On This Day in 1991. Alan Jackson Scored His Second Career No. 1 with the Barroom Classic “Don’t Rock the Jukebox”

On this day (July 22) in 1991. Alan Jackson scored his second No. 1 hit with “Don’t Rock the Jukebox.” The song would go on to be a staple of ‘90s country radio and a standout track in Jackson’s deep discography.

Jackson had a string of top five 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart starting with “Here in the Real World.” The second title track and second single from his debut album peaked at No. 3 in 1989. After that, he would launch a total of 26 songs to the high end of the chart. Two of those songs—“Song for the Life” and “Everything I Love”—would miss the top five. Fifteen of the 26 hits went to No. 1. Jackson’s 1997 single “A House With No Curtains” would break the streak when it peaked at No. 18. Then, he would finish the decade with five more hits.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1993, Alan Jackson Scored a No. 1 Hit with His Signature Song “Chattahoochee”]

Alan Jackson Scores His Second No. 1 with “Don’t Rock the Jukebox”

In the song, Alan Jackson sings from the perspective of a man who is heartbroken and doesn’t want to hear rock music on the jukebox at the bar. Instead, he requests that whoever is putting money into the machine play some George Jones. The singer is known for sad songs, perfect for a heartbreak.

Jackson tells the story behind the song in the opening moments of the official music video. “I wanna tell you a little story about an incident that happened on the road a couple years ago when my and my band, the Strayhorns were playing this little truck stop lounge up in Doswell, Virginia, a place called Geraldine’s,” he began. “We’d been there for four or five nights, playin’ those dance sets and it had been a long night and I took a break. I walked over to the jukebox and Roger, my bass player, was already over there reading the records,” he recalled.

“I leaned up on the corner of it and one of the legs was broken off of it. The jukebox was kind of wobbling around, you know, and Roger looked over at me and said,” Jackson delivered the last words with a smile as the song opened with the chorus, Don’t rock the jukebox / I wanna hear some Jones. / My heart ain’t ready for the Rolling Stones.

According to Keith Stegall, who co-penned the song with Jackson and Roger Murrah, Jackson wrote the phrase “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” in a notebook full of song ideas he carried around with him. After seeing the phrase in the book, they decided to turn the idea into a song.

Featured Image by Tony Norkus