49 Years Ago: Glen Campbell's 'Southern Nights' Reached No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100

By 1977, Glen Campbell was already a massive star, with nearly two decades in the music business and several legendary songs.

In January of that year, Campbell released his rendition of a two-year-old song originally written and recorded by American musician Allen Toussaint. Within months, Campbell's version exploded up the charts.

On April 30, 1977, 49 years ago today, Campbell's take on "Southern Nights" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it would remain for a week.

'Southern Nights' made history

It marked Campbell's second U.S. No. 1 hit, the last of his illustrious career. His previous overall chart-topper was 1975's "Rhinestone Cowboy."

"Southern Nights" was also Campbell's fifth and final song to hit No. 1 on the American country charts, joining "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Galveston" (1969) and "I Wanna Live" and "Wichita Lineman" (1968).

Campbell also had several other songs that would climb to No. 1 on various charts, including in Canada.

It wasn't a hit made overnight, but it was close to it

Toussaint said it took him roughly two hours to write "Southern Nights." According to Jimmy Webb, Campbell's friend and fellow songwriter, it took the Arkansas native even less time to decide he loved Toussaint's song and wanted to make his own version of it.

"He came over to my house one time and spent some time there, and I remember I was playing an Allen Toussaint record," Webb said. "I liked this record, it had a real lowdown kind of delta feeling, great piano, syncopated piano chops and interesting songs on it. I was playing along, and he said, 'What was that song?' I said, 'Southern Nights.' And he said, 'Is that your record?' And I said, 'Yes.' And he said, 'Well, can I have it?' And I said, 'You mean you want my record?' (laughing) And he said, 'Yeah.' So I said, Yeah, you could have it. And he was gone, man. He had my record and it was like one of those animated cartoons, the roadrunner - *pooow* He was gone."

Webb added that Campbell worked "at a frightening pace" to churn out his own version, which "within four weeks was on the air."

Toussaint, meanwhile, said he was "surprised" that "Southern Nights" became a mainstream hit, but was happy to see the success Campbell had with it.

"I love Glen's version. I had never thought of it as an uptempo and mainstream song before," Toussaint said. "I first heard it on the radio and I was delighted. It was so good to hear it like that, because I just hadn't imagined that someone would listen closely enough to it to want to cover such a thing. I already liked Glen Campbell, because of all those marvelous songs he'd done, so to include this as one of the most important ones in his life was just a joy."