Rocky Top

Thursday July 24, 2008


Dedicated to
Mary Ellen & John Hawley,
Bil Vorn Dick
& Dianna Meredith

most popular version recorded by:
Osborne Brothers

** ROCKY TOP **

If you would like to watch and hear this performance ..
click here at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9prNixjbg

1

Wish that I was on ol’ Rocky Top,

Down in the Tennessee hills.

Ain't no smoggy smoke on Rocky Top,

Ain't no telephone bills.

Once I had a girl on Rocky Top,

Half bear, the other half cat.

Wild as a mink, but sweet as soda pop,

And I still dream about that.

Hook

Rocky Top, you'll always be

Home sweet home to me.

Good ol’ Rocky Top,

Rocky Top, Tennessee.

Rocky Top, Tennessee.

2

Once two strangers climbed ol’ Rocky Top,

Lookin' for a moonshine still.

Strangers ain't come down from Rocky Top,

Reckon they never will.

Corn won't grow at all on Rocky Top,

Dirt's too rocky by far.

That's why all the folks on Rocky Top,

Get their corn from a jar.

Hook (repeats)

Rocky Top, you'll always be

Home sweet home to me.

Good ol’ Rocky Top,

Rocky Top, Tennessee.

Rocky Top, Tennessee.

3

I've had years of cramped up city life,

Trapped like a duck in a pen.

All I know is it's a pity life,

Can't be simple again.

Hook (repeats)
Rocky Top, you'll always be

Home sweet home to me.

Good ol’ Rocky Top,

Rocky Top, Tennessee.

Rocky Top, Tennessee.

Rocky Top, Tennessee !
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* Editor’s Note:

This song was written by a married couple, songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. They wrote Rocky Top in about ten minutes, in 1967. The Bryants were working in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on a collection of slow-tempo songs for a project for Archie Campbell and Chet Atkins. Writing the fast-paced Rocky Top served as a temporary diversion for them. Recorded by the Osborne Brothers in 1967, the song was a top 40 hit on the Country Music Charts in early 1968.

The original Rocky Top song describes a place called Rocky Top, Tennessee, which is one of the three peaks of Thunderhead Mountain in Tennessee (located in the Smoky Mountains) in the eastern part of the state. The peak is actually located along the border between Tennessee and North Carolina.

The Jam band, Phish played Rocky Top regularly from 1987 to 2003. There have been additional cover versions of the song by such Country Music Artists as Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty, and Billie Jo Spears.

In 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ranked Rocky Top number seven on its list of 100 Songs of the South.

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LARRY CURTIS SPURLOCK

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