They met together in Nashville at a cafe called Bluebird and then went on to write the song at Hargrove’s house. The song was originally written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove back in 1981. But who wrote “Tennessee Whiskey” and who sang it first? Stapleton and Justin Timberlake’s medley of the song at the 2015 Country Music awards drove it to greater popularity. Stapleton isn’t the first, and won’t be the last.“Tennessee Whiskey” has Chris Stapleton to thank for its No. For real.Īs for blues in country, well, Travis Tritt dabbles in it a bit and there have been others. That’s the beauty of blues, learn the basics and you can play a thousand songs immediately.

That’s the nature of blues, they all copy each other’s chords, licks, riffs, and tempos. Dean Dillon’s song was put overtop a standard blues progression and played at a similar tempo to Etta’s song. Nobody’s calling this a ripoff who seriously understands music. It continues to be used in blues, she didn’t invent it. Hey Bo Diddley by Bo Diddley has been the basis for so many songs, the same beat, chords, tempo, all of it, to the point that when you hear it, most folks say Bo Diddley beat! Etta’s blues progression is a standard blues. In rock and roll there is Chuck berry’s 12 bar blues progression that you hear in probably millions of songs, even his guitar licks have been used in probably every other rock and roll song. Nobody’s calling foul, this is the nature of blues. Same chords, same little lead lick, same beat. I listen to a fair amount of blues and let me tell you, the number of songs that are essentially Boom, Boom, Boom by John Lee Hooker with different lyrics would blow your mind. These become the basis for thousands of songs. Blues has a pretty simple structure and uses a few basic beats and chord progressions. Hi Billy! The history of blues in song is an interesting subject. Though some purists still love to bellyache about how Chris Stapleton’s version of “Tennessee Whiskey” is more soul than country, it’s hard to not sit back and applaud how a country music standard has become one of the biggest songs in country in the last decade or more, and still is showing no signs of losing steam.

Stapleton’s Traveller album has now spent over 200 weeks on the Billboard Country Albums chart, currently sitting at #5 despite being over 4 years old, and was just certified quadruple platinum on July 24th. The song has become so big, a Broadway play is in production called Tennessee Whiskey: The Musical about the life of co-writer Dean Dillon.Īlong with the new certifications for “Tennessee Whiskey,” Chris Stapleton’s song “Broken Halos” was just certified 2X platinum, and “Millionaire” written by Kevin Welch was certified platinum as well. On July 31st, the RIAA certified the song both 5-times and 6-times platinum, now making what was already a country standard one of the biggest songs in country music history, especially when combining its current performance with the sales and chart success of previous versions. Simply on the strength of that performance, it eventually landed at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, despite Stapleton’s label Mercury Nashville refusing to release it as a single.Įven after releasing subsequent singles from now three separate albums, “Tennessee Whiskey” still remains Chris Stapleton’s best performing song at the moment, and one of the most beloved and well-recognized songs in all of country music currently. Originally released with Traveller now over four years ago (May 5th, 2015), it came to prominence (along with Chris Stapleton) when he performed the song with Justin Timberlake on the CMA awards in early November of that year. Penned by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, it was first released by David Allan Coe in 1981, and first became a hit for George Jones on the Hot Country Songs chart in 1983.Ĭhris Stapleton’s version of the the song isn’t a spring chicken either. Of course we’re talking about “Tennessee Whiskey,” and the soulful version of the song released on the debut album by Chris Stapleton called Traveller. You now can argue that one of the biggest songs in country music in the last decade was originally written and released nearly 40 years ago, and this time around, wasn’t even released as a single.

Tennessee whiskey song with jt