“East Bound And Down” by Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed cut "East Bound and Down" for the Smokey and the Bandit soundtrack, and RCA put it out as a single in August 1977, with "(I'm Just a) Redneck in a Rock and Roll Bar" on the flip. It's also the title song of his 1977 album, and Reed co-wrote it and sings lead, with the Jordanaires' Gordon Stoker on the harmony.

The song is the movie's plot at full throttle, minus the runaway bride: a 28-hour round trip from Atlanta to Texarkana and back, hauling 400 cases of Coors, illegally, for a party after the race. The "and down" is CB-radio talk for driving with the hammer down, gas pedal pinned to the floor, and truckers still sign off that way. It ran 16 weeks on the US country charts and got as high as No. 2.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.