I Sang Dixie

{{Infobox song | name = I Sang Dixie | cover = Dwight Yoakam - I sang Dixie.jpg | alt = | type = single | artist = Dwight Yoakam | album = Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room | B-side = Floyd County | released = October 1988 | recorded = 1988 | studio = | venue = | genre = Country | length = 3:28 | label = Reprise 27715 | writer = Dwight Yoakam | producer = Pete Anderson | prev_title = Streets of Bakersfield | prev_year = 1988 | next_title = I Got You | next_year = 1989 }} "'''I Sang Dixie'''" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Dwight Yoakam. It was released in October 1988 as the second single from his album ''Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room''. In 1989, the song went to number one on the US Country chart.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition|last=Whitburn |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=2004 |publisher=Record Research |page=403}}</ref> Rolling Stone ranked "I Sang Dixie" No. 26 on its list of the 40 Saddest Country Songs of All time in 2019.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/40-saddest-country-songs-of-all-time-158907/dwight-yoakam-i-sang-dixie-153734/|title = 40 Saddest Country Songs of All Time|magazine = Rolling Stone|date = 17 September 2019}}</ref>

==Content== The song's narrator describes meeting a man from the Southern United States dying on a street in Los Angeles. The narrator, while crying, holds the man and sings 'Dixie' to comfort him as he dies. He goes on to describe how others "walk on by" ignoring the man's suffering. The dying man warns the narrator with his final words to "run back home to that southern land" and escape "what life here has done to [him]".

== Background == Yoakam told the story of how he came up with the song at a concert in Athens, Georgia on Nov 13, 2025. He recalled stopping into a pizza shop in California with his brother, and while they were waiting for their food Yoakam saw two men standing outside the shop. One was older and had fallen in the street, and upon getting up fell once more and hit his head. Yoakam and his brother exited the pizza shop to try and help while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Yoakam reported that the men spoke in thick southern accents. The older man was eventually taken into the ambulance and driven away.

==Chart performance== {|class="wikitable" !align="left"|Chart (1988–1989) !align="center"|Peak<br />position |- {{singlechart|Billboardcountrysongs|1|artist=Dwight Yoakam}} |- |align="left"|Canadian ''RPM'' Country Tracks<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rpmimages.3345.ca/pdfs/Volume+49-No.+17-February+20-25%2C+1989.pdf|title=RPM 100 Country Singles|work=RPM|date=February 20, 1989}}</ref> |align="center"|1 |}

===Year-end charts=== {| class="wikitable" |- !scope="col"|Chart (1989) !scope="col"|Position |- | Canada Country Tracks (''RPM'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.6640&type=1&interval=24|title=RPM Top 100 Country Tracks of 1989|work=RPM|date=December 23, 1989|accessdate=August 28, 2013}}</ref> | align="center" | 6 |- | US Country Songs (''Billboard'')<ref>{{Cite magazine | url=http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1989/hot-country-songs| title=Best of 1989: Country Songs | magazine=Billboard | publisher=Prometheus Global Media | date=1989| accessdate=August 28, 2013}}</ref> | align="center" | 23 |}

==Demo version== Yoakam originally recorded a demo version of the song in 1981. It can be found on his 2002 boxed set, Reprise Please, Baby and on the 2006 Deluxe version of Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:1988 songs Category:Dwight Yoakam songs Category:1988 singles Category:Songs written by Dwight Yoakam Category:Reprise Records singles Category:Song recordings produced by Pete Anderson Category:Songs about the American South