TODAY, SEPTEMBER 28, marks a special date for two memorable songs that never reached number one on the pop singles charts. On Sept. 29, 1958, nineteen-year-old Eddie Cochrane’s “Summertime Blues” peaked at number eight; exactly four years later, Booker T. and the MGs hit their highest mark, number three, with “Green Onions.”
Co-written by Cochran, “Summertime Blues” tells a rocking, funny tale of a frustrated kid who gets no help for his problems because he’s “too young too vote.” Blue Cheer, The Who, Rush, and country singer Alan Jackson (as well as Olivia Newton-John and Alvin and the Chipmunks) have recorded versions of “Summertime Blues.”
An early innovator, Cochran overdubbed his guitar work in the studio to create a unique sound on the record, which Rolling Stone ranked 73rd on its 2004 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
Less than two years later, Cochran died in an auto crash in England.
“GREEN ONIONS” BEGAN as a “little ditty I’d been playing on piano, except I switched to Hammond M3 organ,” Booker T. Jones told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland in 2012. Guitarist Steve Cropper said the song came together during a jingle session. He told Rolling Stone that he thought at the time, “This is the best damn instrumental I’ve heard since I don’t know when.”
Booker T and the MG’s in 1971 with (left to right) Steve Cropper, Booker T Jones, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Al Jackson.
Jones was just seventeen when “Green Onions” was recorded.
“Why did they call the song “Green Onions?” “We were trying to think of something that was as funky as possible,” Cropper said.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked “Green Onions” number 183 on its 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The four-man Memphis-based band had been named the MGs after a spur-of-the-moment suggestion from drummer Al Jackson. Jones told National Public Radio in 2003 that Jackson looked around one day, saw an MG sports car, and said, “Why don’t we call (the band) Booker T. and the, uh … MG’s?”
Later, the band called the MG car company, seeing if they would agree to be a sponsor. “They wouldn’t do it,” Jones said. “So we decided that it would be Booker T. and the Memphis Group, the MG’s.”
The MG’s released several other food-titled songs in the 1960s, including “Jelly Bread” (1963), “Mo Onions” (1963), and “My Sweet Potato” (1966). None sold nearly as well as the original “Green Onions.”
ON THIS DATE in 1958, eighteen-year-old Sharon Sheeley became the youngest woman to have written a number-one hit song when Ricky Nelson, also eighteen, topped the first-ever Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Poor Little Fool.”
Sheeley later co-wrote “Somethin’ Else” for boyfriend Eddie Cochran, most famous for 1958’s “Summertime Blues.” In April of 1960, a taxi carrying Sheeley, Cochran, and Gene Vincent (“Be-Bop-a-Lulu”) blew a tire and crashed into a lamppost in England. Sheeley and Vincent survived but Cochran, twenty-one, was killed.
Sheeley wrote several other songs in tandem with Jackie DeShannon that were covered by Brenda Lee, the Fleetwoods, and The Searchers.
POSTING ABOUT early rock songwriters Leiber and Stoller yesterday got me thinking about other teenage pop music composers. Are these the best songs pre-twenty-year-olds have ever written? You decide.
1. “Summertime Blues.” Eddie Cochran, co-writer (19), 1958
The tune about a frustrated kid who is “too young too vote” was ranked 73rd by Rolling Stone on its 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Blue Cheer, The Who, and country singer Alan Jackson have covered the song. Also, Olivia Newton-John and Alvin and the Chipmunks.
2. “Hound Dog.” Leiber and Stoller (both 19), 1952
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller preferred the Big Mama Thornton version of this tune over the Elvis Presley recording, and one can see why. Big Mama performed it with a thunderous fury. Elvis or his handlers changed some of the lyrics, which made it kind of silly. What does “you never caught a rabbit” signify?
3. “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.” Jimmy Merchant (16) and Frankie Lymon (13), co-writers, 1956.
