"Walk Tall" is a song by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, from his 2004 compilation Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits. Mellencamp wrote the track as an inspirational, folk rock song, and recruited Babyface to give the song R&B-style production. The single was favorably received by critics and became a top 40 hit on the Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40, and Adult Alternative Airplay charts in the United States, peaking at number three on the latter. An accompanying music video starred Peter Dinklage as a milkman in a 1950s-style world where height is the basis of discrimination. It went into rotation on MTV, VH1, and CMT, and was nominated for an award at the 2005 CMT Music Awards. Writing and production In a 2004 interview with CMT, Mellencamp said that in writing the song, he was inspired by Woody Guthrie. Mellencamp reflected that Guthrie had said that "it was important for him to write songs about people and try to make them feel good about themselves", which led him to write "Walk Tall" as an inspirational song. For production, Mellencamp worked with R&B producer Babyface, telling American Songwriter that he immediately knew that he "wanted to have an R&B feel for that song" and so played it for Babyface and asked him to "see what kind of R&B feel you can put to it". Mellencamp recalled that he played Babyface "one verse and one chorus and he had already come up with the feel. And that happened within, no exaggeration, thirty seconds of him hearing the song... he was already playing that rhythm against my folk rhythm. So I looked at him at that point and said, 'I’ll see you in Indiana in a few weeks.'" Billboard critic Jim Bessman described the song as "politically charged" and "spiritually uplifting". In a review for PopMatters, Hank Kalet deemed the song a "political folk rocker". Reception Critics reviewed the song favorably. In a four-star review of Words & Music, Rolling Stone critic David Wild called the song "encouragingly vital". Bessman, in a review for Billboard, pointed to the song as evidence that Mellencamp "has managed to remain current for a quarter-century". Commercially, "Walk Tall" reached number 25 on the Adult Contemporary chart, as well as number 26 on the Adult Top 40 and number 3 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart. On the Adult Alternative Airplay chart, it became his sixth top