“The Ballad of Jed Clampett” was written by Paul Henning as the theme song for his television comedy “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Flatt and Scruggs recorded it in 1962, with Jerry Scoggins singing the lead.
The song is a tall tale in miniature. In a few verses it tells how a poor mountain man named Jed strikes oil, becomes rich overnight, and moves his family to California — the whole premise of the series delivered in bluegrass.
Released as a single, it reached number one on the country chart, the first bluegrass record to do so, and it carried the sound of banjo and guitar into millions of homes each week. The version heard here is by Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys.
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