The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia

"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
Single by Vicki Lawrence
from the album The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
B-side	"Dime a Dance"
Released	February 1972
Format	7" single
Genre	Country pop
Length	3:40
Label	Bell
Writer(s)	Bobby Russell
Producer(s)	Snuff Garrett
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Vicki Lawrence singles chronology
"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 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.

History and original recording

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.^[1] 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,^[2] then pressed the label to release it as a single.

Release and reception

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. On the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, it scored number six on the Easy Listening chart,^[3] and it peaked at number 36 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart.^[4] 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.^[5]

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]

Lyrical explanation

A young woman tells the story of her brother, who returns home after a two-week trip from a place known only as "Candletop," and he meets his best friend Andy Wolloe at Webb's Bar. Andy informs him that his young wife has been sleeping with another man in town named Seth Amos, or "she's been seeing that Amos boy." Andy then reveals that he too has "been with her."

Andy gets scared and leaves the bar for home because "Andy didn't have many friends and he just lost him one." "Brother" thinks his wife is out of town, so in anger he goes home and gets the gun his father left him. He walks through the woods to Andy's house. When the brother arrives there, he comes upon some footprints in the ground, "tracks too small for Andy to make," and discovers by peering though the back porch door that someone had already killed Andy in his kitchen and left him for dead in a puddle of blood. Then "The Georgia Patrol was making their rounds, so he fired a shot just to flag 'em down," but a "big-bellied sheriff" quickly grabs "Brother" and said to him, "Why'd you do it?" immediately accusing him of murder. A judge finds "Brother" guilty after a quick and "make-believe" trial, and the judge says he's hungry and has to get home to eat supper.

In an [epilogue] in the final verses, the singer reveals that they "hung my brother" before she could confess to two things: the tracks too small for him to make were hers, and that she had killed Andy, and that "his cheatin' wife had never left town," also confessing to killing her as well, and that will be "one body that'll never be found," because "Little Sister don't miss when she aims her gun."

Musical structure

The lyrics use an AABCCB rhyming pattern on the verses, and ABCB on the chorus. The song's verses are in B-flat Dorian; i.e., a B-flat minor scale with the sixth tone raised by a semitone. Verse one consists of four lines, each using the chord pattern B♭m-A♭/B♭-B♭m-E♭/B♭-B♭m-Fm7-B♭m. At the chorus, the song modulates to the key of F major, with a chord pattern of Gm-C7-F-Dm used three times before ending on Gm-C7-Fm.

Verse two uses the same structure as verse one, with an additional two lines. The first additional lines also modulates to F major with a chord pattern of Gm-C7-F-Dm-Gm-C-Fm, before returning to B-flat 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 chorus is then repeated as the song fades. The overall vocal range is F₃-A₄.

Tanya Tucker cover

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

"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	4:11
Label	MCA
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)

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"; 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.

Cultural references

• For a 1986 Designing Women episode, the character Julia Sugarbaker 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.
• During 2011 a book was released titled "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," written by Jeremy G.T. Reuschling and is casually based on the McEntire version of both the song and the music video.

Chart performance

Vicki Lawrence version Weekly singles chart (1972–1973) Peak position U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1 U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 6 U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks 36 Canadian RPM Top Singles 1 Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary 2 Canadian RPM Country Tracks 25

Year-end charts Chart (1973) Rank Canada 10 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [8] 11

Reba McEntire version

Chart (1992)	Peak position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[9]	7
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[10]	12

Year-end charts

Chart (1992)	Position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[11]	73

See also

• Murder ballad

References

1. 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.
2. Hartman, Kent (2012). The Wrecking Crew. St. Martin’s Griffin. pp. 261–263. ISBN 978-1-250-03046-7.
3. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 142.
4. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944–2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 196.
5. Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1973
6. Library and Archives Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.4812&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=021sd7foarphlu4vp8jgv84nr0
7. Library and Archives Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.4837&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=021sd7foarphlu4vp8jgv84nr0
8. http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1973.htm
9. "Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 2017." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. August 1, 1992. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
10. "Reba McEntire – Chart history" Billboard Hot Country Songs for Reba McEntire.
11. "RPM Top 100 Country Tracks of 1992". RPM. December 19, 1992. Retrieved August 15, 2013.