On July 30, 1985, Alabama didn’t just rewrite country music history—they doubled down on it. Three decades ago, the Country Music Hall of Famers became the first country act ever to earn quadruple-platinum certification, which means 4 million albums sold. And they did it twice on the same day.
Alabama‘s 1981 release Feels So Right and their 1982 album Mountain Music were certified quadruple platinum on the same day.
“The young people really latched onto us,” singer Randy Owen told Country Weekly. “We were told by some labels that fans weren’t ready for that … they weren’t going to accept a band. That was too rock’ n’ roll. We heard all of that. We were turned down by everyone for a while.”
Alabama went on to sell more than 80 million albums and chart 43 No. 1 hits. The group’s signature songs include “Mountain Music,” “Feels So Right,” “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band),” “Dixieland Delight,” “My Home’s In Alabama,” and their first chart-topper “Tennessee River.”
Alabama, then comprised of Owen, Teddy Gentry, Jeff Cook, and Mark Herndon, verified that country artists could rule the radio, dominate sales charts, and appeal to mainstream audiences without watering down the fiddle and twang. The men proved crossover success wasn’t selling out – it was exposing country music to new fans. The multi-platinum status of their albums? That meant albums – not just radio singles – could define an era. The Academy of Country Music cemented the idea when the industry organization named Alabama its Artist of the Decade for the 1980s.
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Alabama: Artist of the Decade
Less than 10 years later, Garth Brooks released No Fences, which went 18x platinum. Brooks had iconic titles, including “Friends in Low Places” and “The Thunder Rolls,” to carry him to the milestone. Alabama leaned on “Mountain Music,” “Close Enough to Perfect,” Old Flame,” and Owen’s downhome songwriting style.
Alabama’s success story started with the group’s first No. 1 hit in 1980 – “Tennessee River.” But their roots run far deeper – all the way back to their hometown of Fort Payne in northern Alabama. Owen, Cooke, and Gentry were cousins. The singer told The Tennessean the band started 56 years ago on July 4 when he and Gentry went to Cook’s house to jam.
“We picked a little bit, and we sang a song I’d written, and we thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty good,’” he said.
Until then, Owen didn’t really know Cook. The men gelled as a group and made a name for themselves as a rowdy, popular bar band at The Bowery in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Eleven years after Owen, Cook, and Gentry first jammed in that little house, the men signed a record deal with RCA Records.
“I’ll Speak My Southern English”
Regardless of the band’s success or where they were playing, Owen never damped his accent and even sang about it in “My Home’s In Alabama.”
Lyrics include: “I’ll speak my Southern English just as natural as I please/I’m in the heart of Dixie, Dixie’s in the heart of me”
He told Jacksonville State University that studying English helped him with songwriting, especially learning about colloquialisms in creative writing class.
“It helped me understand that a kid who was very poor and grew up in the sticks … that it’s OK to speak your vernacular,” Owen said. “It makes your communication unique.”
The band’s southern rock lean and unabashed hometown pride spoke to millions of people.
“I was never one about correct English, even though I had to do it,” Owen said. “It was about local expressions. It’s what I know about. I don’t know about the streets of New York City or the South Side of Chicago. I’ve played there, but the music that took me there was the local expressions and the experience of northern Alabama.”
Alabama Worried Success Would Ruin Them
In fact, Owen worried the group’s fame might dissipate their Southernisms or relatability.
“I was afraid it would curtail the ability to stay true to who Alabama was, and (we would) just do songs that would be commercially easy for radio stations to put on, spin it and have a No. 1 record,” Owen told No Depression. “It concerned me. I’m not sure how the other guys feel about that, but it concerned me because, to me, there are songs that you write that you think, ‘This is an Alabama song,’ and you just feel, ‘This is us.’”
(Photo by Lester Cohen/Getty Images)
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