Written in room 388 of the Gatlinburg Inn in August 1967 by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, “Rocky Top” became one of the best-known bluegrass songs of all time. Though it resembles Appalachian folk songs and fiddle tunes, the Bryants wrote it in 10 or 15 minutes as a bluegrass-style hoedown song while taking a break from work on Archie Campbell’s forthcoming Golden Years album, for which he had asked them to write “autumn of my life” ballads. The Bryants, among Nashville’s first professional songwriters in the early 1950s, had also written hits for Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, and Little Jimmy Dickens, among many others. They took “Rocky Top” to Sonny Osborne of the Osborne Brothers, and the song was recorded on Nov. 16, 1967, then released shortly before the end of the year. Although the Osborne Brothers’ record peaked at No. 33 on the country charts, the song became a standard, recorded by many artists and performed by many more. The University of Tennessee’s Pride of the Southland Band first played it at halftime of a football game against the University of Alabama on Oct. 21, 1972, in an arrangement by Barry McDonald, and it quickly became a staple at every game; the Bryants’ heirs later gave the university the right to play it royalty-free. On Feb. 15, 1982, “Rocky Top” became one of Tennessee’s official state songs.