The Charlie Daniels Band recorded their classic single “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” on December 5, 1978. The release was featured on their album “Million Mile Reflections” and also featured the B-side “Rainbow Ride.”The track hit number one on the US Country songs chart the following summer, bumping "Coca-Cola Cowboy" by Mel Tillis in August of 1979. They were eventually bumped from the top spot by "Heartbreak Hotel" by Willie Nelson and Leon Russell.Daniels explained the inspiration for the song saying:"We had gone in and rehearsed, written, and recorded the music for our Million Mile Reflections album, and all of a sudden we said, 'We don't have a fiddle song.' I don't know why we didn't discover that, but we went out and we took a couple of days' break from the recording studio, went into a rehearsal studio and I just had this idea: 'The Devil went down to Georgia.' The idea may have come from an old poem that Stephen Vincent Benet wrote many, many years ago. He didn't use that line, but I just started, and the band started playing, and first thing you know we had it down."