Today’s classic color-coordinated song of the day is “Jackie Blue” by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. The song was released as a single in February of 1975 and shot to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Cash Box Top 100.
“Jackie Blue” was written by Steve Cash and Larry Lee, the group’s lead singer and drummer, respectively. Lee said it was inspired by a bartender and part-time drug dealer he had known, but the lyrics don’t really reflect that. Producer Glyn Johns heard Lee’s original unfinished version of the song and told him that to be a hit, the song had to be about a girl and he had to play down the references to drug dealing. Lee got with vocalist Cash and revamped a few of the verses to tell the story of a young woman apparently strung out on drugs or something. As Lee remembers it:
“We just knocked some new lyrics out in about 30 minutes. [From] some drugged-out guy, we changed Jackie into a reclusive girl.”
By the way, that’s Larry Lee, the drummer, on lead vocals.
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils hailed from the heart of the Ozarks in Springfield, Missouri. They first got together in 1972 and had their first hit in 1974 with “If You Wanna Get to Heaven.” That one failed to break into the Top Twenty, but “Jackie Blue” did considerably better. No more big singles followed but the band continued on, with various changes in lineup over the years, and are still playing today—although their summer 2024 concerts were billed as their farewell tour.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils performing “Jackie Blue” on the April 20, 1976, episode of England’s Old Grey Whistle Stop television programme, complete with extended outro. Cool.
