100 Greatest Songs of the 60’s #94 The Nashville Teens – Tobacco Road

Released: 1964

Some debates in music have been going on for much longer than you think. Interviewed by the Record Mirror’s David Griffiths shortly after they emerged in 1964, The Nashville Teens bassist Pete Shannon was adamant that even in such progressive times, the idea of the band would live on for a while. “I don’t think the group scene will ever really end” he opined “If you hire a group you hire a full evening’s entertainment, but if you hire a singer you’ve still got to look around for a backing group.”

From Weybridge in Surrey, the quintet had by this point already toured with Chuck Berry and cut their teeth abroad, playing eight hour shifts in German clubs. Singer Artt Sharp’s additonal experience came in the form of having also managed a record shop – and it was there that he first heard John D. Loudermilk’s original version of the song that they would pilot into the charts.

Produced by Mickie Most – who already had The Animals’ House of The Rising Sun on his CV – Tobacco Road had originally been a stark, blues-inspired number telling the story of Loudermilk’s adolescence in North Carolina. With Most at the controls it was transformed into a gritty R&B workout, spliced with honky tonk piano and dead handed bass, the sort of knotty grind which would perpetually make sweat drip off a ceiling. As for bands – well, they’re still a thing too.