Song written by Dave Loggins, was recorded by the country rock band Alabama, was recorded on November 10, 1983, and was released on January 6, 1984, for the RCA label, with the production Harold Shedd. It would reach number one on the US country charts, on March 24, 1994, it also won number one on the Canadian charts. The song would be included on the album, Roll On (RCA 1984), The album also reached number one in the US lists Billboard Top Country Albums. This album got 4 platinum records, selling more than 4 million copies. It was the twelfth number one in the band.
With this song, Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler), Alabama, pays tribute to the American truck driver. As you know, in country music, truck drivers have their own section, Trucker Music, singers such as Red Simpson, Dave Dudley, Red Sovine, Dick Curless or Del Reeves, were its maximum representatives of this style.
Returning to the song, it is the story of a man who drives a semi-trailer truck to support his wife and three children. On one of his long trips, children sadly meet their mother and ask about their father, when he returns, the mother tells them to remember the song that their father had taught them, (“Roll on the road, roll forward, roll over Daddy until he returns home, rolls over the family, rolls on the crew, rolls on the mother as I asked you to do “). One night the mother receives a call from the police, saying that they have found the truck, lying on a snowbank, but they did not find the driver, in any highway motel. The woman had the hope that her husband would be fine, so with her three children they prayed, singing the song that their father had taught them. They waited all night, until the phone rang again, it was the father’s voice saying that I was fine, I asked if they had been singing that song during the search for him.
Versions :
Randy Parton 1982 ( RCA )
David Allan Coe 1996 ( TeeVee Records )
Saddle Tramps 1998 ( Universal Music Australia )
Aaron Tippin 2009 ( Nipit records )