{"id":158990,"date":"2025-09-15T18:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/158990\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T18:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:10:12","slug":"the-allman-brothers-bands-melissa-might-have-never-happened-if-gregg-hadnt-gone-grocery-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/158990\/","title":{"rendered":"The Allman Brothers Band\u2019s \u201cMelissa\u201d Might Have Never Happened if Gregg Hadn\u2019t Gone Grocery Shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Allman Brothers Band\u2019s 1972 track, \u201cMelissa\u201d<\/a>, is proof that sometimes the only thing separating a song from a hit or a dud is a chance occurrence. Imagining all of the tiny moments that had to lead to Gregg Allman being in the right place at the right time is a fascinating exercise. Maybe the band might not have run out of coffee so quickly. Maybe an unassuming grandmother decided to run a different errand with her granddaughter before going to the grocery store.<\/p>\n

If either were true, \u201cMelissa\u201d might not exist at all.<\/p>\n

Greg Allman on Writing Allman Brothers Band\u2019s \u201cMelissa\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a scenario every songwriter dreads: you get within an inch of finishing what looks to be an incredibly promising song when, suddenly, your mind goes blank. You can\u2019t find the one word or phrase that ties the song up with a bow. The ideas you do come up with seem lackluster at best, almost making the song sound worse just by their very addition. Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band fame found himself in that very predicament while staying in a bungalow motel in Pensacola in 1967.<\/p>\n

In his memoir, My Cross to Bear<\/a>, Allman describes writing one of his first substantive songs about the loneliness he was experiencing while in Florida. \u201cThere was a woman that I had really wished was there to bring me some happiness and companionship and all that goes with it,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI had the song. But I didn\u2019t have the title. I\u2019d go, \u2018But back home you\u2019ll always run with sweet\u2026Bar-bar-a.\u2019 It had to have three syllables in it, it just had to. I had tried every damn name. I had almost settled on \u2018Delilah,\u2019 but I knew inside me that wasn\u2019t what I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allman decided to set the song aside and go on a coffee and juice run at a nearby 24-hour market. He was the sole customer, besides an older woman who appeared to be with her granddaughter, \u201cwho was at the age when kids discover they have legs that will run,\u201d Allman recalled. As the little girl\u2019s feet pattered down the full length of the next aisle over from where Allman was shopping, he heard the grandmother shout, \u201cNo, wait! Melissa, come back! Don\u2019t run away, Melissa!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI went, \u2018Sweet Melissa,\u2019\u201d Allman said. \u201cI could\u2019ve gone over there and kissed that woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Songwriter\u2019s Brother Was More Sure of a Hit Than He Was<\/p>\n

Gregg Allman was sure that Melissa was the right three-syllable name for his song. But he wasn\u2019t convinced that the sentimental song would be a worthy contender for an Allman Brothers Band tune. Consequently, he didn\u2019t think twice about selling the publishing rights to \u201cMelissa\u201d when he was in need of fast cash for a plane ticket. It wasn\u2019t until 1972 that The Allman Brothers Band\u2019s manager, Phil Walden, bought back the publishing rights for the band\u2019s fourth album, Eat a Peach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even then, the decision to record \u201cMelissa\u201d wasn\u2019t because Gregg suddenly had a revelation about how good his song was. The Allman Brothers Band recorded an album version of \u201cMelissa\u201d in honor of Gregg\u2019s brother, Duane Allman, who died in a motorcycle accident<\/a> in 1971. \u201cMelissa\u201d had always been one of Duane\u2019s favorite songs that Gregg ever wrote, and the band used the track to pay tribute to their late founding member. Gregg also sang \u201cMelissa\u201d at his brother\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n

Photo by Tim Mosenfelder\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Allman Brothers Band\u2019s 1972 track, \u201cMelissa\u201d, is proof that sometimes the only thing separating a song from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,96939,216,2156,37861],"class_list":["post-158990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-gregg-allman","tag-music","tag-rock-music","tag-the-allman-brothers-band"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}