"Giddyup Go" is a country music song made famous by
Red Sovine
Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 7, 1917 – April 4, 1980) was an American country music singer and songwriter associated with truck driving songs, particularly those recited as narratives but set to music. His most noted examples are "Giddyu ...
. Released in 1965, the song was the title track to Sovine's album released that same year.
A
recitation
A recitation in a general sense is the act of reciting from memory, or a formal reading of verse or other writing before an audience.
Public recitation is the act of reciting a work of writing before an audience.
Academic recitation
In a ...
paying homage to the American truck driver, "Giddyup Go" was Sovine's second No. 1 hit, spending six weeks atop the ''Billboard magazine''
Hot Country Singles
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart in January and February 1966.
Story of "Giddyup Go"
Truck-driving songs had been a part of American country music since the late 1940s, and Sovine's label
Starday Records
Starday Records was an American record label producing traditional country music during the 1950s and 1960s.
History
The label began in 1952 in Beaumont, Texas, when local businessmen Jack Starnes (Lefty Frizzell's manager) and Houston record di ...
had several artists who specialized in the subgenre. It didn't take until 1965 when Sovine—at the time, absent from the country music charts for nine years—finally found his niche.
[Manheim, James, "Red Sovine" at ]Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
/ref>
The first big truck-driving hit from Sovine, "Giddyup Go" is the tale of an emotional father-son reunion at a highway truck stop. The reunion is played out near the end of the song.
In the setup, the elder truck driver—who shares his experiences in first person—explains that he had spent the better part of 25 years on the road, most of them alone. In the early years of his career, he notes, he had a wife and young son. It was the son's gibberish attempt to greet his father, while driving the truck, that inspired the name of the truck ("Giddyup Go"). The stress of her husband's frequent absences eventually takes its toll on the marriage, and one day, the trucker returns home to find both gone, without contact information or an explanation. In the years following, the trucker is left to explain to other truck drivers the "Giddyup Go" nameplate on his truck, his only link to his son.
In the present time, the truck driver is traveling along U.S. Highway 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
when he spots a new diesel rig with a nameplate reading "Giddyup Go." The father gets a lump in his throat, suspecting that he may have some connection to its driver. The two drivers meet at the next truck stop, and during the course of their conversation the boy explains that his mother had died and that he had lost contact with his father. He also reveals that the name of his "Giddyup Go" truck was inspired by a rig his father once owned. It is at this point where the elder trucker takes the younger man outside to reveal their connection, dusting off the name to show him. Afterward, an emotional reunion takes place between the two men, who realize they are father and son.
Chart performance
Answer version
Minnie Pearl
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon (October 25, 1912 – March 4, 1996), known professionally as her stage character Minnie Pearl, was an American comedian who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years (1940–1991) and on the televisio ...
recorded an answer version of "Giddyup Go", titled "Giddyup Go Answer." A departure from her usual comic recordings, Pearl tells the story from the perspective of the manager of the truck stop where the father-son reunion takes place.
The story depicts the woman's friendship with the elder trucker's one-time wife, who had located to the area with her young son when the marriage broke up. It is explained that the woman had a terminal illness that required her to move to a drier climate and start a new life as a waitress. The years pass, her ex-husband never happens past the truck stop, and the woman's condition deteriorates further. On her deathbed, the woman tells her friend that she wishes for her son to become a truck driver, just like his father.
In the years following, the narrator watches the trucks drive by, wondering if the man that was at one time her friend's husband, will ever stop. Then comes the day where she gets her answer, when the two trucks pull into the parking lot of the truck stop; the song ends just as the father reveals the nameplate on his truck.
"Giddyup Go-Answer" reached No. 10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles chart in March 1966 and as Pearl's biggest hit, was her only charting single.
Covers
Artists who have covered "Giddyup Go" include Dave Dudley
Dave Dudley (born David Darwin Pedruska; May 3, 1928 – December 22, 2003) was an American country music singer best known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s and his semi-slurred bass. His signature song was "Six Day ...
, Del Reeves
Franklin Delano Reeves (July 14, 1933 – January 1, 2007) was an American country music singer, best known for his "girl-watching" novelty songs of the 1960s including "Girl on the Billboard" and "The Belles of Southern Bell". He is also known ...
, Tex Williams
Sollie Paul "Tex" Williams (August 23, 1917 – October 11, 1985) was an American Western swing musician. He is best known for his talking blues style; his biggest hit was the novelty song, "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)", which held th ...
, Ferlin Husky
Ferlin Eugene Husky (December 3, 1925 – March 17, 2011) was an early American country music singer who was equally adept at the genres of traditional honky-tonk, ballads, spoken recitations, and rockabilly pop tunes. He had two dozen top-20 hit ...
, and Australian country singer Nev Nicholls. The song also received Dutch covers by Gerard de Vries in the mid sixties, and later on in the early 1990s by Paul de Leeuw, AKA Bob de Rooy. The later version, however, was a satire version of the song.
References
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1965 songs
Red Sovine songs
1965 singles
Dave Dudley songs
Del Reeves songs
Tex Williams songs
Ferlin Husky songs
Recitation songs
Starday Records singles
Songs about truck driving
Songs written by Red Sovine