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Based in: Alabama

Members: Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry

Alabama Biography

Who Is Alabama?

GRAMMY award-winning Alabama is an American country music band formed in Fort Payne, Alabama, in 1969.

Alabama‘s biggest success came in the 1980s, when the band had more than 27 number-one hits, seven multi-platinum albums, and received numerous awards.

Alabama has more than 41 number-one country records on the Billboard charts to their credit and has sold more than 75 million records, making them the most successful band in country music history. AllMusic credited the band with popularizing the idea of a country band and wrote that “It’s unlikely that any other country group will be able to surpass the success of Alabama.”

– Hire Alabama for your festival or concert plans! – (t,s)

Alabama was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019 and was awarded the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from this institution.

In 1980, the biggest news blast in music was country, thanks to the release of the film Urban Cowboy. Discos changed decor overnight to become country dance clubs, and Americans, by the millions, traded in their loafers for cowboy boots. RCA Records had the country’s first platinum-selling album with “Wanted: The Outlaws.”

Though it didn’t grab many headlines at the time, the label had another important first that year, when on May 31st it released “Tennessee River,” the debut single from a band named Alabama. The song shot to #1, the first of 40 Radio & Records chart toppers.

The band went on to win the Academy of Country Music’s Artist of the Decade title for the 1980’s, sell in excess of 45 million albums, become the first group to ever be named the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year and forever change the way bands were accepted in the country format.

Hire Alabama: In 1973, the band relocated to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to become the house band for a club called The Bowery. Working for tips, they played six nights a week, honing the harmonies that would later become a trademark. They stayed seven summers at The Bowery, gaining a huge regional following, changing the band name to Alabama and utilizing one drummer after another before Mark Herndon came into the picture.

Their sound depended on them playing their instruments and Mark adding his drum edge. RCA listened to that sound and agreed, and with the major label backing them up, Alabama began to change the way the industry looked at bands. The debut album on RCA was titled “My Home’s In Alabama,” and every song released from it became a #1 hit.

Hire Alabama: By 1981, Alabama was named Top Vocal Group of the Year by the Country Music Association, the first of more than 150 major music awards they would receive in the next fifteen years. The following year, the band again took home the CMA’s Vocal Group of the Year, as well as the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year. They also won the CMA’s Instrumental Group of the Year, signaling that the CMA, for one, recognized that something new was afoot.

The fans kept right on buying Alabama’s albums, too. “Feels So Right” and “Mountain Music” were certified triple platinum in 1984, “Roll On” and “The Closer You Get” were certified double platinum. One of their #1 singles that year, “If You’re Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle In The Band),” is considered one of the most important singles released that year and became one of the all-time most covered tunes by other groups.

Hire Alabama: Another signature song, “Forty Hour Week (For a Livin’),” was a tribute to America’s working man and hit the top chart spot in 1985. Because of Alabama’s success, more and more bands were getting a shot at stardom: Both Restless Heart and Sawyer Brown emerged in the mid-1980’s and benefited tremendously from Alabama’s ground-breaking work.

Hire Alabama: You’d think that a band with this much star power might begin to slow down around the time it turns ten years old, but not so with Alabama. In 1990, Alabama released “Jukebox In My Mind,” which became the biggest chart record they’ve had to date, according to Billboard researcher Joel Whitburn. Another huge single, “I’m In A Hurry (And Don’t Know Why),” stayed #1 for two straight weeks in 1992.

Mark Herndon left the band in 2008.

More biographical information: Wikipedia

Alabama Discography

Hits include:

• (There’s A) Fire In the Night
• Can’t Keep a Good Man Down
• Close Enough To Perfect
• Dixieland Delight
• Down Home
• Face to Face
• Fallin’ Again
• Feels So Right
• Forever’s as Far as I’ll Go
• Forty Hour Week (For a Livin’)
• High Cotton
• I’m in a Hurry (And Don’t Know Why)
• If I Had You
• If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)
• Jukebox in My Mind
• Lady Down On Love

His discography includes 26 studio albums, including 20 recorded for RCA Records. Alabama also charted 77 songs on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which 32 reached number one..