Chicken Fried
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"Chicken Fried" is a song by American
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
group
Zac Brown Band Zac Brown Band is an American country music band based in Atlanta, Georgia. The lineup consists of Zac Brown (lead vocals, guitar), Jimmy De Martini (fiddle, vocals), John Driskell Hopkins (bass guitar, guitar, baritone guitar, banjo, ukulele, ...
, which frontman
Zac Brown Zachry Alexander Brown (born July 31, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the co-founder and lead singer of the country Zac Brown Band, as well as electronic dance music group Sir Rosevelt. In 2019, Brown ...
co-wrote with Wyatt Durrette. The song was first recorded in 2003 for the 2005 album ''
Home Grown Home Grown is an American ska punk/pop punk band formed in 1994 in Orange County, California. They released three full-length albums and several Extended play, EPs before disbanding in 2005. Their music is often characterized as pop punk, lyr ...
''. The Lost Trailers, another country group, released their version in 2006 as a single, but it was withdrawn from radio. Two years later, the Zac Brown Band re-recorded the song and released it as the first single from their album '' The Foundation''. In late 2008, "Chicken Fried" became the band's first chart single, as well as their first number-one hit on the ''Billboard'' country charts. The song has also been placed at number 39 for the ''
Taste of Country Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...
''s "Top 100 Country Songs of All Time" chart. The song was featured in the 2008 comedy film ''
Witless Protection ''Witless Protection'' is a 2008 American crime film, crime comedy film written, and directed by Charles Robert Carner, and starring Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy. Distributed by Lionsgate Films, Lionsgate, the film was theatrically re ...
''.


History

Brown began co-writing "Chicken Fried" with Wyatt Durrette several years before the song's release. The two met when Brown was playing at a tavern in
Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
. According to ''
Country Weekly ''Country Weekly'' (known as ''Nash Country Weekly'' from 2015–16) was an American magazine about country music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site Nash Country Daily. O ...
'' magazine, Brown had already started the song, when he and Durrette began listing off "things that are very southern or characteristic of the South to put into this song." The song was completed gradually over several years. Following the
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, Brown decided to add the third verse, which has a patriotic theme ("I thank God for my life / For the stars and stripes…"). Although he had already begun performing the song, he still considered it unfinished until he added a line to the second verse. The patriotic theme and
Southern cuisine The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several subregions, including cuisine of Southeastern Native American tribes, Tidewater, Appalachian, Ozarks, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, African American cuisi ...
was the band's inspiration to record this song. The Zac Brown Band first recorded "Chicken Fried" in 2003 and later included this version on their self-released 2005 album ''Home Grown''. Later on, in 2006, The Lost Trailers covered the song as their first release for the
BNA Records BNA Records, formerly known as BNA Entertainment, was a label group that shared ties with Arista Nashville and RCA Nashville from parent company Sony Music Nashville, which itself is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment. Based in Nashville, ...
label, with Blake Chancey serving as producer. Although The Lost Trailers' version had entered the country charts, it was soon withdrawn from radio and replaced with "Call Me Crazy", as Brown had changed his mind about licensing the song to BNA. "Call Me Crazy" then went on to peak at 43 in mid-2006. In the Nashville episode of
Sonic Highways ''Sonic Highways'' is the eighth studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters, released on November 10, 2014, through Roswell and RCA Records. Similar to their previous album, '' Wasting Light'' (2011), it was produced by the band with Butc ...
, Zac Brown explained the situation in greater detail: In 2008, the Zac Brown Band re-recorded "Chicken Fried" for their fourth album, '' The Foundation'', which
Keith Stegall Robert Keith Stegall (born November 1, 1955) is an American country music recording artist and record producer. Active since 1980, Stegall has recorded two major-label studio albums: 1985's ''Keith Stegall'' and 1996's ''Passages'', although he ...
produced. This re-recording was then released in mid-2008 as the band's first single, reaching number one on the country charts in late 2008. In 2009,
Alan Jackson Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is known for performing a style widely regarded as "neotraditional country", as well as writing many of his own songs. Jackson has recorded 21 studi ...
revealed that he was planning to record the song shortly before the Zac Brown Band version was released, but declined because he felt that he had too many other songs that mentioned food. On some radio stations, the lyric "Turn the radio up" was changed to say the station name or branding instead. Examples includes
KNCI KNCI (105.1 FM Broadcasting, FM, "New Country 105-1") is a commercial radio station in Sacramento, California, United States. The station is owned by Salt Lake City–based Bonneville International. KNCI carries a country music format, alongsid ...
in
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
, where the lyric was changed to "KNCI up", and stations branded as The Bull, where the lyric was changed to "Turn The Bull on up".


Commercial performance

The Lost Trailers' version of the song reached as high as #52 on the
Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...
chart in 2006 before being withdrawn as a single. The Zac Brown Band's version made its debut at #59 on the same chart for the week of June 28, 2008, peaking at #1 on the chart week of December 6. This song also made the Zac Brown Band the first country music group to reach number one with a debut single since Heartland's 2006 number one hit " I Loved Her First". The song reached 4 million in sales in the United States by October 2013. As of July 2017, the song has sold 4,913,000 copies in the United States. An
Applebee's Applebee's Restaurants LLC. is an American company that develops, franchises, and operates the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar restaurant chain. The Applebee's concept focuses on casual dining, with mainstream American dishes such as salads, ...
TV advertisement featuring the song was aired on
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while covering Russia’s military deployment across the border of Ukraine the night of February 24, 2022, causing controversy. Applebee's eventually pulled its advertising from CNN in response to the incident.


Charts and certifications


Zac Brown Band's version


Weekly chart


Year-end charts


Sales and certifications


The Lost Trailers version


References

{{authority control 2003 songs 2006 singles 2008 debut singles The Lost Trailers songs Zac Brown Band songs Songs written by Zac Brown Songs written by Wyatt Durrette (songwriter) Atlantic Records singles Song recordings produced by Keith Stegall BNA Records singles Song recordings produced by Blake Chancey American patriotic songs Fried chicken Cuisine of the Southern United States Songs about food and drink