He feels a sense of sadness every time he looks at his daughter, who strongly resembles her mother, and now doing the same things alone that he once did with his wife. Rocky is now a widower and raising his daughter alone. With things going well and the family settling in on a content life, Rocky soon gets devastating news: his wife has been diagnosed with an apparently inoperable illness - the specific illness is unidentified in the song - and that she has only a short time to live.Īll of this is told in flashback, as in the final verse, his young wife has died. One example is a particularly rambunctious first birthday party for the couple's daughter.
The two soon learn they are expecting their first child, a girl.Īlthough the family has its usual problems, the happy memories outweigh the bad. She accepts Rocky's marriage proposal, and they spend the next several months fixing up an old house to make their home. He first recalls the day four years earlier where, as an 18-year-old college student, he met his wife-to-be (unnamed in the song) and recalls how well they hit it off. In a paradoxically upbeat melody in a major key, Rocky, the title protagonist, tells the tragic story of his young wife in first person. It spent fourteen weeks on the chart, including one week at number one. On the country chart, "Rocky" was Lee's most successful single, and his only number one. It was released in July 1975 as the fifth single and title track from the album Rocky. Snow) and performed by American country music artist Dickey Lee.
" Rocky" is a song written by Ronald Johnson (aka Woody P.
For other songs with this title, see Rocky (disambiguation) § Music.