The Ballad of Jed Clampett

"The Ballad of Jed Clampett" was the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies TV show and movie, providing the back story for the series. The song was written and composed by Paul Henning, and sung by Jerry Scoggins, who was accompanied by bluegrass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. The song spent twenty weeks on the Billboard country singles charts, reaching a peak of number one for three weeks^[1] and reached #44 on the music charts in 1962. It is one of the better-known defining banjo songs of the 1960s, remembered as it is for its catchy rolls and lyrics.

Adaptations

"Weird Al" Yankovic merged the first two stanzas of the Ballad with the instrumentals to the Dire Straits song "Money For Nothing" in his 1989 single "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*", which was written for his film UHF.

In the late 1970s, Saturday Night Live did a spoof on the "Beverly Hillbillies," in a sketch about a wealthy family from an oil-rich Mideastern country moving to Southern California. The theme song in the sketch was called, "The Bel-Arabs."

Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck often plays the Ballad in concert. Fleck also accompanied Jerry Scoggins on a re-recording of the song for the 1993 film adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Country music artist Neal McCoy uses a rap version of the song as part of his "Hillbilly Rap," which also features elements of "The Banana Boat Song" and "Rapper's Delight."

In his 2005 tour, Kid Rock included a sample of the song in the middle of "Hillbilly Stomp."

During the Bill Clinton Presidential administration, Saturday Night Live staged a spoof of the Ballad, substituting Clinton's name for Jed Clampett's and changing the destination from Beverly Hills to the White House.

On August 13, 2009, national broadcaster Q&A featured a spoof version of the song lampooning the leader of the Australian Liberal Party Malcolm Turnbull by Stefan Sojka - Bellevue Hillbilly - making fun of his wealth, his unpopularity as a leader and his admission that he once tried cannabis.

Chart performance

Media

References