Tag: Phil Everly

The First #1 Hit By The Everly Brothers

Wake Up Little Susie

On October 14, 1957, the Everly Brothers scored their first number one song with “Wake Up Little Susie.” The song had been released on September 2 as a follow-up to their hit “Bye Bye Love,” which had only gone to number two on the charts during that summer.

Controversy About the Lyrics

Some critics of “Wake Up Little Susie” raised concerns it was about teenage sex, and Don Everly later reported that the song was actually banned on some Boston radio stations at one point. Others, however, thought the song was a more innocent tale about two teenagers who had fallen asleep at the movies.

No matter how you read the song, you cannot deny it is quite catchy, which, along with the great harmonies by Don Everly and Phil Everly, are the reasons it went to the top of the charts. Check out this Everly Brothers performance from 1957 overdubbed with the hit single.

Simon & Garfunkel Version

Another duo with amazing harmonies, Simon & Garfunkel, later paid tribute to the Everly Brothers by performing “Wake Up Little Susie” at their famous Concert in Central Park on September 19, 1981.

Simon & Garfunkel also had some chart success with “Wake Up Little Susie.” The release of their Concert in Central Park version became Simon & Garfunkel’s last top 40 hit, with the song going to number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982.

A Beginning for the Everly Brothers

Although “Wake Up Little Susie” was the Everly Brother’s first number-one song, it was not their last. The Everly Brothers topped the charts again the following year in 1958 with “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” and they did it again in 1960 with “Cathy’s Clown.”

What is your favorite Everly Brothers song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Buddy Holly Disguised His Voice in Falsetto on “Don’t Cha Know”

    dont cha know buddy holly

    More than fifty years ago on September 30, 1958, Buddy Holly produced a record in New York for an unknown singer named Lou Giordano, according to Larry Lehmer’s book The Day the Music Died (p. 41). The B-side of the record was a song written by Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers called “Don’t Cha Know.”

    According to Roger White’s book on the Everly Brothers, Walk Right Back, during the recording, Everly and Holly sang backup.  But they sang falsetto because they could not afford female singers.  Also, because the two singers were under contract with another record company, they did not want anyone to recognize their voices.

    Give it a listen. Can you recognize the voices of Buddy Holly and Phil Everly?

    The A-side of the Giordano record was a song written by Holly called “Stay Close to Me.” Holly never recorded the song himself, and below is Giordano’s version on YouTube.

    Also here is an interesting cover of “Stay Close to Me” by a guy named Ritchie Mars, who plays it a little like Holly might have. Check it out.

    Lou Giordano (Lou Jordan)

    Giordano had a modest hit with the Holly-produced single, but it did not launch a successful singing career for him. A few websites confuse Giordano with a younger music producer with the same name.  The Lou Giordano that Buddy Holly produced changed his performing name to “Lou Jordan” after Holly died.

    Giordano had a wonderful voice and the songs he recorded lead one to wonder why he did not become more popular than he did.  In 1961, Giordano (as “Lou Jordan”) recorded the record “Paradise for Two / Close Your Eyes” backed by the doo wop group The Chaperones.  In 1963, he released another single “Just to Look at You” with the B-side “My Baby.”[See comment below from Giordano’s nephew noting that Giordano passed away in December 1969.]

    Giordano’s daughter noted in an article that Holly changed the singer’s life. Another website notes a mystery about the location of Beltone Studios, where the record was made.

    Still, Giordano’s small body of recorded music gives us a little insight into another question. It tells us something about the work that Holly might have done as a producer of other artists were he still around today.

    What do you think of Holly’s falsetto? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Werewolves of London

    Werewolf of LondonHappy Halloween! Warren Zevon was late in his career before I became a fan of his music. So my memories of him are mostly of him toward the end of his life. So I especially love seeing him rock out in this performance of the one of the great Halloween songs, “Werewolves of London.”

    Zevon once referred to “Werewolves of London” as “a dumb song for smart people.”  But, of course, it is quite brilliant.   Zevon wrote the song with LeRoy Marinell and Waddy Wachtel, but they had some inspiration from Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers.  Everly suggested the song title to Zevon after watching the 1935 film Werewolf of London, directed by  Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull, on late-night television.

    Zevon, Marinell, and Wachtel began making up the lyrics for fun, adding in some howling.  Zevon’s wife at the time, Crystal Zevon, wrote down the lyrics.   The next day in the studio, Jackson Browne heard the new song, and he began performing it live years before Zevon got around to releasing it on an album in 1978.

    Upon it’s eventual release, “Werewolves of London” became a Top 40 hit for Zevon.  But according to George Plasketes, the author of a biography about the artist, Zevon initially felt insulted that the record label had selected that song for a single release over other songs Zevon preferred on the Excitable Boy (1978) album.  The label’s choice proved correct, in the sense that “Werewolves of London” became a beloved classic.

    The song even inspired the name for a baseball team in London, Ontario.  And there is that wonderful opening line, “I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand.”  This live performance by Zevon is from Oct 1, 1982 at the Capitol Theatre in Passiac, New Jersey.   Check it out.

    But I still cannot get this Tom Cruise image out of my head anytime I hear the song.

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