"Big Wheels in the Moonlight" is a song co-written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Dan Seals Danny Wayland Seals (February 8, 1948 – March 25, 2009) was an American musician. The younger brother of Seals and Crofts member Jim Seals, he first gained fame as one half of the soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, who charted ...

. It was released in September 1988 as the second single from Seals' album ''

Rage On ''Rage On'' is the seventh studio album by American country music artist Dan Seals, released on June 29, 1988, by Capitol Records. The album charted at number 6 on the Top Country Albums chart, his second highest charting album since ''Won't Be Bl ...

''. It peaked at number one, his ninth to do so. The song was written by Seals and

Bob McDill Robert Lee McDill (born April 4, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, active from the 1960s until 2000. During his career he wrote or co-wrote 31 number one country hits. His songs were also recorded by popular artists of the 1970s, 1980s an ...

Content

The song—one of many in country music to pay salute to the American

truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

—is about a young man's childhood memories of watching semitrailer trucks travel along a nearby highway, listening at night to the roar of the trucks' diesel engines in the distance and dreaming one day of being a truck driver. The dream never comes to pass, as he begins a family and is working at other jobs, but still finds peace in envisioning the trucks in his mind, the trucks illuminated only by their lights and the moonlight of a clear evening.

Music video

The music video was directed by Neil Abramson, and was one of three videos filmed specially for Seals' 1991 video compilation, ''A Portrait''.

Chart positions

Year-end charts

References

1988 singles Dan Seals songs Songs written by Bob McDill Songs written by Dan Seals Song recordings produced by Kyle Lehning Capitol Records Nashville singles 1988 songs Songs about truck driving {{1988-country-song-stub