50 Fun Facts About Sweet Home Alabama

Who plays Melanie in the 2002 film Sweet Home Alabama?

Critics compared her Southern belle to her sorority-girl turn in Legally Blonde a year earlier.

Which actor plays Jake, the husband Melanie left behind in Alabama?

Jake turns out to be a glass artist who fires sculptures by planting lightning rods in beach sand.

Which actor plays Andrew Hennings, Melanie's wealthy New York fiancé?

His mother, the Mayor of New York, is grooming him to run for president.

Who directed the film?

C. Jay Cox wrote the screenplay, and Touchstone released it in September 2002.

What is the name of Melanie's Alabama hometown in the film?

As 10-year-olds on its beach, Jake and Melanie inspect the glass left by a lightning strike.

What surname does Melanie use in New York to hide her Southern roots?

Her real family name is Smooter; the Carmichael plantation belongs to her friend Bobby Ray.

What is Melanie's job in New York?

A mid-credits scene shows her still thriving as a designer after the wedding that never happened.

Which actress plays Kate Hennings, Andrew's mother and Mayor of New York?

Melanie punches her at the aborted wedding after she insults Melanie's mother.

Which actress plays young Melanie in the opening scene?

Thomas Curtis plays young Jake opposite her.

Who plays Melanie's parents, Earl and Pearl Smooter?

Jean Smart plays Jake's mother, Stella Kay Perry.

Which character does Melanie out at the local bar during her drunken tirade?

She later apologises at the Carmichael plantation, and he backs up her lie that it is her childhood home.

Which actor plays Bobby Ray?

Melanie Lynskey plays her old friend Lurlynn.

Kate's assistant Barry Lowenstein digs into Melanie's past while posing as a reporter for which paper?

Kevin Sussman, later of The Big Bang Theory, plays Barry.

Why did Jake never sign the divorce papers?

Intimidated by the city and her success, he went home to make something of himself first.

What does Jake make at the resort Melanie's friends visit?

He later opens a 'Deep South Glass' franchise in New York.

Who interrupts Melanie and Andrew's wedding with news that she never signed the divorce papers?

Melanie declines to sign, cancels the wedding and goes looking for Jake.

Where does Melanie find Jake at the end of the film?

She tells him they are still married, and the couple have their first dance back at the bar.

Whom does Andrew end up engaged to in the mid-credits scene?

Jake and Melanie, meanwhile, have a baby daughter.

Roughly how much did the film gross in its record-setting opening weekend?

It was the biggest September opening ever until Hotel Transylvania beat it in 2012.

Which 2012 film finally broke Sweet Home Alabama's September opening-weekend record?

Sweet Home Alabama had itself taken the record from Rush Hour.

Which grade did CinemaScore audiences give the film, despite its 38% Rotten Tomatoes score?

Roger Ebert gave it three stars while admitting he was tired of the premise.

Under which Disney-owned banner was the film released?

It opened in the US on September 27, 2002.

Which US state, not Alabama, was the film partly shot in?

Crawfordville, a small town east of Atlanta, stood in for parts of Pigeon Creek.

Which band recorded the song "Sweet Home Alabama"?

Alongside 'Free Bird' it is the band's signature song.

On which 1974 album did "Sweet Home Alabama" first appear?

The album reached No. 12 and went double platinum in 1987.

"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to songs by which artist?

The band felt 'Southern Man' and 'Alabama' blamed the whole South for slavery; Young later agreed his lyrics were 'accusatory and condescending'.

What position did the song reach on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974?

It remains the band's highest-charting single.

Which guitarist wrote and played the song's signature opening riff?

King, from Glendale, California, was one of three writers, none of whom came from Alabama.

How many of the song's three writers were actually from Alabama?

Van Zant and Rossington were born in Jacksonville, Florida, and Ed King in California.

Which Alabama governor is controversially referenced in the song?

Van Zant insisted the 'boo, boo, boo' after the line showed disapproval, while co-writer Ed King later said the song defended Wallace.

Which two well-known Black session singers are credited with backing vocals on the track?

Clayton initially refused, then agreed to 'let the music be her protest'.

Who produced the recording?

Kooper also sang backing vocals and engineered the session.

Which 2008 Kid Rock hit interpolates "Sweet Home Alabama", with Billy Powell playing on the track?

It also mashes in Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London' and pushed the original onto the UK chart at No. 44.

Which metal band used the intro riff without permission on their 1983 song "The Four Horsemen"?

Warren Zevon had already parodied the song in 1980's 'Play It All Night Long'.

In what year did Alabama start putting the phrase "Sweet Home Alabama" on its licence plates?

Governor Bob Riley had launched a tourism campaign around the phrase two years earlier.

Which cable channel ranked it the number one Southern rock song in 2006?

National Review put it fourth on its list of the greatest conservative rock songs the same year.

In what year was the song inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame?

Neil Young wrote in 2012 that his own song 'richly deserved the shot' Skynyrd gave him.

Which Warren Zevon song mocked and parodied "Sweet Home Alabama"?

It appeared on his 1980 album Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School.

Which Alabama city, rather than the capital Montgomery, is named in the song alongside the governor?

Historians note it was the site of the 1960s civil-rights campaign led by Martin Luther King.

Which political scandal, ongoing at the time of release, is name-checked in the song?

One reading is that the band told northerners not to judge the South for its leaders any more than they judged the North for Nixon.

In which Florida city was the band formed?

The band started as My Backyard in 1964 and settled on its name in 1968.

Which member of the band sang lead on the song?

Ronnie wrote the lyrics after Rossington kept playing a little picking riff at rehearsal.

Which 1977 tragedy ended the band's original run, three years after the song's release?

Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and singer Cassie Gaines died; the band reformed in 1987 with Johnny Van Zant on vocals.

Which other song by the same artist, along with "Southern Man", provoked the reply?

Van Zant said Young was 'shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two'.

Which two other Southern-rock members are credited on rhythm guitar for the recording?

Billy Powell played the piano outro that Kid Rock later borrowed.

Roughly how much did Sweet Home Alabama (2002) gross in the United States by the end of its run?

On a reported $30 million budget, plus another $53 million abroad, it was a hit despite the reviews.

Which two films did Sweet Home Alabama beat to open at number one in September 2002?

It was dethroned the following weekend by Red Dragon but still took $21.3 million in its second frame.

In the mid-credits scene, what business does Jake open in New York?

The coda also reveals the couple have a baby daughter and Melanie is still thriving as a designer.

How many DVD copies of Sweet Home Alabama sold on its first day of release in February 2003?

Total disc sales reached 7.4 million copies, and a Blu-ray followed for the film's tenth anniversary in 2012.

Co-writer Ed King, who was not from the South at all, was born in which city?

His bandmates Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida.