Don't Rock the Jukebox (song)

"Don't Rock the Jukebox"
Single by Alan Jackson
from the album Don't Rock the Jukebox
B-side "Walkin' the Floor Over Me"
Released April 29, 1991
Format 7" 45 RPM
Promo-only CD single
Recorded August 21, 1990[1]
Genre Country
Length 2:52
Label Arista 2220
Writer(s) Alan Jackson
Roger Murrah
Keith Stegall
Producer(s) Scott Hendricks
Keith Stegall
Alan Jackson singles chronology
"I'd Love You All Over Again"
(1991)
"Don't Rock the Jukebox"
(1991)
"Someday"
(1991)

"Don't Rock the Jukebox" is a song co-written and performed by American country music artist Alan Jackson. It was released in April 1991 as the lead single from the album of the same name, Don't Rock the Jukebox. It was his second consecutive Number One single on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Jackson wrote the song with Roger Murrah and Keith Stegall.

The song also received an ASCAP award for Country Song of the Year in 1992.[2] That same year, the song was covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks, featuring commentary by Alan Jackson himself, for their 1992 album Chipmunks in Low Places.

Background and writing

The song is sung from the perspective of a heartbroken bar patron who wishes to hear country music to ease his heartbreak. As such, he tells the other patrons in the bar, "don't rock the jukebox" (i.e. play country instead of rock).

Alan wrote about the inspiration for the song in the liner notes from The Greatest Hits Collection: "I wanna tell you a little story about an incident that happened on the road a couple years ago when me and my band, The Strayhorns, were playing this little truck stop lounge up in Doswell,_Virginia - a place called Geraldine's. We'd been there for four or five nights, you know, playing those dance sets. It'd been a long night, I took a break and walked over to the Jukebox. Roger, my bass player, was already over there reading the records, you know. I leaned up on the corner of it and one of the legs was broken off, jukebox sort of wobbling around, you know. And Roger looked up at me and said..."[1]

Critical reception

Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song an A grade," saying that the song "defies explanation" because Jackson "perfectly inhabits the song’s affable weariness, and because Scott Hendricks and Keith Stegall arrange it to honky-tonk heaven."[3]

Music video

The music video for the song, directed by Julien Temple, consists of Jackson playing his guitar and singing the song while standing in front of a jukebox. As he does this, a seated figure in the shadows nods his head and taps the table to the beat. Several people come and dance in front of the jukebox during the song, while some people who come up to the jukebox shake it around angrily (thus prompting Jackson to sing the title line of the song). At the end of the video, the seated figure is revealed to be none other than George Jones (who is mentioned in the song's lyrics several times). Also about a minute into it, Hal Smith, who played Otis Campbell the town drunk on the Andy Griffith Show in the 60's appears as a bum who tries playing the jukebox.

Chart positions

Chart (1991) Peak
position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[4] 1
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[5] 1

Year-end charts

Chart (1991) Position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[6] 8
US Country Songs (Billboard)[7] 1

References

  1. 1 2 The Greatest Hits Collection (CD). Alan Jackson. Arista Records. 1995. 07822 18801.
  2. "Spotlight on Alan Jackson". About.com. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
  3. CountryUniverse.net Review by Kevin John Coyne
  4. "Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 1586." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. August 3, 1991. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  5. "Alan Jackson – Chart history" Billboard Hot Country Songs for Alan Jackson.
  6. "RPM Top 100 Country Tracks of 1991". RPM. December 21, 1991. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  7. "Best of 1991: Country Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 1991. Retrieved August 16, 2013.

External links

Preceded by
"The Thunder Rolls"
by Garth Brooks
Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks
number-one single

July 6-July 20, 1991
Succeeded by
"I Am a Simple Man"
by Ricky Van Shelton
Preceded by
"Point of Light"
by Randy Travis
RPM Country Tracks
number-one single

August 3, 1991
Preceded by
"Nobody's Home"
by Clint Black
Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks
number-one song of the year

1991
Succeeded by
"I Saw the Light"
by Wynonna
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