Earl Scruggs’ banjo instrumental recorded with Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys on December 11, 1949. The tune transformed bluegrass music by establishing the banjo as the lead instrument rather than a supporting role. Scruggs composed it as a reworking of “Bluegrass Breakdown,” which he had written while with Bill Monroe but for which Monroe had denied him credit. The new composition showcased Scruggs’ innovative three-finger picking style now known as “Scruggs style.”
The song gained massive popularity when featured in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde,” with both the 1949 Mercury version and a newly recorded Columbia version reaching #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. It earned Flatt & Scruggs a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance in 1969 and was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and the National Recording Registry in 2004.