The version of this I most remember was done by the Coasters, in the late 1950s. Ray Stevens later covered it. I thought I saw all of Elvis's movies back in the day, but that dendrite must have short-circuited and died, because I didn't remember that he'd taken a stab at it.
Everybody loved that down and dirty sax to fill at the end of the verses.
And you gotta love that straight-up-the-neck chord progression over the talky -- for want of a better term -- bridge. It's written in D, I play it with C-shapes, and it jumps up a half-step everywhere you see a backslash below:
"She /did a triple somersault and /when she hit the ground she /winked at the audience and /then she turned around she had a /picture of a cowboy/ tattooed on her spine saying /Phoenix, Arizona, nineteen forty-nine!
Yeah ...
4 comments:
Coasters were the group. I also liked "Shopping for Clothes".
Ah, once you get into The Coasters, the hits roll:
Mexico, One Kiss Led to Another, Young Blood, Searchin', Yakety Yak -- this one the second 45 rpm I remember playing, right after Elvis's Hound Dog. Charlie Brown, Along Came Jones, Poison Ivy, Besame Mucho ...
Of course, they changed singers as often as they did their pants, but still.
Always tickled me how many crackers where I grew up who loved this group didn't know they were black until they showed up on the teevee.
Always tickled me how many crackers where I grew up who loved this group didn't know they were black until they showed up on the teevee.
Really? Amazing. I never would have thought otherwise.
But then again I remember being surprised that Leiber and Stoller wrote all the music/lyrics. D'OH!!!
=)
Supposedly Rod Stewart was a little miffed to find out that Muscle Shoals wasn't black. LOL.
Expectations can mess with your mind...
Anyway I love all that old time rock and roll stuff. I first heard the Coasters on one of my Dad's oldies records.
I recall a conversation I had with a co-worker in L.A. years ago when we heard Joe Cocker singing on the radio in the shop.
He's black, my co-worker said.
Naw, he's white, I said.
Really? He sounds black.
What, I asked him, does black sound like exactly?
White guys came later to doo-wop, and the Coasters were more R&B/Rock, but they didn't sound "black" as folks down my way thought about it.
Whatever that means ...
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