On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state in the Union. Oklahoma has more than its fair share of songs about the state, and one of the great songs about Oklahoma is “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma.”
Writing and First Success
Larry Collins and Sandy Pinkard wrote the song, which was recorded by David Frizzell (brother of Lefty) and Shelly West (daughter of Dottie) and released in 1981. Surprisingly, after the song was recorded, every major label declined the song.
But fortunately, Clint Eastwood heard “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” and recognized it for the new classic it was. He added the song to the soundtrack of his movie Any Which Way You Can, and the song became a hit.
Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton Version
In 2005, CMT put together a 100 Greatest Duets Concert, and the show teamed up Miranda Lambert with Oklahoman Blake Shelton on the song. The two singers first met at the concert.
You can see Shelton falling in love as they sing on stage in the video above. The two soon began dating, and they married in 2011. Lambert, who was born in Texas, moved to Oklahoma with Shelton. But the two divorced in 2015, and Lambert bought property in Tennessee.
“Rocky Top” Controversy
The song, however, was not without a controversy. Songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant sued the “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” songwriters, claiming the song sounded a lot like the Bryants’ classic song about Tennessee, “Rocky Top.” The Bryants’ won the lawsuit.
Here is “Rocky Top” performed by the Osborne Brothers, who first released the song in 1967. Can you hear any similarities to “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma?”
And that is the story of how a song about Oklahoma caused a legal battle, brought together country royalty (for a time), and connects to another great state song.
Screengrab via YouTube. Do you think “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” is similar to “Rocky Top”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
I only know Blake Shelton from commercials for the Voice. He sure looks like a kid in the video! I love it!
I don’t think that it sounds similar and I know for a fact that it was an original. The writers continue to get royalties each time its played (collins/pinkard).
Even when writers of a song lose a similar lawsuit, they still get royalties. They just have to share the royalties with the writer(s) of the song that is similar. But I agree with you that in a lot of such cases, it does not seem fair that the writers have to share royalties with the writers of another song. While there may be similarities, it does not really seem like copying. It seems that any song is going to have unintentional similarities to another song due to limited possibilities of chord changes, etc. And, like you, after hearing “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma,” I never would have made a connection to “Rocky Top.” Thanks for the comments.
That’s basically what George Harrison said about My Sweet Lord and He’s So Fine. I personally don’t think there’s intentional plagiarism here.
I absolutely see no similarities to Rocky Top. At all. Who came up with this fiasco and then some judge who had to be tone deaf rules favor of the plaintiffs. Ridiculous.
This ruling is astonishingly stupid. There are little if any similarities in melody and absolutely none in phrasing. Wonder how the judge was influenced?
If you speed up “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma,” I can see some similarity, but they still seem different to me too. There was a period in the 1980s where these lawsuits were often successful, but I wonder if a court might reach a different result today.
The only way there could be a judgment in favor of “Rocky Top” is if someone drank about a gallon of good ol’ Tennessee moonshine!