"The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" is a country song with English lyrics, written by Tom T. Hall, who composed both the music and the words. Hall recorded it himself on March 26, 1971 at Mercury Custom Recording Studio in Nashville, with Jerry Kennedy as producer. Mercury released it in July 1971 as a single (catalog number 73221), and it was the only single taken from Hall's album In Search of a Song, also released in 1971. The record reached number one on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart for two weeks, placed at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100, and ranked No. 4 on Billboard's 1971 year-end US Country chart.
