Sweet Home Alabama
"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which dealt with themes of racism and slavery in the American South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time. The following excerpt shows the Neil Young mention in the song:
In his 2012 autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace", Young commented on his role in the song's creation, writing "My own song 'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue".
Adrianna Freeman
Like many singers just starting out, Freeman performed in many small clubs and struggled to get noticed. One day, while recording in a Nashville studio, she met Teddy Gentry, co-founder of the Grammy-winning country music super-group Alabama, who happened to be at the studio on other business. Impressed with Freeman’s singing, Gentry invited her to record a song for "Teddy Gentry’s Best New Nashville", an album that he was producing for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a restaurant chain that is popular in the South and the Midwest. Cracker Barrel customers who purchased the album voted Freeman’s song, "Run Baby Run", as their favorite selection on the album.