“Rocky Top” was written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant in only 10 minutes in 1967 in room 388 of the Gatlinburg Inn. It was released on December 25, first performed by the Osborne Brothers, and rose to #33 on the country music charts. The Bryants were working on a collection of slow tempo songs for a project for Archie Campbell and Chet Atkins, and writing “Rocky Top” was a diversion.
Band Director Dr. WJ Julian introduced it as part of the band’s halftime show during the 1972 Alabama football game. The lively music soon became the “hallmark” of UT athletics events. The pep band played a jazzed-up version of the song at the 1974 Conference Coaches Association tournament in St. Louis—and played it many times. The song became one of Tennessee’s five official state songs in 1982. During the 1994 celebration of the bicentennial, the UT Concert Choir sang “Rocky Top” in Latin (translated by Classics Department head Dr. Harry Rutledge, with assistance from Professor Jim Shelton and associate professor Pat Carter of the Music Department) at the kickoff breakfast in Knoxville.
The university has a special license to perform the song, the rights to which are held by The House of Bryant, a Gatlinburg corporation, for the Bryants’ sons. One of the owners of the song, Del Bryant, is president and chief executive officer of the performance rights organization BMI. The other, Dane Bryant, is a Music Row real estate agent. In 2009 the owners of the rights sued television network A&E for using the song without permission. The federal lawsuit, filed in June, accused the network of inserting the iconic tune in a 12-second video clip for a true crime television documentary set in Knoxville after the owners said A&E could not do it. The owners and A&E reached an out-of-court settlement in February 2010.