Six Days On The Road by Taj Mahal

Album: Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home (1969)

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Songfacts®:

This song was originally written by Carl Montgomery and Earl Green, and originally performed by Dave Dudley, becoming Dudley's first hit at #2 on the Country chart. It is often referenced as one of the first trucker songs.
Taj Mahal is the stage name of Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, one of the more prominent blues musicians of the late 20th century who is noted for blending various genres from zydeko, reggae, jazz, and world beat together with the blues for a unique sound. Fredericks is a prolific singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, playing the guitar, banjo and harmonica, amongst others. He's won two Grammy Awards in his 40+ year career.
"Six Days On The Road" may just be one of the most-covered songs in country music. Johnny Rivers' cover in 1974 hit #58 on the Country charts and #105 on the Billboard Hot 100. Steve Earle's cover in 1988 hit #29 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and was used in the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Sawyer Brown's cover in 1997 hit #13 on the Country chart, and they titled their album after it. Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of other covers exist.

Comments: 2

Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn this day in 1963 {July 28th} "Six Days On The Road" by Dave Dudley peaked at #2 {for 2 weeks} on Billboard's 'Hot Country Singles'* chart, for the two weeks it was at #2, the #1 record for both those weeks was "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash...
"Six Days On The Road" reached #32 on Billboard's Top 100 chart...
Between 1961 and 1980 the Spencer, Wisconsin native had forty-five records on the Hot Country Singles chart, twelve made the Top 10 with one reaching #1, "The Pool Shark", for one week in May of 1970...
He had two records that peaked at #3, "Cowboy Boots" {1963} and "Truck Drivin' Son-of-Gun" {1965}...
Plus he came close to having six more Top 10 records when he had six records peak at #12, "Viet Nam Blues" {1966}, "My Kind of Love" {1967}, "Anything Leaving Town Today" {1967}, "One More Mile" {1969}, "You've Gotta Cry Girl" {1972}, and "Me and Old C.B." {1975}...
Dave Dudley, born David Darwin Pedruska, passed away at the age of 75 on December 12th, 2003...
May he R.I.P.
And from the 'For What It's Worth' department, the remainder of the Hot Country Singles' Top 10 on July 28th, 1963:
At #3. "Act Naturally" by Buck Owens
#4. "Abilene" by George Hamilton IV
#5. "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds" by George Jones and Melba Montgomery
#6. "Guilty" by Jim Reeves
#7. "Sands of Gold" by Webb Pierce
#8. "Talk Back Tremblin' Lips" by Ernest Ashworth
#9. "Sweet Dreams (of You)" by Patsy Cline
#10. "Detroit City" by Bobby Bare
Ricky from Ohsweken, Ontario CanadaA verse from this song is in the Stephen King book Carrie.

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