It's not only a country music classic, it's a country music standard.

'Detroit City'.

It won Bobby Bare a Grammy Award in 1963 for Best Country & Western Recording.

It's a Bobby Bare song, and that's that...right?

Wrong.

Did you know the song was co-written by another country music legend and Hall of Famer?  Yep, Mel Tillis (along with co-writer Danny Dill) penned the classic.  And did you know Bobby Bare wasn't the first artist to have a hit with this great song?

Country Star Billy Grammer had a Top Twenty hit with it (and by the way, for Billy it was titled 'I Wanna Go Home' because of the opening line).  And the interesting thing is, it was years before that Grammer had a hit with it...it was also 1963!

But Bobby's version is the one that lives and breathes yet today.  When you hear the opening guitar lick, well, you know that 'Detroit City' is on the way.

'Detroit City' didn't top the charts for Bobby, but it landed at #6 on the country chart and was also a top twenty pop/rock hit.

The song has been recorded by several artist's, from the pop duo Jan & Dean to Jerry Lee Lewis to Dolly Parton to soul singer Joe Tex.

In this video clip, it's a young Bobby Bare singing what became a country music standard.

 

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