"Tar Top" is a song written by

Randy Owen Randy Yeuell Owen (born December 13, 1949) is an American country music artist. He is best known for his role as the lead singer of Alabama, a country rock band that saw tremendous mainstream success throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Alabama became ...

, 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, ...

group

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

. It was released in August 1987 as the first single from their album '' Just Us''. The song reached number 7 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 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 October 1987, making it their first commercial single not to reach number 1 since 1980's " My Home's in Alabama".

Content

The song references musical groups that Owen and his bandmates played in prior to the foundation of Alabama, and its title is a reference to a nickname that Owen had in the pre-Alabama days. Owen said that he wrote it a few years prior to the album's release, at a point when he "was making some personal assessments on what ecould do and what ecouldn`t do physically and mentally".

Chart performance

References

1987 singles 1987 songs Alabama (American band) songs Song recordings produced by Harold Shedd RCA Records singles Songs written by Randy Owen Songs about country music {{1987-country-song-stub