Alabama Band History

Back in 1973, three cousins from Fort Payne, Alabama started playing in a local bar  in Myrtle Beach called the Bowery and all they earned was what people gave them in tips.  Randy, the lead singer and guitar player, actually met his wife at the Bowery when they were playing one night.  She was only 15 but had someone get her in.  Jeff is a very talented musician, singing and playing both guitar and the violin. He is awesome with his fiddling!  The other cousin, Teddy also plays guitar and sings. There have been a variety of great drummers with the band.

When the group started out, they were known as Wild Country. They played at the Bowery and in 1977 they changed their name to Alabama Band. They signed a “one shot” single record contract with GRT Records of Nashville.  The group’s song, “I Wanna Be With You Tonight” was released in July and got to #77 on the billboards charts.  Shortly after this release, GRT Records had financial problems and had no money to promote the single. Alabama didn’t give up and in 1979 they released another single, “I Wanna Come Over” with an independent Atlanta based label.  A small Dallas based recording studio was impressed when they heard this song and signed the band to a recording contract. “I Wanna Come Over” topped at #33 on the Billboard charts.  From there, the songs kept coming and getting higher on the charts.  In 1980, RCA signed the group to a contract and they had three consecutive number one singles, “Tennessee River”, “Why Lady Why”, and “Old Flame”.  They also had two gold LP’s, “My Home’s in Alabama”, and “Feels So Right”.  The Alabama Theater was built in North Myrtle Beach, SC in 1983 and hubby and I have been to every concert Alabama has preformed there since they opened!

I am also one of the lucky ones to have the single record of “I Wanna Come Over” that was signed by Randy at one of the concerts and I keep it under glass!

The band had many tours and my sister who know the band went to the Fan Tour 1986 and gave me her fan pass.  In 2003 the band had a Farewell Tour and after a tour through out many states, they all went their separate ways after over 30 years.  We went to their final concert at the Alabama Theater in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was sat in row three of the center section.  When their last song was finished, the band took a bow and Randy threw his guitar pick to the audience and I got it!!

It took about 10 years, but the band got back together in 2013 for an Alabama Band Reunion Tour and we had front row center seats at the concert, you can’t get any better than that!   I was so excited to see “the boys” again.  I took over one hundred photos with my phone and they came out great!  Alabama Band has many great songs, that they have written and sung but my all time favorite is “Angels Among Us”.