Sweet Home Alabama
The song reached number 8 on the US chart in 1974, and it was the band’s second hit single. As I mentioned before, the song was written in reply to Neil Young’s “Southern Man” and “Alabama.” Ironically, none of the three writers of the song (Van Zant, Gary Rossington, King) were from Alabama.
Source: Amazon
Rossington explained the writing process. “I had this little riff… It’s the little picking part, and I kept playing it over and over when we were waiting on everyone to arrive for rehearsal. Ronnie and I were sitting there, and he kept saying, ‘play that again.’ Then Ronnie wrote the lyrics and Ed, and I wrote the music.” The hit led to two offers to perform on TV rock shows, but the band turned them down.