Writer: John Cougar Mellencamp
Producers: John Cougar Mellencamp (aka the Little Bastard) and Don Gehman
Recorded: April 25th, 1985, at Belmont Mall in Belmont, Indiana
Released: November 1985
| Players: | John Cougar Mellencamp — vocals Mike Wanchic — guitar, vocals Larry Crane — guitar, flutophone John Cascella — keyboards Toby Myers — bass Kenny Aronoff — drums Sarah Flint — backing vocals |
| Album: | Scarecrow (Riva, 1985) |
“R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.” peaked at Number Two on the Billboard Hot 100, making it John Mellencamp's highest-charting single since the John Cougar hit “Jack and Diane” in 1982.
As the song's subtitle — “(A Salute To 60's Rock)” — indicates, the song pays tribute to some of Mellencamp's early rock-and-roll heroes. Among those he name-checks are Frankie Lyman, Bobby Fuller, Mitch Ryder, Jackie Wilson, the Shangri-las, the Young Rascals, Martha Reeves, and James Brown.
“R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.” was a light-hearted counter-balance to some of the weightier material on the Scarecrow album, which dealt with emotional and political matters such as the family farm crisis in the United States.
Scarecrow was the last album to include any reference to “Cougar” in Mellencamp's name. He dropped it entirely by the time he released 1987's The Lonesome Jubilee.
Scarecrow peaked at Number Two on the Billboard 200.
Scarecrow was the first album recorded in Mellencamp's Belmont Mall studio.
The album was dedicated to Mellencamp's grandfather Speck, who died from lung cancer in 1983.