Who recorded it first
Wagon Wheel
Not a Darius Rucker original — Old Crow Medicine Show got there first, and earlier than 2004
Darius Rucker’s 2013 Capitol Nashville single is the version most people have heard, and many assume he originated it. He did not: Old Crow Medicine Show released it as a single on 10 February 2004, ahead of their Nettwerk album O.C.M.S. on 24 February 2004. The song is credited to Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor — Dylan sketched the chorus at the 1973 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid sessions, and Secor wrote verses around it years later. One wrinkle the usual account skips: MusicBrainz lists an earlier Old Crow recording of the song on a self-issued 2001 EP, Troubles Up and Down the Road, so 2004 is the famous first release rather than certainly the first recording.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Issued as a single on 10 February 2004 and as a track on the band’s Nettwerk debut album O.C.M.S. on 24 February 2004; recorded in 2003 at RCA Studio B in Nashville with producer David Rawlings. MusicBrainz additionally lists a recording of the song on a self-issued Old Crow EP, Troubles Up and Down the Road, dated 24 October 2001.
Charted No mainstream chart entry on release — it spread by word of mouth rather than radio. It first shows up in the trades in the week of 20 March 2013, riding the Rucker single: 15,000 copies sold, No. 28 on Country Digital Songs. It was certified platinum in April 2013 and three-times platinum by November 2023.
Hear The 2004 O.C.M.S. album recording by Old Crow Medicine Show www.youtube.com · Auto-generated distributor upload on the “Old Crow Medicine Show - Topic” channel, description reading “Provided to YouTube by IIP-DDS”. Duration measured at 232.1 seconds, matching the MusicBrainz recording from the 2004 O.C.M.S. release (232,213 ms) — so this is the original master, not a later re-cut.How to check this yourself
The song’s Wikipedia entry dates the Old Crow single to 10 February 2004 and the Rucker single to 7 January 2013 — Wagon Wheel (song) ↗.
The album page confirms the 24 February 2004 Nettwerk release, David Rawlings’ production and the RCA Studio B sessions — O.C.M.S. ↗.
Rolling Stone traces the chorus to Dylan’s 1973 Pat Garrett sessions and the bootleg Critter Fuqua carried home from London — Rolling Stone ↗.
The earlier, unlabelled 2001 EP that complicates the tidy version of the story — Troubles Up and Down the Road on MusicBrainz ↗.
Wagon Wheel (song) on Wikipedia — release history and cover versionsKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
What’s actually true
Rucker’s 2013 single is so much bigger than the record it came from that the original has largely been overwritten. Here is the order of events.
Darius Rucker wrote and originated “Wagon Wheel”
His version was released on 7 January 2013 on Capitol Nashville, nine years after Old Crow Medicine Show’s single, and he is not a credited writer.
Old Crow Medicine Show
Released as a single on 10 February 2004 and on the Nettwerk album O.C.M.S. on 24 February 2004, recorded in 2003 at RCA Studio B with producer David Rawlings.
Old Crow Medicine Show, 2001
MusicBrainz lists a recording of the song as track six of a self-issued EP, Troubles Up and Down the Road, dated 24 October 2001 with no label. Same band, so the answer to “who first” does not change — but we could not confirm that 2001 date against a primary or reference source, so we do not present 2004 as certainly the first time it was committed to tape.
Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor
Dylan cut the chorus as an unfinished sketch at the 1973 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid sessions; Secor wrote the verses around it, and the two are credited on a fifty-fifty split.
Old Crow Medicine Show recorded it first — issued in February 2004, and possibly on a self-released EP as early as 2001. Darius Rucker’s 2013 hit is a cover.
Context
Why the cover ate the original
Old Crow Medicine Show’s version was never a radio record. It had no mainstream chart entry in 2004; it spread the slow way — campfires, dorm rooms, wedding bands, open mics — until it was effectively folk repertoire before most listeners knew whose record it was. That is exactly the condition in which a big-label cover can arrive and look like the source.
When Darius Rucker released it on Capitol Nashville in January 2013 with country radio behind it, the song finally had a version that arrived everywhere at once. Rucker’s record went to No. 1 country and was certified 11× platinum. The original benefited too — in the week of 20 March 2013, with Rucker dominating, Old Crow’s 2004 recording sold 15,000 copies and ranked No. 28 on Country Digital Songs — but by then it read to most people as a cover of the hit rather than the other way round.
The chronology, step by step
- February 1973 — Bob Dylan records an unfinished, untitled sketch during the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid sessions; bootleggers later label it “Rock Me, Mama.”
- Late 1990s — Critter Fuqua obtains a bootleg of those sessions in London and shares it with Ketch Secor, who writes verses around Dylan’s chorus. The band play it from their teens.
- 24 October 2001 — MusicBrainz dates a self-issued Old Crow Medicine Show EP, Troubles Up and Down the Road, carrying a recording of the song. No label is listed.
- 2003 — the band record the song with producer David Rawlings at RCA Studio B, Nashville.
- 10 February 2004 — released as a single; the album O.C.M.S. follows on Nettwerk on 24 February 2004.
- 15 June 2012 — Nathan Carter’s version is released and becomes a long-running hit in Ireland and the UK.
- 7 January 2013 — Darius Rucker’s Capitol Nashville single is released; it tops Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay and wins a Grammy in January 2014.
- 2013 and after — the Old Crow recording is certified platinum in April 2013 and three-times platinum by November 2023.
A song can be everywhere for a decade and still have no famous author.