“Tennessee Whiskey” was written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove. David Allan Coe recorded it first, in 1981, for his Columbia album of the same name; Coe’s version peaked at #77 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles — a modest commercial performance that left the song in circulation without establishing it as a standard. George Jones recorded the version that defined the song for a generation, for Shine On (Epic Records, 1983), backed by string arrangements and background vocals; it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and #1 in Canada on the RPM Country chart.
The song’s second life arrived more than thirty years later, when Chris Stapleton recorded it for his debut solo album Traveller (Mercury Nashville, 2015). Stapleton and Justin Timberlake performed it at the 2015 CMA Awards; in the days following the broadcast, Traveller sales increased by approximately 6,000%, the album re-entered the Billboard 200 at #1, and “Tennessee Whiskey” reached #1 on Hot Country Songs. The recording earned RIAA Diamond certification. Traveller won the Grammy for Best Country Album and Best Country Solo Performance.
A notable version is the 1983 George Jones recording — the first definitive commercial performance of the song, the one that established its place in the country canon before Stapleton remade it into a stadium anthem. Jones’s reading brought the song’s romantic simile — “you’re as smooth as Tennessee whiskey” — into the classic honky-tonk framework where the lyric belongs.
