Alabama is the longest lasting hitmaker of today's country music scene. Alabama is second to the legendary Conway Twitty. Alabama reigns supreme counting solo chart-toppers, excluding duets.

Alabama has 19 million-selling albums, 12 American Music Awards, 32 Billboard No. 1 hits, and 200 major show-biz awards.  Alabama has sold more concert tickets  than any country band in history. Alabama is a group of four guys who maintain that they are "just folks". Their amazing  journey has taken them from their tiny town of Ft. Payne, Alabama to extraordinary heights of achievement. 

The "just folks" of Alabama are lead singer, rhythm guitarist and songwriter Randy Owen, his cousin, bass player, songwriter and harmony vocalist Teddy Gentry; their distant cousin, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Jeff Cook, and drummer Mark Herndon. Randy, Teddy, and Jeff became professional musicians in 1973, living in a place called The Bowery in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. At The Bowery the band sometimes played for 13 hours a day, going through three drummers during the next six years.

In 1979, the year Mark Herndon joined the band, RCA Records signed Alabama. Prior to the rise of Alabama, the concept of groups in country music was very unfamiliar. Alabama's stardom led to an infusion of bands in the 80s and 90s.

Alabama's string of hits started in the summer of 1980 with Randy Owen's song Tennessee River. Its success made Alabama the first country group to top the chart. The ballad Why Lady Why topped the charts as 1980 came to a close and then came Old Flame. Alabama's members' long hair, dynamic onstage antics and country-rock sound made it the hottest "youth appeal" act on the country scene.

The band members took their role-modeling very seriously. Drinking, cheating and sinning are not in Alabama's musical vocabulary. One recurring theme has been fidelity, commitment and enduring love. The first single to explore this theme was  Feels So Right. Since this song Alabama has returned to songs about romance several times. Some of those romatic songs being When We Make Love, There's No Way, You've Got The Touch, Forever's As Fars As I'll Go, Face to Face, There's No Way, Once Upon a Lifetime, Face to Face, and Love in the First Degree.

In 1982 Alabama returned to the Southern-rock style of Tennessee River by winning a Grammy Award for Mountain Music. Other ballads that reflected this style were Dixieland Delight and If You're Gonna Play In Texas-You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band.

Alabama's working man's anthems and homages to southern roots won them extreme popularity with their fans. Roll On-18 Wheeler saluted all truck drivers, Forty Hour Week-for a Livin, Song of the South, High Cotton and Southern Star, Down Home, Hometown Honeymoon, and Born Country all reflect that southern, rural vein.

Alabama has been equally capable with sophisticated pop-rockers as Exile's "Take Me Down" (1982) and "The Closer You Get" (1983), Beth Nielsen Chapman and Vince Gill's "Here We Are" (1991) and the Dave Loggins tune "She and I" (1986). Alabama's 1985 favorite "(There's a) Fire in the Night" later appeared on the soundtrack of the Patrick Swayze movie Roadhouse.

One of the hallmarks of Alabama's career is its impressive ability to shift musical genres, production techniques and song styles from year to year. Thus, its No. 1 hits include honky-tonkers such as "Jukebox in My Mind" (1990), thoughtful meditations like "Then Again" (1991) and "Close Enough to Perfect" (1982), the lilting Carpenters pop tune "Touch Me When We're Dancing" (1986), the raucous "Can't Keep a Good Man Down" (1985) and 1983's insightful "Lady Down on Love." As different as those sounds are, they share one thing in common. They all became No. 1 hits.

By the end of the 1989 Alabama had smashed all records for chart dominance by a country group. Alabams was named artist of the decade by The Academy of Country Music. Another major milepost along the way was "If I Had You." In 1989, it became the band's 25th No. 1 single. The group entered the 1990s with more audio personality than ever. The frenetic "I'm in a Hurry (and Don't Know Why)" (1992), the blue-collar rocker "Reckless" (1993), the bopping "She Ain't Your Ordinary Girl" (1994) and the energetic "Give Me One More Shot" (1994) all hit the No. 1 spot. Owen's favorite from this era is a fatherhood ballad, 1995's "In Pictures." For many years, Alabama has championed and supported worthy causes, both in the national arena and in their local community of Fort Payne, Ala. In 1989, Owen and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., established the "Country Cares" fundraiser. The "Country Cares" radio network currently boasts over 160 stations nationwide. The country music industry embraced the cause, and through the combined efforts of the radiothon and other industry functions, "Country Cares" has raised a staggering $130 million for St. Jude. In 1997, Alabama participated in the recording of Country Cares for Kids, a holiday album to benefit the hospital. The band members have made countless appearances on the hospital's behalf.

Alabama's June Jam, held in Fort Payne for 15 years, was one of the premier country music concerts in the nation. Artists ranging from Garth Brooks to Vince Gill and Neal McCoy joined Fort Payne's famous sons for concert performances that raised more than $4 million for various organizations within the local community. One organization is The Big Oak Ranch, which helps children 6-21 who are orphaned, abused, neglected, homeless or have had minor trouble with the law.

In 1998, the band was honored with its own star in the fabled Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2000, it was presented with the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award.

The band announced its farewell tour during the Academy of Country Music awards in 2002, and spent most of 2003 saying good-bye to the fans.