Take me back to when southern country rock band Alabama was releasing banger after banger, and seemingly couldn’t put out a bad song.
They were certainly on a roll in the 1980’s, and one of the songs that helped their impressive run was “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down,” which they released on this date in 1985. A couple of months later, the tune was at the top of the Hot Country Songs chart, giving Alabama their 18th straight number one hit.
That impressive run went on to finish up in 1987 with their hit single “(You’ve Got) The Touch,” which was their 21st consecutive number one song. In 1980, the streak got started with their all time classic and first ever US Country hit “Tennessee River.”
“Can’t Keep a Good Man Down” was the third and final single from the album 40-Hour Week, which was their ninth studio album and also peaked at number one on the country albums chart. The album was also the only one of Alabama’s projects that had music videos for each of the singles.
Which brings us to the phenomenally produced music video that accompanied “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down.” A good song tells a story, and a great music video brings that story to life. Though one might say that this particular video was a little “all over the place,” it was still a worthy compliment to the song itself.
Randy Owen, the band’s charismatic lead singer and songwriter, stepped in to play the main role in the video. His character seemed to fit all of these following descriptions: mobile homeowner, lover, handyman, deadbeat, amateur baseball player, pilot, toothpick connoisseur.
I probably left a couple out, but you can figure out the rest as you watch the black and white music video. The song and the footage culminates with all of the Alabama bandmates playing the song in an open field, where some of the story of the music video was told.
It appears that Randy Owen was having the time of his life as they shot the closing sequence for “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down, ” or one of the directors just told him to bounce up and down a lot. It’s one of those two options.
Take a look:
