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The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
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For the 1981 movie with the same title, see The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (film).
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"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
Single by Vicki Lawrence
from the album The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (Vicki Lawrence album)
B-side
"Dime a Dance"
Released
February 1972
Format
7" single
Genre
Country pop
Length
3:40
Label
Bell
Songwriter(s)
Bobby Russell
Producer(s)
Snuff Garrett
Vicki Lawrence singles chronology
"No, No"
(1970) "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
(1972) "He Did with Me"
(1973)
"No, No"
(1970) "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
(1972) "He Did with Me"
(1973)
"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" is a Southern Gothic song, written in 1972 by songwriter Bobby Russell and sung by Vicki Lawrence, an American pop music singer, actress, and comedian. Lawrence's version, from her 1973 Bell Records album of the same name, was a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 after its release. In addition to several other renditions, the song was again a hit in 1991 when Reba McEntire recorded it for her album For My Broken Heart. McEntire's version was a single, as well, reaching number 12 on Hot Country Songs.
Contents
[hide]
1 Synopsis
2 History and original recording
3 Release and reception
4 Musical structure
5 Cover versions
5.1 Tanya Tucker cover
5.2 Reba McEntire cover
6 In popular culture
7 Chart performance
7.1 Vicki Lawrence version
7.2 Year-end charts
7.3 Reba McEntire version
7.3.1 Year-end charts
8 See also
9 References
Synopsis[edit]
A nameless man returns home after two weeks to be informed by his best friend Andy that the man's wife has been unfaithful, sleeping with both Andy and a third man, "that Ames boy, Seth." The man returns home and, noting his wife is not home, heads to Andy's house with a gun; when he arrives, he finds Andy's dead body. In an attempt to flag down the Georgia State Patrol, the man fires a warning shot into the air, only to realize too late that the combination of circumstances (the dead body, holding a gun and an audible gunshot) made him look like the killer.
The sheriff arrests the man, a swift show trial is held and the man is convicted and hanged in short order. In the song's epilogue, the man's younger sister (singing in the first person) confesses that she killed Andy as well as the man's wife, whose body was disposed where it would never be found. The little sister blames the Georgia criminal justice system for her brother's death, warning in each chorus "the judge in the town's got blood stains on his hands."[1]
History and original recording[edit]
Although Bobby Russell wrote both the lyrics and music for the song, he was reluctant to record even a demonstration because he "didn't like it." According to Lawrence, who was married to Russell at the time, she believed it was destined to be successful and recorded the demo herself. The publishers and the record label did not quite know how to pitch the song, as it was not really a country or a pop song. The first thought was to offer the song to actress/singer Liza Minnelli, but eventually it was offered to singer Cher, but her then-husband and manager Sonny Bono reportedly refused it, as he was said to be concerned that the song might offend Cher's southern fans.[2] Without a singer to record the song, Lawrence went into a studio and recorded it professionally herself, with the instrumental backing of L.A. session musicians from the Wrecking Crew,[3] then pressed the label to release it as a single.
Release and reception[edit]
Released as a single in June 1972, the song would ultimately become a number-one success for Lawrence, topping the Hot 100 chart in early 1973. Lawrence was, at the time, a regular performer on the ensemble variety comedy television show The Carol Burnett Show. It scored number six on the Easy Listening chart,[4] and it peaked at number 36 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart.[5] It was number one for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and was finally topped by Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree". Billboard ranked it as the No. 11 song for 1973.
In Canada, the single version scored number one, as well, topping the RPM 100 national singles chart on May 5 of the same year.[6] On the RPM Country Singles chart, it reached #25.[7]
Musical structure[edit]
The lyrics use an AABCCB rhyming pattern on the verses, and ABCB on the chorus. The song's verses are in C Dorian. Verse one 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 three times before ending on Am-D7-Gm.[8]
Verse two uses the same structure as verse one, with an additional two lines. The first additional lines also modulate to G major with a chord pattern of Am-D7-G-Em-Am-D-Gm, before returning to C Dorian for another repetition of the original chord pattern. After the second chorus, the third verse consists of only two lines before the chorus is sung a third time. The song then ends with a four-measure riff played in the key of G minor. The overall vocal range is G3-D5.[8]
Cover versions[edit]
"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
Single by Reba McEntire
from the album For My Broken Heart
B-side
"All Dressed Up"
Released
April 1992
Format
7" single
Recorded
1991
Genre
Country
Length
4:17
Label
MCA
Songwriter(s)
Bobby Russell
Producer(s)
Tony Brown, Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire singles chronology
"Is There Life Out There"
(1992) "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
(1992) "The Greatest Man I Never Knew"
(1992)
"Is There Life Out There"
(1992) "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
(1992) "The Greatest Man I Never Knew"
(1992)
Tanya Tucker cover[edit]
In 1981, country singer Tanya Tucker recorded a version (on an album of the same name) with differing lyrics and an altered timeline. These altered lyrics were based on the plot line of the 1981 movie The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.
Reba McEntire cover[edit]
During 1991, the song was sung as a cover version by Reba McEntire on her album For My Broken Heart. It reached number 12 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. While still a commercially successful release, this broke a string of 24 consecutive top 10 country singles by McEntire.
