Lynyrd Skynyrd’s anthemic “Sweet Home Alabama” was released 50 years ago on June 24, 1974. It was the band’s highest-charting song, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Top 100, and went on to become a ...

This story is part of American Anthem, a yearlong series on songs that rouse, unite, celebrate and call to action. Find more atNPR.org/Anthem. It starts with one of ...

“Sweet Home Alabama” figured into notable pre-fame moments of Taylor Hicks’ life. At a Hoover High school talent show, he played harmonica on a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Southern rock anthem with some ...

Very few Americans would have trouble recognizing the opening notes of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s iconic anthem, “Sweet Home Alabama.” And when they do recognize it, they typically “turn it up,” as the singer ...

On an early summer’s day in 1973, while waiting for the last of his bandmates to arrive for rehearsal, Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington unfurled a speculative riff on a sunburst Les Paul.

Some classic rock songs were controversial before they were completed. For example, a famous backup singer for The Rolling Stones initially refused to work on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” ...

97.1/The River, the local classic rock station, cheekily boycotted one of its core hits “Sweet Home Alabama” until tonight’s college football championship game is concluded. “We interrupt this ...

There is just something poetic about college football. Maybe it is the crisp autumn air, maybe it’s the student body, but nobody can deny the greatness that tradition plays in our sport. The deep ...

Sweet Home Alabama was released in September 2002 and took its title from the Lynyrd Skynyrd song of the same name Shafiq Najib is a former writer-reporter at PEOPLE. He left PEOPLE in 2023. Reese ...