When I Came Home the Lights Were Never Dark Again
| "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Vicki Lawrence | ||||
| from the anthology The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia | ||||
| B-side | "Dime a Dance" | |||
| Released | 7 Nov 1972[i] | |||
| Recorded | Oct 24–26, 1972 | |||
| Genre | Country pop | |||
| Length | 3:40 | |||
| Characterization | Bong | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Bobby Russell | |||
| Producer(southward) | Snuff Garrett | |||
| Vicki Lawrence singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" is a Southern Gothic murder ballad, written in 1972 past songwriter Bobby Russell and commencement recorded by singer and comedian Vicki Lawrence. Lawrence's version, from her 1973 anthology of the aforementioned name, went to number ane on the Billboard Hot 100 afterwards its release. In improver to several other renditions, the song was a striking in 1991 when Reba McEntire covered it for her album For My Broken Heart. McEntire's version peaked at number 12 on Hot Country Songs.
Content [edit]
Returning habitation from a ii-week trip to a place chosen Candletop, the narrator's unnamed brother stops for a drink at Webb'southward Bar before going domicile to his wife. While at the bar he encounters his friend Andy Wolloe, who informs him that while he was gone his wife was having an affair with "that Amos boy, Seth", and so admits that he had been with her besides. Brother leaves the bar angry, and a frightened Andy makes his way home.
Assuming his wife had left boondocks, Blood brother goes home to notice the gun his father had left him and quietly makes his way through the weald to Andy'due south house. On the way there he notices a fix of footprints leading to and from the house, but they are besides small-scale to have been fabricated past Andy. Arriving at his back door, Brother finds Andy inside lying dead on the flooring from a gunshot. In a panic, he fires a shot in the air to become the attention of the constabulary, only to find himself arrested for Andy'southward murder. In a show trial, the judge wastes little time declaring Brother guilty and sentences him to death by hanging, which is carried out in brusk club.
The story wraps up as the narrator reveals that it was her footprints that Blood brother saw on his fashion to Andy's house. She then confesses that she had non only killed Andy, but Brother'due south adulterous wife every bit well, disposing of the latter's body where she is certain nobody volition ever find it boasting, "Little Sister don't miss when she aims her gun."
In the song'south chorus, the singer blames the local criminal justice arrangement for her brother'due south death, warning the listener, "Don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer, 'cause the judge in the boondocks'south got blood stains on his hands."[two]
History and original recording [edit]
Although Bobby Russell both wrote the lyrics and composed the music for the song, he was reluctant to record even a demonstration considering he didn't like it. Lawrence, who was married to Russell at the time, believed the song was a hit and recorded the demo. The publishers and the record characterization did not know how to pitch the song, equally it was not a state or a pop vocal. The starting time thought was to offer the song to actress/singer Liza Minnelli, but eventually it was offered to singer Cher, but her and then-married man and manager Sonny Bono reportedly refused it, as he was said to be concerned that the song might offend Cher's southern fans.[3] Without a singer to record the song, Lawrence, along with producer Snuff Garrett, went into a studio and recorded it professionally herself, with the instrumental bankroll of L.A. session musicians from the Wrecking Coiffure.[4]
Release and reception [edit]
Released as a single in November 1972, the song went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart in 1973 when Lawrence was a regular performer on the ensemble variety one-act television testify The Ballad Burnett Show. On March 24, 1973, the terminal episode of the sixth season, Burnett surprised Lawrence by presenting her with an RIAA gilt record for more than a million copies sold. The song hit No. half-dozen on the Like shooting fish in a barrel Listening chart,[five] and peaked at No. 36 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart.[half-dozen] It was No. 1 for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and was topped by Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Necktie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." Billboard ranked it every bit the No. 11 song for 1973.[ citation needed ]
In Canada, the single version went to No. 1 on the RPM 100 national singles nautical chart on May 5, 1973.[7] On the RPM Country Singles chart, it reached No. 25.[8]
Musical structure [edit]
The lyrics use an AABCCB rhyming pattern on the verses, and ABAB on the chorus. The song's verses are in C Dorian. Verse 1 consists of four lines, each using the chord pattern Cm-B ♭ /C-Cm-F/C-Cm-Gm7-Cm. At the chorus, the song modulates to the key of G major, with a chord pattern of Am-D7-G-Em used iii times before ending on Am-D7-Gm.[ix]
Poesy two uses the same structure as verse one, with an additional two lines. The first additional lines likewise attune to G major with a chord design of Am-D7-K-Em-Am-D-Gm, earlier returning to C Dorian for some other repetition of the original chord pattern. After the 2d chorus, the third poesy consists of two lines before the chorus is sung a third fourth dimension. The song ends with a four-mensurate riff in G pocket-size. The song range is K3-D5.[9]
Cover versions [edit]
| "The Dark the Lights Went Out in Georgia" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unmarried past Reba McEntire | ||||
| from the album For My Broken Heart | ||||
| B-side | "All Dressed Up" | |||
| Released | April 1992 | |||
| Recorded | 1991 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 4:17 | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Bobby Russell | |||
| Producer(s) | Tony Brown, Reba McEntire | |||
| Reba McEntire singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Tanya Tucker [edit]
In 1981, country singer Tanya Tucker recorded a version with differing lyrics and an altered timeline, based on the plot of the 1981 picture show The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia. Tucker'due south cover is included on the film'southward soundtrack album.[ commendation needed ]
Reba McEntire [edit]
During 1991, the vocal was covered past Reba McEntire on her album For My Broken Heart. Information technology reached No. 12 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. While all the same a commercially successful release, it broke a string of 24 consecutive top 10 country singles by McEntire.[ commendation needed ]
Jack Cole directed a music video for the McEntire single, in which the older brother of the story is given the name Raymond Brody. The video included spoken dialogue expanding on the vocal'due south plot points, including the proffer that the estimate convicted Brody despite knowing Brody was innocent, because he (the judge) feared a trial would betrayal that he had also had an affair with the married woman, played past Playboy centerfold/pin up model Barbara Moore. In the video, the footling sister, played past McEntire, as a young woman in flashbacks and as a sixty-twelvemonth-one-time woman, catches her fiancé, Andy, in the human action with her brother'due south wife.
During a promotional tour for the vocal, Lawrence and McEntire performed the song as a duet on Lawrence's talk prove Vicki! using the McEntire bankroll track.
Schneider & Cole [edit]
Melinda Schneider and Beccy Cole covered the vocal on their 2022 album Great Women of Country.[ citation needed ]
In popular culture [edit]
- The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia is an example of a twist ending in a song. In the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, the mobster named Dainty Guy Eddie, played by Chris Penn, says, "...this is the get-go time I always realized that the girl singin' the song is the one who shot Andy."
- Using the Pete Schofield and The Canadians's rendition, the opening and endmost motifs is sampled in "The Fourth dimension Is Now," which American professional wrestler John Cena used as his entrance music.
Nautical chart performance [edit]
Reba McEntire version [edit]
| Certifications [edit]
Year-end charts [edit]
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Meet also [edit]
- Murder ballad
- List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States
References [edit]
- ^ "Vicki Lawrence - the Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia".
- ^ Vicki Lawrence. "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia". MetroLyrics. Archived from the original on March 11, 2019.
{{cite spider web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Bronson, Fred (1988). "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia". The Billboard book of number one hits . New York: Billboard Publications. ISBN0-8230-7545-one. OCLC 17918476. Retrieved January 22, 2009.
- ^ Hartman, Kent (2012). The Wrecking Crew . St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 261–263. ISBN978-1-250-03046-vii.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Developed Contemporary: 1961–2001. Tape Inquiry. p. 142.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Volume of Top forty Land Hits: 1944–2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 196.
- ^ "Detail Display - RPM - Library and Athenaeum Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca . Retrieved October seven, 2016.
- ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Athenaeum Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca . Retrieved October 7, 2016.
- ^ a b For My Cleaved Heart: Piano, Vocal, Guitar. Hal Leonard Corporation. 1992. pp. 25–31. ISBN0-7935-1295-half dozen.
- ^ Flavor of New Zealand, 18 June 1973
- ^ "Vicki Lawrence Nautical chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
- ^ "Vicki Lawrence Nautical chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
- ^ "Vicki Lawrence Chart History (Hot State Songs)". Billboard.
- ^ Canada, Library and Archives (Feb 8, 2017). "Image : RPM Weekly". Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ "Top 100 Hits of 1973/Acme 100 Songs of 1973". Musicoutfitters.com . Retrieved October 7, 2016.
- ^ "Billboard Hot 100 60th Anniversary Interactive Chart". Billboard . Retrieved Dec 10, 2018.
- ^ "Top RPM Land Tracks: Issue 2017." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. August 1, 1992. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
- ^ "Reba McEntire Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
- ^ "American single certifications – Reba McEntire – The Nights The Lights Went Out In Georgia". Recording Manufacture Association of America. Retrieved August three, 2020.
- ^ "RPM Top 100 Country Tracks of 1992". RPM. December 19, 1992. Retrieved August xv, 2013.
External links [edit]
- Vicki Lawrence - The Nighttime the Lights Went Out in Georgia on YouTube
- Reba McEntire - The Nighttime the Lights Went Out in Georgia on YouTube
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_the_Lights_Went_Out_in_Georgia
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