Owen formed the first verse of “Lady Down On Love” based on that lady’s situation. Then for the second verse, Randy switched it around and told the story from the man’s point of view, about how he would have felt in the same incidence and knowing that it was his fault for the break up. Owen wrote it that way because he was very actively “pro-women” and it was his general belief that the husbands were usually to blame for problems in a marriage.
Initially, Randy hoped that Johnny Rodriguez would record “Lady Down On Love,” although he never got a reply from any of Johnny’s associates. That turned out for the best, as Alabama released the song as the third single from the “The Closer You Get” album. Owen played the guitar himself, recording it four times and using parts of two different takes. It became Alabama’s 11th of their 32 number one Billboard singles on October 22, 1983.
The strings were arranged for “Lady Down On Love” by Kristin Wilkinson, who had just ended a long-term relationship the very same day she heard the song for the first time. The emotional impact Wilkinson felt after hearing it enhanced her work on the string arrangement and she believed Alabama’s finished cut contained “the greatest strings I’ve ever heard in my life.”
