“Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn

"Walking in Memphis" came out on Atlantic in 1991 and anchored Marc Cohn's self-titled debut, and it's a true story. Cohn, a struggling songwriter stuck in a dry spell, went to Memphis to shake his writer's block loose: he sat in the church where Al Green was preaching, walked through Graceland, and ducked into a little nightclub over the line in Mississippi. Back in New York, the song poured out.

He wrote it alone and produced it with Ben Wisch, and its gospel-tinged swell feels like a pilgrimage, with a row of backing singers and James Taylor dropping in on harmony. John Leventhal handles guitar, bass and organ, and Chris Palmaro adds Hammond. It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Song of the Year nomination at the Grammys, the same year Cohn, then 32, won Best New Artist. It remains his signature song.

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