A double chart assault by the Allman Brothers Band was beneath manner in America on August 25, 1973. They have been, by now, used to the higher echelons of the US album chart. As their new set Brothers and Sisters made its debut at No.13 in Billboard’s problem, the southern rockers rubbed shoulders with the opposite massive album artists of the day, from Jethro Tull to Pink Floyd, and Seals & Crofts to Leon Russell.
The brand new factor within the equation was a single that additionally made its chart debut that week, and would go to be their first main hit with pop audiences. Guitarist Dickey Betts’ “Ramblin’ Man,” lifted from the Capricorn album, entered at No.85 and out of the blue the Allmans have been in the identical firm as High 40 format regulars similar to Neil Diamond, Cher, and Barry White.
The group had had a modicum of singles exercise earlier than, firstly in 1971 when “Revival (Love Is Everywhere)” edged to No.92. Three 1972 singles, “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More,” “Melissa,” and their model of Elmore James’ “One Way Out,” peaked at Nos.77, 86 and 86 once more, respectively.
“Ramblin’ Man” was named after a music of the identical title by Hank Williams from 1951, and it actually hit the spot for the Allmans on High 40 radio. By mid-October, it was at No.2, with solely Cher’s “Half Breed” stopping the music from reaching No.1 — relatively sarcastically, while you recall that she married Gregg Allman in 1975.
The one helped Brothers and Sisters in the direction of a five-week run at No.1, and the music would win a spot within the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame. It prompted the Allmusic evaluate web site to enthuse that its refrain was “perhaps the catchiest and the prettiest in all of southern rock.”
‘Beautiful intertwining guitar lines’
On the time of its launch, Nick Kent, reviewing Brothers and Sisters for the New Musical Specific, wrote: “‘Ramblin’ Man’ swaggers along in the grand tradition of Hank Williams, with Betts’ beautiful intertwining guitar lines criss-crossing.”
Bud Scoppa in Rolling Stone was a fan of “Ramblin’ Man” too. He mentioned: “[It] sounds fresh and convincing because of [Betts’] mournfully earnest singing and playing, the band’s dramatic complicity and the song-into-instrumental pattern that is obviously the ideal form for this band.”
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