Tobacco Road (song)
“Tobacco Road” is a song written and first recorded by John D. Loudermilk in 1960 that was a hit for The Nashville Teens in 1964 and has since become a standard across several musical genres.
Originally framed as a folk song, “Tobacco Road” was a semi-autobiographical tale of growing up in Durham, North Carolina. Released on Columbia Records, it was not a hit for Loudermilk, achieving only minor chart success in Australia. Other artists, however, immediately began recording and performing the song.
Nashville Teens hit
The English group The Nashville Teens’ garage rock/blues rock rendering was a bold effort featuring prominent piano, electric guitar and bass drum parts and a dual lead vocal. Mickie Most produced it with the same tough-edged-pop feel that he brought to The Animals’ hits. “Tobacco Road” was a trans-Atlantic pop hit in 1964, reaching number 6 on the UK singles chart and number 14 on the U.S. singles chart. While the Teens would have some further success in England, in the U.S. “Tobacco Road” became another one-hit wonder of the British Invasion. The Nashville Teens’ cover version was featured at the close of episode 1 of season 4, “Public Relations”, of the hit television show Mad Men on July 25, 2010.
In the 1970s, songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman claimed to have been inspired by “Tobacco Road” while writing Sweet’s “Blockbuster”, after accusations of stealing the guitar riff from David Bowie’s “Jean Genie”.
The song became a hit for Edgar Winter on his debut album Entrance and he plays a 17-minute live version of the song on the double LP Roadwork from 1972.
“Tobacco Road” has been performed by a great number of other artists, often with slightly altered lyrics. Notable renderings include a soul one from Lou Rawls, a folk rock one from Jefferson Airplane on their debut album Takes Off, a lengthy 17-minute version by Edgar Winter and his band, a sample on dead prez’s Psychology, and others from Eric Burdon & War, Spooky Tooth, Status Quo, Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings, Steve Young, Love Affair, Shocking Blue, David Lee Roth, Aum, Tommy Cash, Blues Magoos, Blues Creation, Bobbie Gentry, Rare Earth, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Mud, Mind Garage, an unreleased version by Jimi Hendrix, Southern Culture on the Skids, Serbian rock bands Smak and Discipline A Kitschme, and so on. It has been done as blues, country music, punk rock, or garage rock. In 2006 it was featured in the finale of the hit television show American Idol, and was performed on the show by contestant Phil Stacey in 2007 and Syesha Mercado in 2008.
In the late 1960s, the song became a staple of the Jackson 5’s early shows, and was one of the four songs they performed at their audition for Motown Records in 1968.
On 1 February 1966, Lou Rawls performed the song as a medley with “Southside Blues”, which was included on his album Live!.