Bob Seger Deeply Regrets Not Asking for a Songwriting Credit on One of His Biggest Hits From 1979

One of Bob Seger’s biggest hits is “Old Time Rock And Roll”. The song, out in 1979, is part of his Stranger In Town record. Although it only hit the Top 30 when it was released, it remains one of his signature songs today. 

 “Old Time Rock And Roll” is also one of the few songs that Seger did not write… sort of. The song is credited as being written by George Jackson, Thomas E. Jones III, and Chuck Crozier.

“‘Old Time Rock & Roll’ came to me at the very end of Stranger In Town,” Seger tells Louder. “All I kept from the original was, ‘Old time rock and roll / That kind of music soothes the soul / I reminisce about days of old / With that old time rock and roll.’ I rewrote the verses, and I never took credit. That was the dumbest thing I ever did. And Thom Jones and George Jackson know it, too. But I just wanted to finish the record. I rewrote every verse you hear except for the choruses.”

“I didn’t ask for credit,” he adds. “My manager said, ‘You should ask for a third of the credit.’ And I said, ‘Nah. Nobody’s gonna like it.’ I’m not credited on it, so I couldn’t control the copyright either. Meanwhile, it became a Wendy’s commercial because I couldn’t control it. Oh my God, it was awful!”

How Bob Seger Recorded “Old Time Rock And Roll”

Seger recorded “Old Time Rock And Roll” at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, using the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

“We cut a demo on the writer of the song, George Jackson, there at the studio when we didn’t have anything else to do,” Jerry Masters, the recording engineer, told Songfacts. “It was a great demo, along with some others we cut that day. Seger liked the song so much he tried to cut it himself.”

According to Masters, Seger tried recording “Old Time Rock And Roll” both with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, known as The Swampers, and his own band, without much success.

“He finally gave up,” Masters remembers. “He and Punch Andrews [Seger’s manager] decided to buy the demo track from us and put his vocal on it, and that ended up being the record. It’s a classic. We also did ‘Katmandu’ and several more that were on the Night Moves and Stranger In Town LPs. So the classic ‘Old Time’ was in reality a demo we cut on the writer a couple of years earlier.”

Jackson doesn’t necessarily agree with Seger’s recollection of creating “Old Time Rock And Roll”.

“Bob had pretty much finished his recording at Muscle Shoals,” Jackson tells The Independent. “And he asked them if they had any other songs he could listen to for the future.”

Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns