on which "Jessica" has been featured. However, most Allman Brothers compilations use the full 7:30 version. Reception The song peaked best on Billboard Easy Listening chart, where it peaked at number 29 on March 9, 1974. Although "Jessica" rose no higher than number 65 on the Hot 100, it later became a staple of classic rock radio. Initial reviews of the song in 1973 were very positive. Bud Scoppa of Rolling Stone wrote, "To my ears, this is the most effective instrumental the Allmans have ever recorded: It breaks the band's recent tendency toward humorlessness while demonstrating vividly that this group can elaborate brilliantly on a motif without once falling into obvious blues or rock & roll patterns." Billboard singled it out as one of the "best cuts" from the album, and it was mentioned as a highlight by Janis Schacht of Circus. "The jazzy sound is not only effective, it's aesthetically beautiful. Chuck Leavell's piano work is much on a par with Nicky Hopkins' work for the Rolling Stones. It moves, it boogies, it carries the piece along with incredible style and is met halfway by Dickie Betts' clean, sweeping guitar lead." A January 2006 Wall Street Journal article referred to the piece as "a true national heirloom." A later, live recording of "Jessica" is included on the 1995 An Evening with the Allman Brothers Band: 2nd Set. It won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996. Chart performance Cover versions The alternative rock group They Might Be Giants did a cover version of the tune, which was released on their 1993 EP Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas). Country band Shenandoah does a cover of Jessica at the end of their hit song "I Got You". Chuck Leavell continues to perform it as a piano-based piece, as with his version on the album Southscape. Jazz fusion band Dixie Dregs also covered the song on their album California Screamin, released in 2000, also used as theme song for Top Gear Indonesia on RTV & Philippines on ABS-CBN. The BBC series Top Gear features a version of the tune as its opening theme. Hank Marvin did a cover version of the tune on his 1992 album Into the Light. On Top Gear, broadcast on BBC Two on 11 March 2012, Slash played an alternative