We interrupt our normal service to bring you the story of a single this week. It’s a diversion well worth taking as this is no ordinary tune.
It’s outstanding for all sorts of reasons not least of which is the fact that it is powered by some highly combustible dancefloor superfuel. It also might be the first example of ‘electronic’ music ever made.
The sound of Kraftwerk was a long way off when this was recorded in Kentucky in 1958 but music has a funny way of predicting the future, either by accident or design.
It’s often said about a good song that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The whole in this case is a slice of 1950s pop perfection, but there’s one part in particular that shakes the room and sets the twilight reeling.
The guitarist Chet Atkins was the producer. He had been riding on the crest of a wave in the mid-1950s and was given an A&R role at RCA Victor. Through this, he picked up on a saxophonist called Boots Randolph who had just released a couple of singles under the name Randy. Randolph’s writing partner James Rich was involved too. This tune was the fruits of their first studio session together.
Whichever genius among them had the idea of using morse code for the hook was onto something about a quarter of a century ahead of the curve. They weren’t waiting around for no chorus to get up on it with the dots and dashes either. It explodes into action with a burst of electronic bleeps. The pulses punctuate the rhythm and send the melody into space.
Almost 60 years, on it sounds ridiculously fresh. Rock’n’roll itself was in its infancy in 1958. The tectonic plates were shifting and all sorts of tremors were reverberating through music. The shock of the new was dynamite in their hands. Boom! The future sound of Berghain blows up at the local hop.
Messaged received loud and clear, baby.