The song also had a successful music video, wherein the older brother of the story is given the name "Raymond Brody"; the video for McEntire's version also contained spoken dialogue that expanded on several of the song's plot points, by suggesting that the judge knew that the narrator's brother did not commit the crime, but was nonetheless anxious to convict him, since he, himself (the judge) had also been having sex with the wife (played by Playboy centerfold/pin up model Barbara Moore) and was worried that a long, involved trial would cause this fact to become known. It also establishes that the little sister (played by McEntire, and portrayed both as a young woman in flashbacks and as a 60-year-old woman using heavy makeup) caught Andy in the act with her brother's wife and that the unfaithful woman also had an affair with the sister's own fiancé.
In popular culture[edit]
For a 1986 Designing Women episode, main character Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter) has one of her famous tirades, defending her beauty queen sister Suzanne against catty remarks made by a young woman, concluding with "And that, just so you will know, and your children will someday know, was the night the lights went out in Georgia!"
It is a prime example of a twist ending in a song, and in the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, one of the mobsters in the film named Nice Guy Eddie says "...this is the first time I ever realized that the girl singin' the song is the one who shot Andy."
The opening motif is sampled in "The Time Is Now", which is currently used as American professional wrestler John Cena's entrance music; specifically, the song samples Pete Schofield and The Canadians' rendition.
In 2011, a book was released titled "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," written by Jeremy G.T. Reuschling and casually based on the McEntire version of the song and the music video.
Melinda Schneider and Beccy Cole covered the song on their album Great Women of Country (2014).
Comedy group The Credibility Gap recorded a parody version, "The Night That The Lights Stayed On In Pittsburgh."
Chart performance[edit]
Vicki Lawrence version[edit]
Chart (1972–1973)
Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100[9] 1
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[10] 6
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[11] 36
Canadian RPM Top Singles 1
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary 2
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 25
Year-end charts[edit]
Chart (1973)
Rank
Canada[12] 10
US Billboard Hot 100 [13] 11
Reba McEntire version[edit]
Chart (1992)
Peak
position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[14] 7
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[15] 12
Year-end charts[edit]
Chart (1992)
Position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[16] 73
See also[edit]
Murder ballad
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Vicki Lawrence - The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia at MetroLyrics
Jump up ^ Bronson, Fred (1988). "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia". The Billboard book of number one hits. New York: Billboard Publications. ISBN 0-8230-7545-1. OCLC 17918476. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
Jump up ^ Hartman, Kent (2012). The Wrecking Crew. St. Martin’s Griffin. pp. 261–263. ISBN 978-1-250-03046-7.
Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 142.
Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944–2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 196.
Jump up ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
Jump up ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
^ Jump up to: a b For My Broken Heart: Piano, Vocal, Guitar. Hal Leonard Corporation. 1992. pp. 25–31. ISBN 0-7935-1295-6.
Jump up ^ "Vicki Lawrence – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Vicki Lawrence.
Jump up ^ "Vicki Lawrence – Chart history" Billboard Adult Contemporary for Vicki Lawrence.
Jump up ^ "Vicki Lawrence – Chart history" Billboard Hot Country Songs for Vicki Lawrence.
Jump up ^ Canada, Library and Archives (February 8, 2017). "Image : RPM Weekly".
Jump up ^ "Top 100 Hits of 1973/Top 100 Songs of 1973". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
Jump up ^ "Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 2017." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. August 1, 1992. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
Jump up ^ "Reba McEntire – Chart history" Billboard Hot Country Songs for Reba McEntire.
Jump up ^ "RPM Top 100 Country Tracks of 1992". RPM. December 19, 1992. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
Preceded by
"Killing Me Softly with His Song" by Roberta Flack US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single (Vicki Lawrence version)
April 7, 1973 (two weeks) Succeeded by
"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
Preceded by
"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando Canadian RPM 100 number-one single (Vicki Lawrence version)
May 5, 1973 (one week) Succeeded by
"The First Cut Is The Deepest" by Keith Hampshire
[hide]
v
t
e
Reba McEntire 1990s singles
Sweet Sixteen
"Walk On"
Rumor Has It
"You Lie"
"Rumor Has It"
"Fancy"
"Fallin' Out of Love"
For My Broken Heart
"For My Broken Heart"
"Is There Life Out There"
"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
"The Greatest Man I Never Knew"
It's Your Call
"Take It Back"
"The Heart Won't Lie" (with Vince Gill)
"It's Your Call"
Greatest Hits Volume Two
"Does He Love You" (with Linda Davis)
"They Asked About You"
Read My Mind
"Why Haven't I Heard from You"
"She Thinks His Name Was John"
"Till You Love Me"
"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"
"And Still"
Starting Over
"On My Own"
"Ring on Her Finger, Time on Her Hands"
"Starting Over Again"
"You Keep Me Hangin' On"
What If It's You
"The Fear of Being Alone"
"How Was I to Know"
"I'd Rather Ride Around with You"
"What If It's You"
If You See Him
"If You See Him/If You See Her" (with Brooks & Dunn)
"Forever Love"
"Wrong Night"
"One Honest Heart"
So Good Together
"What Do You Say"
Other songs
"What If"
Guest singles
"Oklahoma Swing" (with Vince Gill)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Night_the_Lights_Went_Out_in_Georgia&oldid=807395990"
Categories:
1972 singles
1992 singles
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Reba McEntire songs
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Song recordings produced by Snuff Garrett
Songs about Georgia (U.S. state)
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