Iconic Country Television Theme Song of All Time

It’s often hard to pinpoint who started a movement but in every musical offshoot, there is inevitably someone who rises to the forefront and whose name becomes synonymous with the new direction. When it comes to the Outlaw Movement, that someone is Waylon Jennings.

Let’s take this time to revisit Waylon’s 1980 No. 1 hit, “Theme From the Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol’ Boys).”

The Dukes of Hazzard

Waylon Jennings scored one of the biggest hits of his career and the most iconic country television theme song of all time with “Good Ol’ Boys”. He wrote the song for the television show The Dukes of Hazzard. An abbreviated version appears on the show, while Jennings also scored a No. 1 hit with the longer version that was released as a single from his album Music Man. Jennings was also the voice of the unseen narrator on the show. Not known to many, his hands are shown on the neck of the guitar in the opening credits. And this scene led to the tongue-in-cheek alternate line:

“I’m a good ol’ boy, you know my mama loves me, but she don’t understand why they keep showing my hands and not my face on TV.”

The television show version features Larry McNeely’s banjo work which the commercially available version does not. Additionally, the television version’s third verse contains the lyric, “Fightin’ the system like two modern-day Robin Hoods”, which is accompanied by a “Yee-haw!” said by characters, Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), though it is, in fact, Schneider’s vocal used twice.

Hey, “good ol’ boy”…

Urban Dictionary defines “good ol’ boy” as a Southern-born boy who is country to the core. He likes to hunt and could not be prouder of his gun collection. He carries one knife in his pocket and another in his boot. That’s for cases where the one in his pocket gets confiscated. He usually drives a truck and listens to country. “Good ol’ boy” is a hard-working, honest gentleman, who prefers the simple life and is just looking for a girl he can take shootin’.

Are you a “good ol’ boy”? If you are, visit Country Daily and our Facebook page and you’ll see that you are one of us!