Wheels (music)

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Wheels is an originally instrumental piece of music from the field of pop music . The composer is the American Norman Petty . Due to a mix-up of the record company, the members of the band String-A-Longs Jimmy Torres and Richard Stephens were sometimes named as authors. In the version with the String-A-Longs, Wheels reached number three in the charts in the USA. With Billy Vaughn the title became a number one hit in Germany.

Emergence

The prehistory of the piece Wheels was chaotic. The rock 'n' roll band The Leen Teens and music producer Norman Petty were involved. In 1960 the band members Jimmy Torres and Richard Stephens composed a piece of music that they named Tell The World . It was supposed to be produced by Norman Petty in his studio, but shortly before that, lead singer Keith McCormack had to pass due to vocal difficulties. Then Petty had the idea of producing Tell The World as an instrumental with the rest of the group, which he had renamed String-A-Long without further ado. Petty's composition called Wheels was selected as the A-side for the planned single , while the title Tell The World should appear on the B-side .

For the release of the single the record company Warwick Records could be won. This made a mistake during the final production, in which the two pieces of music were mixed up, so that on the single No. 603, which was released in December 1960, Tell The World became Wheels , while Petty's composition appeared as Tell The World . To correct the mistake, a new number 603 was pressed, now with a new title on the B-side ( Am I Asking Too Much? ). The original version of Wheels now appeared on the A-side , but still with the incorrect author's name Torres-Stephens.

The real Torres Stephens title Tell The World appeared on the new single No. 606, but here too the composer was incorrectly stated as Norman Petty. This mess continued later with further releases of Wheels . While the London label in Great Britain attributed the String-a-Long version to Petty, London-Germany again named Torres-Stephens as the authors. In the Billy Vaughn version, Torres-Stephens were also named in the USA (label Dot), in Germany London named Petty as the composer. In 1964, all three authors agreed to split the royalties for Wheels evenly among themselves.

successes

This compromise had become urgently needed as Wheels had previously become a global success. In the USA, both the String-A-Longs and Billy Vaughn with Wheels made the Hot 100 of the leading music magazine Billbord . The majority of the record buyers opted for the String-A-Longs, which rose to third place and were noted for a total of 16 weeks. Their version has been sold millions of times and was awarded the gold record . Billy Vaughn's version was on the Hot 100 for eight weeks, but only reached number 28. Abroad, the successes were more evenly distributed: The String-A-Longs came in first in the Netherlands and came second in Canada and eleventh in Great Britain. Billy Vaughn had his greatest success in Germany, where his Wheels version became a number one hit and was also awarded the gold record there. In Italy too, Billy Vaughn was number one on the hit lists.

More cover versions

Given the success of the String-A-Longs and Billy Vaughn, international singles with cover versions came out soon after their releases . In Germany there were recordings with Jörgen Ingmann , the Playboys and the Hubert Wolf Sextet. The latter, published by the cheap label Bella Musica, achieved great success at the then only German-language music broadcaster, Radio Luxemburg . Benefiting from the fact that in the early 1960s only recordings by artists from the German-speaking area were presented in the local hit parade, Wheels was only available in the Hubert Wolf version. The title ranked first for ten weeks in 1961. The German music magazine Musikmarkt ignored Hubert Wolf, but listed the version of the Playboys (19th place). In the GDR , Wheels appeared on the Amiga label with guitarist Dieter Resch . In Great Britain two cover versions with Bud Ashton and Joe Loss became known. Joe Loss ' Cha-Cha version came in 19th in the New Musical Express . The American guitarist Leo Kottke released a version of the piece played on a 12-string guitar on his album Chewing Pine in 1975 .

In addition to the instrumental versions, there were also text versions in Europe. In Germany, Peter Kaegbein (Three White Birches) provided Wheels with a text, which he provided with the title "Four horses, one car". This sung version was published by Peter Steffen , the Continentals, the Vagabunden and the Trio Kolenka . Only Trio Kolenka, which was rated fourth in the music market, was able to prevail. With Dans le cœur de ma blonde, Jean Dréjac provided a French text that was sung by Georges Guétary and Marcel Amont , among others .

Singles discography

Instrumental

Interpreter Catalog no. specified composer released
String-A-Longs Warwick 603 Torres / Stephens USA 12/1960
Billy Vaughn Dot 16174 Torres / Stephens USA 12/1960
String-A-Longs London 9278 Petty UK 2/1961
String-A-Longs London 20382 Torres / Stephens D 3/1961
String-A-Longs London NL 9278 Petty NL 4/1961
Bud Ashton Embassy 436 Petty UK 1961
Joe Loss HMV 8725 Petty UK 11/1961
Jörgen Ingmann Metronome 1474 Petty D 3/1961
Playboys Polydor 24,494 Torres / Stephens D 3/1961
Hubert Wolf Sextet Bella Musica D 4/1961
Dieter Resch Amiga 50253 Petty GDR 1961

vocal

title Interpreter Catalog no. released
Four white horses, one car Peter Steffen Polydor 24 530 D 5/1961
Four white horses, one car Trio Kolenka Philips 345 299 D 5/1961
Huh-A-Hoh The Continentals Decca 19 211 D 6/1961
Four white horses, one car The vagabonds Columbia 21 885 D 6/1961
Dans le coeur de ma blonde Marcel Amont Polydor 66 574 F 1962

literature

  • Angelika and Lothar Binding: The Large Binding Single Catalog, Volume 2 . Self published in 1996.
  • Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit balance sheet German chart singles 1956–1980. Taurus Press 1987, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 .
  • Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit Guide US Chart Singles 1950–1963 , Taurus Press 1992, ISBN 3-922542-47-6 .
  • Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit Records British Chart Singles 1950-1965 Taurus Press 1995, ISBN 3-922542-32-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leo Kottke - Chewing Pine at Discogs (English)
  2. ↑ Die Continentals - Hüh-A-Hoh (Wheels) at Discogs (English)
  3. ↑ Die Vagabunden - Four molds, one car at Discogs (English)