“Sweet Home Alabama” – Single by Lynyrd Skynyrd from the album Second Helping
B-side: “Take Your Time”
Released: June 24, 1974
Label: MCA
Songwriters: Ed King, Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van Zant
Producer: Al Kooper
Lynyrd Skynyrd is from Jacksonville, Florida. They wrote this song about their impressions of Alabama and as a tribute to the studio musicians at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, where they recorded from 1970-1972. The studios gained fame during the ’60s and ’70s when it became the vogue thing for bands to record there.
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 three women who sang on this, since they were recorded separately.
Guitarist Gary Rossington came up with the idea for this song. 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.
On August 21, 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd took the stage at Knebworth as part of a daylong festival which also included Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, 10cc and The Rolling Stones. The show has gone down in Lynyrd Skynyrd history as one of the band’s greatest performances. The 1976 Knebworth show features Ronnie Van Zant’s iconic vocals and their famed triple guitar attack of Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Steve Gaines in front of a crowd estimated between 150,000 and 200,000.
