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Pickup Man

1994 single by Joe Diffie

Summary

1994 single by Joe Diffie

Field	Value
name	Pickup Man
cover	JD - Pickup Man single.png
type	single
artist	Joe Diffie
album	Third Rock from the Sun
B-side	From Here on Out
released	October 17, 1994
genre	Country
length	3:36
label	Epic
prev_title	Third Rock from the Sun
prev_year	1994
next_title	So Help Me Girl
next_year	1995

| B-side = From Here on Out

Howard Perdew
Kerry Kurt Phillips
Johnny Slate
Bob Montgomery "Pickup Man" is a song written by Howard Perdew and Kerry Kurt Phillips, and recorded by American country music artist Joe Diffie. It was released in October 1994 as the second single from the album Third Rock from the Sun. The song was his longest-lasting number-one hit, having spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) chart between December 1994 and January 1995.

Content

The song, a moderate up-tempo, is about a man who reasons he can meet the woman of his dreams by driving a pickup truck. At one point, he is able to secure a ride for a high school homecoming queen. "Pickup man", in this sense, has a double meaning — i.e., he is not only driving a pickup truck, but he is also "picking up" women in it.

Music video

The music video was directed by Deaton-Flanigen Productions. The majority of the music video for this song was filmed on location at a drive-in theater in Lewisburg, Tennessee.

The dead man from the "Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)" music video makes a cameo, lounging in the bed of a pickup truck.

Personnel

Compiled from the liner notes.

Joe Diffie – lead and background vocals
Stuart Duncan – fiddle
Paul Franklin – steel guitar
Brent Mason – electric guitar
Larry Paxton – bass guitar
Matt Rollings – piano
Billy Joe Walker Jr. – acoustic guitar
Lonnie Wilson – drums

Chart positions

"Pickup Man" debuted at number 56 on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart for the week of October 22, 1994.

Weekly charts

Chart (1994–1995)	Peak
position

Year-end charts

Chart (1995)	Position	US Country Songs (Billboard)
66

In popular culture

In 2005, a rewritten version of "Pickup Man" was used in television commercials for the restaurant chain Applebee's, to promote their "Carside to Go" service.

Country singer Jason Aldean's top 20 single "1994", a tribute to Diffie which appeared on Aldean's 2012 album Night Train, references "Pickup Man" in the chorus.

Post Malone version

| B-side = John Deere Green

Mercury Records Nashville
Kerry Kurt Phillips
Diffie
Joey Moi In November 2023, Post Malone covered the song with Morgan Wallen and Hardy at the Country Music Association awards ceremony. Following this performance, a studio recording featuring Post Malone alongside a vocal track recorded by Diffie in 2006 debuted on the country music charts. This rendition is the lead single to Hardy's mixtape Hixtape Vol. 3, which includes covers of Joe Diffie songs.

Charts

Chart (2023–2024)	Peak
position

References

(1994). "Third Rock From The Sun". Epic.
(1995). "Best of 1995: Country Songs".
"Diffie's "Pickup Man" Remade for Applebee's Ad". CMT.com.
"Post Malone Secures His First Hit on Country Airplay Chart with 'Pickup Man'".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1994-songs 1994-singles 2023-singles joe-diffie-songs post-malone-songs music-videos-directed-by-deaton-flanigen-productions song-recordings-produced-by-bob-montgomery-(songwriter) epic-records-singles songs-written-by-kerry-kurt-phillips songs-about-cars

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