John Denver – Thank God I’m A Country Boy

John Denver — Thank God I’m a Country Boy — A Live-Wire Hoedown Goes No. 1

By the spring of 1975, America’s favorite troubadour swapped mountain reveries for a barn-dance grin. Thank God I’m a Country Boy—written by multi-instrumentalist John Martin Sommers—first sat quietly on Back Home Again, but it was the concert take that kicked the doors open. Captured onstage with a crowd clapping in time, the song vaulted John Denver from soft-focus folk star to ringmaster, proof that his clean tenor and porch-light warmth could drive a dance floor as surely as they soothed a long drive home.

The performance is all feel and economy. Fiddle and banjo chatter like old friends, Steve Weisberg’s guitar and dobro add bright edges, and Dick Kniss keeps the low end buoyant without ever crowding the pocket. Denver leads with a frontman’s ease—easy swing in the phrasing, a wink in the asides—while Milt Okun’s production resists polish for presence: wood, wire, breath, and a hall full of handclaps. It’s virtuosity disguised as good manners, built to travel from roadhouse to radio without losing its sawdust.

On screen, the song lives where it belongs—under hot lights with a band that can turn on a dime. The widely circulated clip comes from the Around the World Live DVD: tight cuts on bow hair and banjo rolls, nimble pans catching Denver cueing breaks with a grin, breakdowns that throw the spotlight to the pickers before the chorus whoops back in. No narrative gloss, no staged drama—just a seasoned road unit breathing in unison, the camera smart enough to get out of the way and let the pocket talk.

The chart story underlines its reach. In the United States, Thank God I’m a Country Boy hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 7, 1975—one week after topping the country chart—an easy straddle between AM pop and two-step radio that defined mid-’70s crossover. Across the Atlantic it never cracked the U.K. Top 40, but north of the border it went straight to No. 1 in Canada, confirming what the footage already shows: this was communal music, built for ballparks, fairs, and kitchen floors, where the chorus lands like a handshake.

Nearly fifty years on, its secret remains obvious and rare. The lyric is plainspoken pride, the tempo a perpetual-motion smile, the arrangement just flashy enough to feel like Saturday night without losing Sunday morning’s good humor. Not every No. 1 becomes ritual; this one did—count-off, clap, grin, repeat.

Credits
Artist: John Denver (lead vocals, acoustic guitar)
Band: John Martin Sommers (fiddle, banjo, mandolin, backing vocals); Steve Weisberg (lead guitar, pedal steel, dobro); Dick Kniss (bass); Herb Lovelle (drums); Hal Blaine (percussion)
Orchestra: Conducted by Lee Holdridge (on the An Evening with John Denver concert recording)
Credits: Writer — John Martin Sommers; Producer — Milton “Milt” Okun; Label — RCA Victor
Release: Live single from An Evening with John Denver (1975); original studio version on Back Home Again (1974)
Video source: Performance footage from the Around the World Live DVD