Jailhouse Rock

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elvis Presley in the movie Jailhouse Rock, 1957

Jailhouse Rock (English jailhouse for "prison" and rock , circumscribed for "rhythm" or "dance") is a rock song composed by the most successful rock & roll writing team , Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller , in 1957, written by Elvis Presley became a million seller . It was the theme song of the music film of the same name with Elvis Presley in the lead role.

History of origin

Jailhouse Rock was after Hound Dog the second number one hit for Elvis Presley on the national Billboard charts, which came from the pen of the songwriting duo Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller. Elvis Presley did not become aware of the ostensible "hunting dog" through Leiber & Stoller themselves or through the original version of rhythm and blues singer Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton , but rather through a parodic version with slightly changed lyrics by the group Freddy Bell And The Bellboys , whose live Elvis had seen in Las Vegas in the spring of 1956. It was not until the success of Presley's Hound Dog version that Leiber & Stoller, along with other authors, were commissioned in early 1957 to write songs for the third Presley film, later called Jailhouse Rock . Since the two young authors were more fond of the New York nightlife than the task of delivering a selection of good songs for an Elvis soundtrack as quickly as possible, Freddy Bienstock, who is responsible for the music publishers Gladys Music and Elvis Presley Music at Hill & Range, closed - The duo stayed overnight in their hotel suite by making themselves comfortable on a sofa in front of the door. Jailhouse Rock , Treat Me Nice , (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care and I Want To Be Free were finished almost overnight , which Presley then selected from a number of titles by other authors for recording.

The recording sessions for Jailhouse Rock took place on April 30 and May 3, 1957 at Radio Recorders and on May 9, 1957 at MGM Soundstage in Hollywood. At Elvis Presley's request, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were present at the recording session led by Steve Sholes and supported the young singer in his work. The studio band consisted old from Presley's companions Scotty Moore (electric guitar), Bill Black (bass) and DJ Fontana (drums), Dudley Brooks and Mike Stoller (piano), Elvis Presley itself (acoustic guitar) and the gospel quartet The Jordanaires with Background vocals.

The fast-paced bass, accompanied by DJ Fontana's drums between rumba and shuffle , are symptomatic of the music track. The 16 bars of the stanzas form an extended blues scheme, the melody consists of only a few notes of the blues scale. Due to the high density of text and the high speed of Jailhouse Rock , even English-speaking listeners could not understand the content immediately. Jailhouse Rock appeared as the A-side of a single with Treat Me Nice as the B-side. Unusually Elvis Presley played the Fender bass himself when recording Treat Me Nice , as bassist Bill Black had initially not gotten to grips with the instrument, which was new to him, and had given up.

The title Jailhouse Rock, about a fictional party in the prison, describes the meeting of several prisoners who play various musical instruments and can therefore put together a band that then encouraged all prisoners to dance. Some of the people mentioned in the song were actually alive. " Shifty Henry " was a well-known bass musician and blues composer from Los Angeles and not a criminal, the "Purple Gang" was a real gang of five gang from Detroit and not a rhythm group, behind "Bugs" was probably hiding the murdered gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel of Jewish origin, and "Sad Sack" was the name of a loser in the US Army. In the second stanza, the fictional prisoner "Spider Murphy" is mentioned as a tenor saxophonist, after which the Spider Murphy Gang was named .

publication

Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock

The track Jailhouse Rock / Treat Me Nice (RCA Victor # 47-7035 - for the 45rpm single - and # 20-7035 for 78rpm) was released on September 24, 1957 and topped the US on October 21, 1957 Charts where he stayed for seven weeks. It also reached first place on the US country and R&B charts , making it one of the few songs that did so successfully as a crossover , although Presley had done this twice before with All Shook Up and Teddy Bear . A first place was also achieved in Great Britain, and 10th in Germany. The song's huge popularity resulted in record sales of two million copies in the US in just two weeks and four million copies in total, earning it Elvis 14 million-seller status.

The film Jailhouse Rock - Rhythm Behind Bars was officially released in the US on November 8, 1957 (only on April 5, 1958 in Germany). The central singing / dance scene in Jailhouse Rock with the title song is now considered the archetype of rock / pop video. The film premiered earlier on October 17, 1957 in Memphis, but Elvis did not take part. He had watched the film with his parents on October 2nd as part of a private screening.

The EP of the same name followed on October 30, 1957 , on which two other Leiber / Stoller compositions from the film can be found in addition to the title song, namely I Want to Be Free and (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care . The EP reached number 1 on the Extended Play charts in the USA. It has been implemented two million times. In January 2005, Jailhouse Rock again reached the UK number one, making it the oldest title to ever take the top position a second time.

Statistics and cover versions

61 versions of the song Jailhouse Rock are listed, the title won a BMI award. Presley's version of Jailhouse Rock is the first single in UK chart history to jump from zero to one. The piece has been interpreted by numerous other artists, including Jeff Beck (June 1969), Jerry Lee Lewis (1971), Mike Krüger She Wears a Pleated Skirt (1975), ZZ Top (1975), Twisted Sister (1994), the Spider Murphy Gang (2004), Erika Stucky (2005) and Helge Schneider (2007). A separate version of the song was used in 1980 to conclude the film Blues Brothers . Queen played the song at most of their concerts; only during the tours in 1982 and 1986 Jailhouse Rock was never on the program. A live interpretation recorded in the early 1980s is included in Queen Rock Montreal .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. u. a. Michael T. Bertrand, Race, Rock And Elvis , pp. 190 f.
  2. ↑ cf. Leiber & Stoller's remarks in Ken Sharp, Writing for the King , p. 19 f .; also Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis Presley. A Life in Music , pp. 89f
  3. ^ Ernst Jorgensen: Elvis Presley. A Life in Music , p. 89
  4. ↑ cf. Leiber & Stoller's remarks in Ken Sharp: Writing for the King , pp. 20f.
  5. ^ Dave Marsh, The Heart of Rock and Soul , 1989, p. 540
  6. ↑ Ernst Jorgensen u. Peter Guralnick: Elvis Day by Day , p. 104
  7. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 472
  8. ^ Whitburn, Joel: The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits. 1944 - 2006. 2nd edition. New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 272
  9. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top 40 R&B and Hip-Hop Hits. 1942-2004. New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 464
  10. ^ Nugent, Stephen / Fowler, Anne / Fowler, Pete: Chart Log of American / British Top 20 Hits, 1955-1974. In: Gillett, Charlie / Frith, Simon (eds.): Rock File 4 . Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books, 1976, p. 277
  11. ^ Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit balance sheet. German chart singles 1956-1980. Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1990, p. 162
  12. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 110
  13. ↑ see Susan Doll: Elvis for Dummies, pp. 105ff
  14. ↑ Ernst Jorgensen u. Peter Guralnick: Elvis Day by Day, p. 112f
  15. ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955 - 2008, 12th edition 2009, p. 777
  16. ↑ Cover info about Jailhouse Rock