Country music has truly always been the working class’ genre – most especially with truck drivers, who represent honest and hardworking men with a level of liberty unknown to most people. And Red Sovine was one of the most prolific country singers who mastered truck-driving songs. In 1965, he paid tribute to the American truck drivers with his song “Giddyup Go,” which was released as the title track to his seventh studio album.
RELATED: 7 Fast Facts About Red Sovine’s Life and Legacy
As a result, “Giddyup Go” landed on the top spot of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, making it Sovine’s first No. 1 hit as a solo artist and his first major hit in nearly a decade.
How The Song Gave Red Sovine A New Persona
Written by Red Sovine and Tommy Hill, “Giddyup Go” tells the story of a long-distance truck driver who had lost contact with his wife and little boy – only to find out that his long-lost son has grown into a truck driver driving on the same highway with him. The song ended with an emotional reunion between a father and son.
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“Giddyup Go” was spoken by Sovine with instrumental backing rather than sung. His rugged, mushy voice trickles and trembles as he ponders on his son’s childhood and the lonely days he spent driving around without any idea where his family had gone.
Indeed, the song shaped Sovine into his new identity as a weepy-voiced storyteller of truckers’ poignant tales, playing on the soft hearts of those tough men. Several truck-driving songs of Red Sovine have since followed.
In 1966, country comedian Minnie Pearl recorded an answer version of the song called “Giddyup Go Answer.” It tells the point of view of the manager at the truck stop, where the father and son reunion took place.
Tune in and listen to Red Sovine’s “Giddyup Go” by playing the video below.
