<Table> <Tr> <Td> "No, No" (1970) </Td> <Td> "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" (1972) </Td> <Td> "He Did with Me" (1973) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "No, No" (1970) </Td> <Td> "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" (1972) </Td> <Td> "He Did with Me" (1973) </Td> </Tr> <P> "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" is a Southern Gothic song, written in 1972 by songwriter Bobby Russell and sung by Vicki Lawrence, an American pop music singer, actress, and comedian . Lawrence's version, from her 1973 Bell Records album of the same name, was a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 after its release . In addition to several other renditions, the song was again a hit in 1991 when Reba McEntire recorded it for her album For My Broken Heart . McEntire's version was a single, as well, reaching number 12 on Hot Country Songs . </P> <P> A nameless man returns home after two weeks to be informed by his best friend Andy that the man's wife has been unfaithful, sleeping with both Andy and a third man, "that Ames boy, Seth ." The man returns home and, noting his wife is not home, heads to Andy's house with a gun; when he arrives, he finds Andy's dead body . In an attempt to flag down the Georgia State Patrol, the man fires a warning shot into the air, only to realize too late that the combination of circumstances (the dead body, holding a gun and an audible gunshot) made him look like the killer . </P>

Who wrote the night the lights went out in georgia