A 1972 Country Murder Ballad Is Creeping Back Into the Spotlight on Social Media

Reba McEn­tire turned “The Night the Lights Went Out in Geor­gia” into one of her sig­na­ture songs, and now the 1972 coun­try mur­der bal­lad is find­ing new life on Tik­Tok. Orig­i­nal­ly record­ed by Vic­ki Lawrence, famous from The Car­ol Bur­nett Show, the eerie tune is cap­ti­vat­ing a new gen­er­a­tion of lis­ten­ers more than 50 years lat­er. Writ­ten by Lawrence’s first hus­band, Bob­by Rus­sell, the song first topped the charts in 1973.

Accord­ing to Wide Open Coun­try, the resur­gence began when Bri­ley King, wife of coun­try singer Mar­cus King, shared a clip of her­self singing the song. But it’s not just Lawrence’s ver­sion gain­ing attention—Reba McEntire’s 1991 ren­di­tion, from her album For My Bro­ken Heart, is also going viral, prov­ing that this haunt­ing sto­ry still res­onates with fans today.

What is ‘The Night the Lights Went Out in Geor­gia About?’

The song “The Night the Lights Went Out in Geor­gia” tells the sto­ry of betray­al and mur­der in a small town. “Broth­er” learned his wife had been unfaith­ful with both “Andy” and “Seth,” and went to con­front Andy at his home, only to find him already dead.

Broth­er was lat­er tried and exe­cut­ed for the crime, but in a twist, the per­son who ulti­mate­ly com­mit­ted the crime was Andy’s sis­ter. She shared her point of view in the last verse of the nail-bit­ing song.

He was on his way home from Can­dle­top
Been two weeks gone and he’d thought he’d stop at Webb’s
And have him a drink before he went home to her
Andy Wol­loe said, “Hel­lo”
And he said, “Hi, what’s doing, Wo?”
Said, “Sit down, I got some bad news, it’s gonna hurt”

Verse 2]
He said, “I’m your best friend and you know that’s right
But your young bride ain’t home tonight
Since you been gone, she’s been see­ing that Amos boy, Seth”
Well, he got mad and he saw red
And Andy said, “Boy, don’t you lose your head
‘Cause to tell you the truth, I’ve been with her myself”

That’s the night that the lights went out in Geor­gia
That’s the night that they hung an inno­cent man
Well, don’t trust your soul to no back­woods south­ern lawyer
‘Cause the judge in the town’s got blood­stains on his hands

Well, Andy got scared and left the bar
Walk­ing on home, ’cause he didn’t live far
See, Andy didn’t have many friends and he just lost him one
Broth­er thought his wife mus­ta left town
So he went home and final­ly found
The only thing Papa had left him and that was a gun

[Verse 4]
Then he went off to Andy’s house
Slip­pin’ through the back­woods, qui­et as a mouse
Came upon some tracks too small for Andy to make
He looked through the screen at the back porch door
And he saw Andy lying on the floor
In a pud­dle of blood and he start­ed to shake

Well, the Geor­gia patrol was mak­ing their rounds
So he fired a shot just to flag them down
And a big-bel­lied sher­iff grabbed his gun and said, “Why’d you do it?”
Well, the judge said guilty in a make-believe tri­al
Slapped the sher­iff on the back with a smile
Said, “Supper’s wait­in’ at home and I got­ta get to it”

[Verse 5]
Well, they hung my broth­er before I could say
“The tracks he saw while on his way
To Andy’s house and back that night were mine”
And his cheat­ing wife had nev­er left town
And that’s one body that’ll nev­er be found
See, lit­tle sis­ter don’t miss when she aims her gun

How high did Reba McEntire’s ver­sion of ‘The Night the Lights Went Out in Geor­gia’ chart?

Reba McEntire’s ver­sion went to num­ber 12 on the Bill­board charts in 1992. It made its debut in April of that year and hit its peak posi­tion on the charts in July.

In May 2025, McEn­tire and Trisha Year­woodper­formed “The Night the Lights Went Out in Geor­gia” for Opry 100: A Live Cel­e­bra­tion,. Their ver­sion hon­ored the clas­sic song for its endurance in the genre over five decades after it hit num­ber one.