1956 Archives – How Good It Is

Somehow I think I undersold it when I called “Blue Suede Shoes” a game-changer.

I think about stuff like this a lot when it comes to songs of this nature that I was too young to hear when it first came out: that opening drumbeat on “Like a Rolling Stone.” Grace Slick bursting out of the speakers on “Somebody to Love.” Dick Dale’s Mideast-inspired tones on “Misirlou”. And even the songs that maybe didn’t sound like anything especially new at first, but suddenly turned into a new experience, like “Whiter Shade of Pale” or “Smoke on the Water,” which turned into the most-sung riff of all time, at least until “Seven Nation Army” came along.

(Side Note: I have to admit, of the songs I’ve linked here, I’m actually a little surprised at how long ago I recorded those episodes.

But the fact remains that there are songs which, whether right away or just a little ways down the road, change the landscape of popular music. And “Blue Suede Shoes” was one of the first, “Rock Around the Clock” notwithstanding.

(Another side note: a couple of days ago I had to go out in the rain and got my sneakers wet, which was unfortunate because we had to go back out a short time later. Fortunately the rain had subsided but my shoes were still pretty damp. My wife reminded me that I own a pair of blue suede Rockports and maybe I should wear those, so I did. How about those, baby?)

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After this many episodes, it gives me a moment of “Huh, isn’t that interesting” when I start writing the post for an episode and discover that I haven’t covered a song from that particular year before. In this case, that year would be 1956.

In retrospect, that shouldn’t be a surprise, given that we’re reaching waaay back into the early days of the Pop music era. But it’s still a fun little statistic, regardless.

“In the Still of the Night” was originally “In the Still of the Nite,” partly because they didn’t want this song to be confused with a 1936 song written by Cole Porter and recorded several times over the years. The other reason is that it was a little bit of a trend to spell “Nite” like that. (See also The Dells’ “Oh What a Nite”.) Later on the spelling changed to the more conventional style, and you’d often see “(I’ll Remember)” tacked on. Why it’s “I’ll remember” and not “I remember”, I have no idea.

This wasn’t relevant to the broader story, but in 1986 Ronnie Milsap recorded a song called “Lost in the Fifties Tonight”, where he recounts some fond memories from listening to this song. As part of the chorus he actually sings a few bars of this song.  That song went to #1 on the Billboard Country Chart and earned Milsap a Grammy for Best Country Male Performance.

And finally, I didn’t promise this during the episode, but here’s the song from the Trivia Question (go listen to the episode first!):

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This link doesn’t have any actual video to it, but do a search and you’ll catch a lot of fun videos associated with the song. You won’t even mind hearing it repeatedly because it’s a genuine banger.

Click here for a transcript of this episode.

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The post 175: In the Still of the Night appeared first on How Good It Is.