Alan Jackson is one of the best-selling artists in country music history.
The Country Music Hall of Famer knows how to produce a hit song.
But Alan Jackson surprised everyone with this awful prediction about one of his biggest hits.
Alan Jackson thought that “Chattahoochee” would be a flop
One of the biggest hits of country music icon Alan Jackson’s career was “Chattahoochee, ” the third single from his 1993 album A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ’bout Love).
The up-tempo track became a crossover hit when it made it into the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart after hitting number one on the Billboard U.S. Hot Country Songs chart.
It won the CMA Award for Single of the Year and Song of the Year.
“Chattahoochee” became one of the most memorable songs from 90s country.
But Jackson never thought the song was destined to be a hit, let alone one of the biggest of his career.
He said on the In Joy Life podcast that he never thought that a song about a river in his native Georgia would connect with a national audience.
“A lot of my songs I write out of my life are true experiences, but at the same time, they relate to other people,” Jackson said. “An example that surprised me was when Jim McBride and I wrote Chattahoochee years ago, just about the river that runs through Georgia that we grew up close to, and it filled the lake that we skied on some anyway.”
Jackson knew that the song was fun, but he doubted many people beyond Georgia would know what the Chattahoochee River was.
“And when we cut that, it was a fun, up-tempo thing about coming to age,” Jackson explained. “I thought ‘Well yeah, it’s a fun song and I like it, and people in Georgia are gonna like it, nobody in the rest of the country . . . rest of the world don’t know what it is or care about it.’”
He realized that the song resonated with people because everyone had their version of the river.
“But then I learned right quick that everybody has a Chattahoochee,” Jackson said. “It might be called something else, or might not even be a river at all, but the story was something people could relate to in their life, wherever they were from. So you just never know.”
The song’s music video became memorable because Jackon water skied in blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat in it.
Waylon Jennings asked Alan Jackson what the Chattahoochee was
The late outlaw country music legend Waylon Jennings confirmed the fears of Jackson when he asked him what the Chattahoochee was after the song made it big on the radio.
“I think Waylon said one time, Waylon Jennings, ‘What the hell is a Chattahoochee?’” Jackson recalled.
The river runs from north Georgia to form the state’s border with parts of Alabama and Florida, so most people outside the area wouldn’t know what it is.
Jackson explained that the Chattahoochee was more than just a river but about an experience in life.
“The regular working people, the professional people, just trying to do the same things . . . make a living, raise a family, enjoy life,” Jackson explained. “I learned that there’s a Chattahoochee everywhere.”
Alan Jackson’s song about a river in Georgia had a better connection with audiences than he ever imagined.
