"Hillbilly Rock" is a song written by

Paul Kennerley Paul Kennerley (born 1948) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer working in the American contemporary country music industry. Biography Paul Kennerley was born in Hoylake, Cheshire (now Merseyside), England in 1948. In 1 ...

, 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

Marty Stuart John Marty Stuart (born September 30, 1958) is an American country and bluegrass music singer, songwriter, and musician. Active since 1968, Stuart initially toured with Lester Flatt, and then in Johnny Cash's road band before beginning work as a ...

. It was released in March 1990 as the third single and title track from the album '' Hillbilly Rock''. The song reached No. 8 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Country Singles & Tracks 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.

Background

According to an interview with Marty Stuart, songwriter Paul Kennerley had initially composed "Hillbilly Rock" for

the Judds The Judds were an American country music duo composed of lead vocalist Wynonna Judd and her mother, Naomi Judd. The duo signed to RCA Nashville in 1983 and released six studio albums between then and 1991. The Judds were one of the most success ...

to potentially record. Conversely, Stuart had signed a new deal with

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

in the late 1980s following his brief tenure at

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. Music executive Tony Brown, who had signed Stuart to MCA, subsequently paired him with Kennerley to write songs together, during which Kennerley presented "Hillbilly Rock" to Stuart and convinced him to record the song himself.

Music video

The music video was directed by Joanne Gardner and premiered in early 1990.

Chart performance

Year-end charts

References

1990 singles Marty Stuart songs Songs written by Paul Kennerley Song recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer) MCA Records singles 1989 songs {{1990-country-song-stub