Though it didn't grab many headlines at the time, the label had another important first that year, when on May 31st it released "Tennessee River," the debut single from a band named Alabama. The song shot to #1, the first of 40 Radio & Records chart toppers. The band went on to win the Academy of Country Music's Artist of the Decade title for the 1980's, sell in excess of 45 million albums, become the first group to ever be named the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year and forever change the way bands were accepted in the country format.

In 1973 the band relocated to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to become the house band for a club called The Bowery. Working for tips, they played six nights a week honing the harmonies that would later become a trademark. They stayed seven summers at The Bowery, gaining a huge regional following, changing the band name to Alabama and utilizing one drummer after another before Mark Herndon came into the picture.

Their sound depended on them playing their instruments and Mark adding his drum edge. RCA listened to that sound and agreed and with the major label backing them up, Alabama began to change the way the industry looked at bands. The debut album on RCA was title "My Home's In Alabama," and every song released from it became a #1 hit.

By 1981, Alabama was named Top Vocal Group of the Year by the Country Music Association, the first of more than 150 major music awards they would receive in the next fifteen years. The following year the band again took home the CMA's Vocal Group of the Year, as well as the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year. They also won the CMA's Instrumental Group of the Year, signaling that the CMA, for one, recognized that something new was afoot.

The fans kept right on buying Alabama's albums, too. "Feels So Right" and "Mountain Music" were certified triple platinum in 1984, "Roll On" and "The Closer You Get" were certified double platinum. One of their #1 singles that year, "If You're Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle In The Band)" is considered one of the most important singles released that year and became one of the all-time most covered tunes by other groups.

Another signature song, "Forty Hour Week (For a Livin')," was a tribute to America's working man and hit the top chart sport in 1985. Because of Alabama's success, more and more bands were getting a shot at stardom: Both Restless Heart and Sawyer Brown emerged in the mid-1980's and benefited tremendously from Alabama's ground-breaking work.

You'd think that a band with this much star power might begin to slow down round the time it turned ten years old, but not so with Alabama. In 1990 Alabama released "Jukebox In My Mind," which became the biggest chart record they've had to date, according to the Billboard researcher Joel Whitburn. Another huge single, "I'm In A Hurry (And Don't Know Why)," stayed #1 for two straight weeks in 1992.