WATCH: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – Joan Baez

Here’s a great version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” sung by Joan Baez and released in October 1971.

Here’s more on the song from Wikipedia:

“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is a song written by Robbie Robertson and originally recorded by the Canadian-American roots rock group the Band in 1969 and released on their eponymous second album. Levon Helm provided the lead vocals. The song is a first-person narrative relating the economic and social distress experienced by the protagonist, a poor white Southerner, during the last year of the American Civil War, when George Stoneman was raiding southwest Virginia. The song appeared at number 245 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Joan Baez’s version peaked at #3 on the Hot 100 on 2 October 1971; it did likewise on the Cashbox Top 100 chart. However, on the Record World Top Singles chart for the week of September 25, 1971, the Baez single hit #1 for one week.

You can follow Joan Baez on her Facebook page here, or her website at JoanBaez.com.