Summertime Blues (song)

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Summertime Blues is the title of a pop song and summer hit that was recorded by Eddie Cochran in 1958 and became a million seller .

History of origin

Label of the single Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran, US American pressing, 1958

Eddie Cochran was to take on the role of Elvis Presley at Liberty Records . The record boss Simon "Si" Waronker had a hard time with rock & roll music and initially made sure that Cochran's repertoire only contained lyrically smooth and polished rock songs. Cochran's first single "Sittin 'in the Balcony" was a characteristic example of this, because only the original by Johnny Dee (the composer of the song, John D. Loudermilk, was behind this pseudonym ) was a real rock song .

On March 28, 1958, Summertime Blues , Love Again and Lonely were created in Studio B of Gold Star Studios in Hollywood with the cast Earl Palmer (drums), Conrad "Guybo" Smith (bass), Cochran with his " Gretsch 6120" guitar ( Riffs between the lyrics and a blues shuffle underline the vocals) and clapping hands (probably Cochran's girlfriend Sharon Sheeley). The bass track in Summertime Blues was laid first, then came the repeating guitar riff and the echo-laden vocals. The Summertime Blues was composed by Capehart and Cochran in just 45 minutes the evening before the recording session in Jerry Capehart's apartment. It's about the worries of teenagers who are reprimanded at the end of a verse by an adult authority (portrayed as the bass voice of Cochran). The recordings produced by Jerry Capehart were critically analyzed by Waronker, and the label boss chose the sentimental ballad Love Again as the A-side. The 12-bar Summertime Blues was relegated to the B-side. Love Again / Summertime Blues was released as Liberty # 55144 on June 11, 1958 on the US record market.

The title only lasts a minute and 59 seconds and ends abruptly. On the vast majority of publications, however, the version that was hidden at the end can be found.

B-side success

Label of the first German pressing, 1959

The radio stations immediately favored the B-side with the song about hardship, misery and teenage frustration in summer and preferred it for airplay . The title relies on an infectious guitar riff and consists of just three chords. Only two months after publication on June 11, 1958, it made it to the American pop charts on August 4, 1958, where it reached eighth place. It was to remain Cochran's top hit parade placement. In Great Britain the song only reached number 18 in the charts. In Germany, the single appeared for the first time in June 1959 in the distribution of Teldec on the London label. The Summertime Blues developed as a constant sales title that eventually achieved million seller status. Capehart said: "There were a lot of summer hits, but none about the difficulties of summer". Only after the success of the song was Cochran given more freedom for his music and studio work.

Cover versions

The title received a BMI Award, BMI has registered 27 cover versions of it, and a total of 123 compositions are copyrighted for Capehart. The most prominent versions come from The Who , which recorded the title in the Advision recording studio in London for the first time on May 29, 1968 (and several times afterwards), and by Blue Cheer (January 1968). The latter slowed the tempo of the original in a way that was common with Vanilla Fudge's rock songs.

From the north German band Torfrock there is the Sommertied Blues (1991), a cover version with Low German lyrics. Similar to the original text, it is about a young man who prefers to go on a trip with a girl than to come to work in a warehouse. Lutz Kerschowski wrote a cover version with High German lyrics under the title Hot Summer in the GDR and sang it at concerts, including with Rio Reiser . It was only released in 1990 on the CD "Kerschowski & Blankenfelder Boogie Band". Other cover versions are by Bobby Vee (October 1961), Beach Boys (October 1962), T. Rex (October 1970), Ernst Schultz (1981), BAP ( Wo mer finally summer ; 1981), Alan Jackson's version of his 1994 Album Who I Am became a number 1 hit, Bruce Springsteen (July 31, 2008 live at Giants Stadium, New York) or James Taylor (September 2008).

The song was u. a. Used in 1980 in the movie Caddyshack and in the movies Troll (1986), Night on Earth (1991) and I shot Andy Warhol (1996). In March 2005, Q-Magazine chose the song at number 77 of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks . The Rolling Stone magazine chose the song at number 73 of the 500 best songs of all time .

Individual evidence

  1. in the booklet accompanying the CD "The 25th Anniversary Album", Adam Komorowski dates the recording date to March 28, 1958, while other sources assume May
  2. Bobby Cochran / Susan van Hecke, Three Steps to Heaven: The Eddie Cochran Story , 2003, p. 113.
  3. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 105.
  4. Jerry Capehart in Rolling Stone magazine, December 9, 2004
  5. Bobby Cochran / Susan van Hecke, Three Steps to Heaven: The Eddie Cochran Story , 2003, p. 110.
  6. Jerry Capehart ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , BMI entry @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / repertoire.bmi.com
  7. Hot Summer on riolyrics.de, accessed August 14, 2017.