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On This Day in 1980, Waylon Jennings Was at No. 1 With Every Outlaw’s Favorite TV Theme
On 3 November 1980, Waylon Jennings’s “Theme from The Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol’ Boys)” topped the US Hot Country Songs chart. Its role as the opening theme to a popular television series helped make it one of Jennings’s best-known songs, and it became his biggest hit on the pop chart.
Jennings had narrated the 1975 film Moonrunners, which inspired the series, and was asked to reprise that role as The Balladeer and record the theme. He released the song as a single in August 1980, after the show’s second season; it sold more than a million copies and reached No. 21 on the pop chart. The television and album versions differ: the TV recording features banjo and a line followed by John Schneider’s “Yee-haw!”, while the single uses a musical bridge.
In short
- Jennings’s Dukes of Hazzard theme topped the country chart in 1980.
- It reached No. 21 on the pop chart.
- The TV and single versions have different arrangements.
Explained simply
The Dukes of Hazzard was an American television series about cousins Bo and Luke Duke, who drove around rural Georgia in their car, the General Lee, while getting into trouble with local officials. It became popular after its debut in 1979, and its opening theme introduced viewers to the show’s setting and characters.
Waylon Jennings was a leading country singer associated with the outlaw country movement, a style that favoured a rougher sound and greater independence from Nashville’s music industry. He had narrated Moonrunners, the 1975 film that inspired the series, and returned as the voice of its narrator, known as the Balladeer. The song’s success linked Jennings’s country music career with the show’s broad television audience.
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