Frank especially thought the female background vocalists added a “sassy” touch to the recording. To augment the sound even further, Anderson and Jones enlisted Mike Jordan from John’s road band to play a rockin’ Hammond B-3 organ solo, and punched up the track with an additional three-man horn section: tenor sax player Bill Pruett, trumpeter Don Sheffield and trombonist Dennis Good.
“Swingin’” was released on the “Wild And Blue” album which debuted on Billboard’s country album chart on October 30, 1982, and Warner promotion man Stan Byrd immediately started receiving calls from radio stations nationwide, reporting that they were playing the cut off the album. In a genuinely rare event, the Warner Brothers promotions department actually requested that stations not play “Swingin’” until it was officially released in a single format, since the label was still trying to get the album’s title track, “Wild And Blue,” up the charts first. But there was no way to stop it. By Christmas, “Swingin’” was already a smash.
The premature airing of “Swingin’” from the album did indeed slow “Wild And Blue’s” ascension considerably, but it eventually reached #1 on December 25, 1982. With that little matter out of the way, Warner Brothers went into high gear with their promotion of the new single, “Swingin,’” which entered Billboard’s country singles chart on January 15, 1983.
It quickly slammed into the #1 slot on March 26th (selling 1.4 million copies, the biggest-selling country single in the label’s history), and later that fall took “Single of the Year” honors from the Country Music Association.
As a tribute to the song that had made him a fortune, John Anderson nicknamed his Martin D-35 guitar “Charlotte.”