him
around anyhow." Young had written songs like "Southern Man" and
"Alabama," which implied that people in the Southern US were racist
and stuck in the past. Skynyrd responded with this, a song about
Southern pride and all the good things in Alabama. The feud between
Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young was always good-natured fun. They were
actually big fans of each other. Ronnie Van Zant often wore Neil
Young T-shirts on stage and is wearing one on the cover of Street
Survivors, the last Skynyrd album before his death. |
| Neil Young performed this once. He played it
at a memorial to the 3 members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who died in a plane
crash in 1977. |
| This appeared on their second album, but it
was written before their first. They decided to save it so they
would have a big song to open Second Helping. |
| At the beginning, when Ronnie Van Zant says,
"Turn it up," it was not planned. He was telling an engineer to turn
up the volume in his headset before recording his track. The comment
sounded good, so they left it in the final mix. |
| If you listen carefully to the line, "Well, I
heard Mr. Young sing about her," immediately following it, someone
in the background sings, "Southern Man." Some people thought it was
a recording of Neil Young, but it was their producer, Al Kooper,
impersonating Young. |
| This was Skynyrd's first single to chart. They
have never been a "singles" band, as their fans tend to buy the
albums. |
| This was the first Skynyrd song to use female
backup singers. The band never met the 3 women who sang on this,
since they were recorded separately. |
| Guitarist Gary Rossington came up with the
idea for this. Ed King, another Skynyrd guitarist, wrote the intro,
and Ronnie Van Zant wrote the lyrics. It came together quickly and
easily. |
| The voice at the beginning that does the
count-in is Ed King. |
| Country group Alabama did a rendition of this
for a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute album. |
| George Wallace was the governor of Alabama
when this was released. He loved this, especially the line, "In
Birmingham they love the governor." He made the band honorary
Lieutenant Colonels in the state militia. |
| In 2002, this was featured in 2 movies, one
that used the song as the title. In Sweet Home Alabama, Reese
Witherspoon stars as a girl who must decide between her ex-husband
in Alabama or her fiance in New York. In 8 Mile, Eminem does
a rap version of the song, making fun of his mother's bumpkin
boyfriend and changing the chorus to "I live at home in a trailer."
The version of Sweet Home Alabama on the soundtrack was
recorded by Jewel. (thanks, shawn - loganville, GA) |
| This was featured in the video game NASCAR
Thunder 2001. EA Sports, the developer of this game, sponsored
their first NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway, a racetrack in
Alabama. The song is normally played once during NASCAR races ran at
Talladega Superspeedway, an Alabama Racetrack. (thanks, Joseph - Old
Bridge, NJ) |
| An acoustic version sung by Johnny Van Zant is
featured on Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1994 album Endangered Species. (thanks,
Aaron - Twin Cities, MN) |
| This is featured in the 1997 movie Con Air.
The escaped convicts listen to it during a party on the plane after
getting away from an US Marshals raid. One of the characters, a
serial killer played by Steve Buscemi, remarks: "Ironic, isn't it?
Flying an airplane while listening to a song played by a band whose
members got killed in a plane crash." (thanks, Maciej - Lublin,
Poland) |
