The White Knight (Cledus Maggard song)

Infobox Single
Name = The White Knight


Artist = Cledus Maggard & The Citizen's Band
from Album = The White Knight
Released = December 1975 (U.S.)
Format = 7"
Recorded = 1975
Genre = Country
Length = 4:05
Label = Mercury Records 73751
Writer = Jay Huguely
Producer = Leslie Advertising
Certification =
Chart position =

• #1 (Billboard Hot Country Singles)
  
• #19 (Billboard Hot 100)
  Last single =
  This single = "The White Knight"
  (1975)
  Next single = "Kentucky Moonrunner"
  (1976)

  "The White Knight" was a novelty country music song made famous by Jay Huguely, who - recording as Cledus Maggard & The Citizen's Band - enjoyed a brief run of national popularity with the song when it became popular in 1976.

  ong story

  Huguely was working as an advertising salesman at an agency named Leslie Advertising in Greenville, South Carolina in the mid-1970s when he was approached to help with an advertising campaign centering on the then fast-growing citizens' band radio craze. According to writer Tom Roland, Huguely knew little about the CB radio but agreed to help out.

  After taking notes and getting help from his co-workers on deciphering the jargon, he went to work on writing a song. [Roland, Tom, "The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits" (Billboard Books, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1991 (ISBN 0-82-307553-2)), p. 161]

  Plot

  Huguely's finished product was a story about an over-the-road truck driver who receives a CB call from an individual claiming to be a truck driver. Identifying himself as "The White Knight," the other driver broadcasts information to the main protagonist that there are no "smokies" (police officers) in sight and that he can drive as fast as he wants to.

  Unfortunately for the song's hero, The White Knight is a corrupt highway patrolman who has used the CB radio to broadcast misleading traffic information to truck drivers, hoping to lure them into a speed trap. The plan works, and the hero is pulled over for going "40 miles over the speed limit" (i.e., 95 mph). The main hero is left to exclaim "Bubblegum-machine done hit the jackpot" as he is being pulled over and taken to jail.

  Chart performance

  "The White Knight" reached No. 1 on the "Billboard magazine" Hot Country Singles chart in February 1976 and was a modest pop hit, peaking at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was Maggard's only nationwide release to reach the Top 40 on either chart.

  The song was one of three No. 1 songs where the CB radio is central to the plot to top the Hot Country Singles chart during 1976. The other songs were:

  * "Convoy" by C.W. McCall; four of its six weeks atop the chart were in January.
  * "Teddy Bear" by Red Sovine, peaking in July.

  References and sources

  References

  ee also

  *Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.

  uccession