My Home's in Alabama (song)

"My Home's in Alabama" is a song made famous by the country music band Alabama. Written by Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry, the song was released in 1980 and served as the title track to Alabama's first album for RCA Records.

In the years since its release, "My Home's in Alabama" became widely considered as the song that sparked the band's rise to eventual superstardom.

1 Song history
2 Official State Ballad
3 Single and album edits
- 3.1 B-side
4 References
5 Sources

[edit] Song history

The song, a biographical look at Alabama's early career, hopes and dreams, also pays homage to the roots of band members Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook. The lyrics state that, while bigger and better things laid ahead, their home would always be in Alabama, "no matter where I lay my head" and that they were "southern-born and southern-bred."

It was considered by some to be a primary example of the genre's country rock style. Others, however, said this title track for Alabama's first RCA album was "the closest thing to country rock" among the album's 10 tracks.^[1]

"My Home's in Alabama" was released in January 1980 by MDJ Records, a small independent label that had also released Alabama's first Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles Top 40 single, "I Wanna Come Over" in the fall of 1979. The success of "My Home's in Alabama" (and the prior song) earned the group an invitation to the "New Faces" show at the annual Country Radio Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. The resulting performance earned them a contract with RCA Records, to which they signed in April 1980.

Both "I Wanna Come Over" and "My Home's in Alabama" were subsequently issued on the band's first album.

Even though "My Home's in Alabama" stalled at No. 17, it quickly became their signature song. To this day, it remains one of their most popular songs.

[edit] Official State Ballad

A State Senate bill (SR-458) was passed 32-1 in 2000 to make the song the official State Ballad, with "Stars Fell On Alabama", an 1833 song (whose most popular release was by Jimmy Buffett) becoming the new official State Song, and the current State Song, "Alabama", written in 1931 by Julia Tutwiler would be moved to State Anthem status, but the bill failed in the State House.^[2]

[edit] Single and album edits

Both radio edit and full-length album versions of "My Home's in Alabama" were released. The single version is 4:02, and fades out just as the album-version's extended guitar bridge begins. This version is available on The Essential Alabama, released as part of RCA's Essential Series (not to be confused with the repackaged For the Record).

The full-length version — which includes the guitar bridge (that lasts about a minute and a half), a repeat of the refrain and the song-ending bridge reprisal — is 6:27, and is available, among other albums, on My Home's in Alabama.

In addition to the studio-recorded version, an eight-minute live version was released on Alabama's first greatest hits album.

[edit] B-side

The B-side to the MDJ Records release of "My Home's in Alabama" was "Why Lady Why," a song that later became a single from the My Home's in Alabama album — and the band's second No. 1 hit. Later pressings issued by RCA had "I Wanna Come Over" as the B-side.^[3]

[edit] References

^ "Alabama: My Home's In Alabama", All Music Guide, 2007-06-18.
^ 2000 State Senate bill SR 458 to change State Song
^ Morris, Edward, "Alabama," Contemporary Books Inc., Chicago, 1985 (ISBN 0809253062)

[edit] Sources

Himes, Geoffery, Alabama entry in "The Encyclopedia of Country Music: The Ultimate Guide to the Music." Country Music Foundation, Oxford Press, New York, 1998. ISBN 0-19-511671-2
Millard, Bob, "Country Music: 70 Years of America's Favorite Music," HarperCollins, New York, 1993 (ISBN 0-06-273244-7)
Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.