Who recorded it first
Dueling Banjos
Not a Weissberg & Mandell original — a 1955 MGM single by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith with Don Reno, titled “Feudin’ Banjos”
Almost everyone meets this tune through Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell, whose arrangement for Deliverance became a No. 2 Billboard Hot 100 single and a Grammy winner. It is a cover. Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith composed the piece in 1954 and recorded it first in 1955 for MGM as “Feudin’ Banjos”, playing four-string banjo against Don Reno’s five-string. What makes this misattribution unusual is that the film industry made the same mistake the public did: the December 1972 Warner Bros. single was credited to Weissberg alone, Smith was given no composer credit, and he had to go to law to have his name attached to his own tune.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Released in 1955 as a 7-inch and 78rpm single on MGM Records, catalogue K12006, titled “Feudin’ Banjos” and coupled with “’Bye ’Bye Black Smoke Choo Choo”. Smith played the four-string banjo part against Don Reno’s five-string. Praguefrank’s country discography dates the session to about 25 April 1955 in Charlotte, North Carolina Praguefrank ↗.
Charted No chart entry is documented for the 1955 single — and that is the whole story. A record with no chart history leaves nothing for a later listener to trace back to.
Hear The 1955 original itself — Arthur Smith and Don Reno, “Feudin’ Banjos”, transferred from the MGM disc. Not the Weissberg and Mandell version. archive.org · Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project: an institutional preservation transfer of the physical shellac by George Blood, L.P., from the Bowling Green State University 78rpm collection — not a channel upload or a fan rip. The item metadata matches the 1955 single exactly: label MGM, catalogue number 12006, matrix number 55 S 641, performers Arthur Smith and Don Reno, writer Smith, instruments tenor banjo and five-string banjo, and the coupling “’Bye ’Bye Black Smoke Choo Choo” that 45cat lists for MGM K12006. We do not call either title the A-side: 45cat leads with “Feudin’ Banjos” while MusicBrainz lists it as the B-side, and the sources genuinely disagree. Because it is a transfer of the 1955 object, carrying that disc’s own matrix number, it cannot be a later re-recording. Its running time of 124 seconds is the raw disc transfer including 78 lead-in and run-out, against roughly 1:52 that MusicBrainz gives for the recording. Then compare Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell’s 1972 arrangement recorded for “Deliverance” — the full-length Warner Bros. track that became a US no. 2 hit. www.youtube.com · Auto-generated upload on the “Eric Weissberg - Topic” channel, with “Provided to YouTube by Rhino/Warner Records” and ℗ 1973 Warner Records Inc. Runtime 196s, matched exactly against the MusicBrainz recording at 196s first released 1973 on the Warner “Dueling Banjos” album. Noted discrepancy: MusicBrainz also carries a 139s entry first released 1972-12 — that is the shortened single edit of the same performance. I chose the full 196s album version because it is the complete duel; a reader comparing it to Arthur Smith’s original gets the whole arrangement rather than a fade.How we traced it
Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith composed the piece in 1954 and recorded it in 1955 on four-string plectrum banjo, accompanied by the bluegrass five-string player Don Reno Wikipedia ↗.
The physical record survives and can be checked: the Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project transfer of the disc carries label MGM, catalogue number 12006, matrix number 55 S 641, performers Arthur Smith and Don Reno, writer Smith, and, on the other side of the disc, “’Bye ’Bye Black Smoke Choo Choo” Internet Archive ↗.
We looked for anything earlier and found none: the standard originals-and-covers reference names Smith and Reno on MGM in 1955 as the original, listing every other version from 1956 onward, and notes only a loose melodic resemblance to a seventeenth-century Praetorius dance tune The Originals ↗.
Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell’s arrangement for Deliverance reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Best Country Instrumental Performance at the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in 1974, but the single Warner Bros. issued in December 1972 was credited to Weissberg alone, and the filmmakers did not acknowledge Smith as the composer; he sued and came away with songwriting credit and royalties Wikipedia ↗.
The litigation itself is documented in the legal press: Smith turned down an early Warner Bros. offer of $15,000, then spent two years and about $125,000 on the case before it settled — and said afterwards that the royalty cheques still arrived every 90 days ABA Journal ↗.
The Originals — Feudin' Banjos, the 1955 MGM record and everything afterKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
Setting the record straight
This is the rare case where the misattribution was not just popular but printed — on the film’s credits and on the record label — and had to be undone by lawyers.
Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell, 1972
Their Deliverance arrangement is the version everyone has heard: a No. 2 Billboard Hot 100 single, No. 1 Easy Listening, No. 5 Country, No. 17 in the UK, certified Gold, and the winner of Best Country Instrumental Performance at the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in 1974.
Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith with Don Reno, 1955
Issued on MGM as K12006 under the title “Feudin’ Banjos”, coupled with “’Bye ’Bye Black Smoke Choo Choo”, with Smith on four-string banjo and Reno on five-string. No chart entry is documented for it, which is precisely why the 1972 title stuck.
Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith
Smith composed the piece in 1954 by his own account, though Wikipedia’s article on him dates the composition to 1955; the documented recording is April 1955 either way. He is not a background figure here — he wrote it and he recorded it first, and the 1972 film gave him credit for neither.
Warner Bros. Records, December 1972
The single named Weissberg alone, omitting even Mandell, and the filmmakers did not credit Smith as composer. He sued Warner Bros. and won a substantial settlement: songwriting credit and back royalties. American Songwriter reports only that the parties settled out of court and that the label credited Smith on later releases; the ABA Journal is the source for the figures — a rejected $15,000 offer, two years, and about $125,000 in legal costs. No source we checked describes a verdict.
Weissberg and Mandell made the famous record. Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith made the first one — and wrote it.
Context
Why the cover swallowed the original
A 1955 banjo instrumental on MGM had almost nothing to carry it beyond the people who already listened to Arthur Smith. No chart entry is documented for the single, and a two-minute novelty instrumental had no obvious second life. The composition’s first genuinely wide airing did not come from the record at all: it came in 1963, when the Darlings — played by the bluegrass group the Dillards — performed it on an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. By the time Deliverance arrived, the tune was folk property in the worst sense: known, unowned in the public mind, and unattached to a name.
The retitling finished the job. A listener who knows it as “Dueling Banjos” has no reason to look for “Feudin’ Banjos”, and the film’s own paperwork encouraged the confusion — the onscreen credit described it as an arrangement of “Feudin’ Banjos” while naming only Weissberg and Mandell, and the December 1972 Warner Bros. single named only Weissberg. So the mistake was not merely popular; it was printed. Smith sued, and every source we checked agrees on how it ended: a settlement, not a verdict. Wikipedia’s Arthur Smith article calls it a “substantial settlement” that awarded him songwriting credit and back royalties, and describes the case as a landmark copyright infringement suit; the Eric Weissberg article uses the same phrase and adds that the settlement appended his film credit. American Songwriter ↗ says the parties settled out of court, the label paying Smith and crediting him on later releases of the album; the ABA Journal ↗ adds the detail, and it is the only source that carries figures — Smith turned down an early offer of $15,000, then spent two years and about $125,000 litigating. The one loose phrasing is in Wikipedia’s Dueling Banjos article, which says only that he “sued and eventually won”; the Arthur Smith article spells out what winning meant here.
The chronology, step by step
- 1945 — Arthur Smith records “Guitar Boogie”, the instrumental hit that gives him his professional name.
- 1954 — Smith composes a banjo instrumental he calls “Feudin’ Banjos”. The year is his own account, carried by Wikipedia’s Dueling Banjos article; Wikipedia’s Arthur Smith article puts the composition in 1955, and no documentary source attests 1954.
- April 1955 — Smith records it for MGM with Don Reno, Smith on four-string banjo and Reno on five-string. It is issued as MGM K12006, coupled with “’Bye ’Bye Black Smoke Choo Choo”. No chart entry is documented.
- 1963 — The composition gets its first wide-scale airing on The Andy Griffith Show episode “Briscoe Declares for Aunt Bee”, played by the Darlings, portrayed by the Dillards, with Andy Griffith.
- 1972 — Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell arrange and record it as “Dueling Banjos” for Deliverance; onscreen it is mimed by Ronny Cox and Billy Redden. The film’s credit calls it an arrangement of “Feudin’ Banjos” but names no composer.
- December 1972 — Warner Bros. issues the single, credited to Weissberg alone. Mandell’s name is not on it.
- 1973 — The single reaches No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 Easy Listening, No. 5 Hot Country and No. 17 in the UK, and is certified Gold. The album, largely a repackage of Weissberg and Marshall Brickman’s 1963 Elektra LP New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass, tops the Billboard 200.
- 1974 — The recording wins Best Country Instrumental Performance at the 16th Annual Grammy Awards.
- Eventually — Smith’s action against Warner Bros. ends in a substantial settlement in his favour: songwriting credit and back royalties. He reportedly asked to be left off the film’s credits, having found the film offensive, while wanting his name on the soundtrack release.
The tune took a Grammy in 1974. Its author needed lawyers to get his name on it.