Sweet Home Alabama
| "Sweet Home Alabama" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
1974 Spain single sleeve | ||||
| Single by Lynyrd Skynyrd | ||||
| from the album Second Helping | ||||
| B-side | "Take Your Time" | |||
| Released | June 24, 1974 | |||
| Recorded | June 1973 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:43 | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Al Kooper | |||
| Lynyrd Skynyrd singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio sample | ||||
Sweet Home Alabama
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| Live video | ||||
| "Sweet Home Alabama" on YouTube | ||||
"Sweet Home Alabama" is a song by American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, released on the band's second album Second Helping (1974). It was written in response to Neil Young's songs "Southern Man" and "Alabama", which the band felt blamed the entire Southern United States for slavery; Young is name-checked and dissed in the lyrics. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974, becoming the band's highest-charting single.
The song remains a staple in southern and classic rock, and, along with "Free Bird", is arguably the band's signature song.
The political lyrics of the song compare Richard Nixon and his Watergate scandal with the governor of Alabama George Wallace and his political supporters in Birmingham. The lyrics have been perceived as mocking the American liberals and their outrage at Nixon's conduct.