Wake Up Little Susie
Wake Up Little Susie is the title of hits of the Everly Brothers in 1957, which became the second million-seller of the singing duo.
Genesis
The real brothers stood for the first time on November 9, 1955 at the Country Mecca of Nashville in a recording studio. The recorded there 4 tracks remained unreleased. Only from the second recording session on March 1, 1957 Bye Bye Love was released as a single, could immediately be reached Rank One of the Country & Western charts and became the first million-seller of the singing duo with 1.3 million copies sold. The hit was also a massive crossover success, because he arrived at the same time also to number two on the pop charts.
Wake Up Little Susie leaned against the rhythm and chord progression of the previous hits Bye Bye Love. The text has been kept because of its allegedly obscene contents from the boss of the record label, Cadence Records, Archie Bleyer, risky. The song is portrayed as the protagonist of his girlfriend Susie morning wakes at 4 clock in the car, after both taking a - had viewed the film at the drive, now but outside the restricted hours ( 22.00 clock ) moving and feared for their reputation - boring. He was worried about how he will explain this to his parents and friends.
Despite the concerns of the song on August 15, 1957, included in the RCA Victor recording studios of Nashville in four takes. Were accompanied Everly Brothers by Chet Atkins ( guitar), Ray Edenton (guitar), Lightnin ' Chance ( bass guitar), Floyd Cramer ( piano) and Buddy Harman (drums). The session musicians were among a team of established musicians of country music, which was known as the Nashville A- team in professional circles. Producer was Archie Bleyer, who ultimately gave up his objections to publication.
The intro is dominated by the famous chord sequence F - C7 and was constructed around the common three chord blues related sequence I- IV-V as a two-bar form in I- III -IV III. It is played as a guitar riff ACADCA of the rhythm guitar as a quick jump over 1 ½ marks from the main to the subdominant chord IV. Wake Up Little Susie was recorded with two other titles, of which Maybe Tomorrow appeared as a B-side.
The song belongs to a series of top-selling hits of the Everly Brothers, who always had the same conceptual basis. Steel- string guitars playing a catchy riff, close harmony tenor voices singing with parallel thirds, pop instrumentation provided a broad market positioning, and the composers Boudleaux and Felice Bryant made their contribution to another hit.
Publication and success
Wake Up Little Susie / Maybe Tomorrow ( Cadence 1337) was published on September 2, 1957. It was found that Bleyers concerns were not entirely unjustified, because some radio stations do not let the song for airplay. However, this did not interfere with his tremendous sales success, because he sold to October 1958 a total of 1.8 million, over 2 million copies worldwide.
The crossover to the pop charts was easy, because the piece Rock & Roll uses chords and the instrumentation had slight pop structures. The single became the first number -one hit of the Everly Brothers in all American singles chart categories, as they reached the first rank of pop singles chart on 14 October 1957. She stood on rank one for 8 weeks in the country for four weeks in the pop and even a week in the Rhythm & Blues charts and received a BMI Award. In the UK it reached to number two on the charts.
Cover versions
From the least 14 cover versions, two are singled out. The Grateful Dead were on 13-14. February 1970 at the Fillmore East, whose recording was immortalized on the published on July 13, 1973 LP Bear's Choice. Then also a cover version of Wake Up Little Susie is included. Simon & Garfunkel, who called the Everly Brothers as their musical role model, gave on September 19, 1981 concert at New York's Central Park in front of over 500,000 visitors. The live album was released on 16 February 1982 a single release of Wake Up Little Susie thereof reached in April 1982 ranks 27 on the pop charts.