“Dixieland Delight”
Alabama
Written by Ronnie Rogers
Radio & Records
#1 (2 weeks)
April 1 – April 8, 1983
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
April 2, 1983
In recent years, Alabama has stripped all of the Confederate imagery from their album covers, but you can still see the flag in the music video for “Dixieland Delight.”
It seems oddly appropriate, really, as Alabama walked a thin line between reveling in Southern pride without revealing too much of the region’s ugly history. References to Dixie are vanishingly rare these days, but they live on in many of Alabama’s most enduring hits.
And oh boy, has “Dixieland Delight” endured over time. And no wonder! Its laid back groove and quiet confidence are made possible by a perfectly constructed chorus:
Spend my dollarParked in a holler ‘neath the mountain moonlightHold her uptight, make a little lovin’A little turtle dovin’ on a Mason-Dixon nightFits my life, oh, so rightMy Dixieland delight
“Spend my dollar parked in a holler” is a hell of a rhyme, isn’t it?
And songwriter Ronnie Rogers doesn’t slouch on the verses, either. Such vivid lyrical imagery throughout, with my personal favorite being “chubby ol’ groundhog” paired with “croakin’ old bullfrog.”
Among their many love letters to the south, this is one of the better ones, in spite of its poorly aged title.
“Dixieland Delight” gets a B+.
Every No. 1 Single of the Eighties
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