Teenagers, naturally, should have written the biggest hit song for a group known as Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. There’s been dispute over who should be credited with the tune, although most stories say it started as something written by Jimmy Merchant, the band’s second tenor. The song was originally titled, “Why Do Birds Sing So Gay.” A 1998 movie about Frankie Lymon was titled Why Do Fools Fall in Love and starred Halle Berry, Vivica Fox, and Lela Rochon as the singer’s wives.
4. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.” Carole King, co-writer (18), 1960
The Shirelles had a number-one smash with this slightly risqué song — the singer wonders what will follow a night of sex. King was working as a secretary and Gerry Goffin, her songwriting partner and future husband, was employed as a chemist when publisher Don Kirshner gave them both a $10,000 advance for what became their first hit song.
5. “ By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” Jimmy Webb, 1965.
An Oklahoma native, Webb has said he was seventeen when he wrote “Up, Up and Away,” a huge hit for The Fifth Dimension, and seventeen or eighteen when he wrote “By The Time I Get to Phoenix,” which Glen Campbell recorded in 1967. Those two songs combined for eight Grammy awards in 1968. Webb also wrote the Campbell hits “Galveston” and “Wichita Lineman” as well as “MacArthur Park,” a number-two hit for actor-singer Richard Harris in 1968 and a three-week chart-topper for Donna Summer in 1978.
6. “Please Mr. Postman.” Georgia Dobbins, co-writer (16), 1961.
“De-liver de let-ter, de sooner de better,” sang Gladys Horton on “Please Mr. Postman,” a song that made the Marvelettes, briefly, Motown’s top girl group. Originally written by William Garrett, “Please Mr. Postman” was rewritten by Dobbins, who soon left the group. Horton and Dobbins were two of five friends from a Detroit-area high school who formed a group that they originally called the Casinyets, a contraction of “Can’t Sing Yets.” In December of 1961, “Please Mr. Postman” became the first of 55 Motown singles to reach number one on the Billboard singles chart.
7. “Walk Away Renee.” Michael Brown (17), 1966.
A blurry vocal quality to this hit by the Left Banke has made some listeners think the singer is saying, “Don’t walk away, Renee, / You won’t see me in my U.F.O.” (the second part is actually, “You won’t see me follow you back home”). The song was inspired by Brown’s infatuation for Renee Fladen, girlfriend of the band’s bassist, Tom Finn.
8. “I Was Made to Love Her.” Stevie Wonder, co-writer (16), 1967
This song begins with “I was born in Little Rock,” although some insist that Wonder is really singing, “I was bored and learned Bach.” Wonder has said that this song “kind of speaks of my first love to a girl named Angie.” One of the co-writers, Sylvia Moy, is thought to be responsible for most or all of the lyrics. She said it was inspired from stories she heard from her parents, which explains the “I was born in Little Rock” line — her mother was from Arkansas.
9. “ Come Go With Me.” Clarence Quick (19), 1956.
This song, which cracked Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, became a hit for the Del-Vikings, an integrated doo-wop group that included Quick as bass vocalist. It has appeared in several films, includingAmerican Graffiti (1973), Diner(1982), and Stand by Me(1986).
10. “ My Prerogative.” Bobby Brown, co-writer (19), 1988
“Everybody’s talkin’ all this stuff about me / Why don’t they just let me live?” Brown asks in “My Prerogative,” a number-one single from his Don’t Be Cruel album. The song is supposedly a response to the criticism he received for leaving the group New Edition. Britney Spears had a huge hit with her 2004 cover of the song.
11. “ Kansas City.” Leiber and Stoller (19), 1952
It took awhile for “Kansas City,” a song about a city with “a crazy way of lovin’,” to catch on. R&B singer Little Willie Littlefield recorded a version titled “K.C. Lovin’” in 1952 that didn’t do much. Seven years later, Wilbert Harrison changed “crazy way of lovin’” to “crazy little women” and had a number-one hit. There have been more than 300 versions of this song, including recordings by The Beatles, James Brown, Muddy Waters, Brenda Lee, and Tom Jones.
12. “Gloria.” Van Morrison (18), 1963
Humorist Dave Barry wrote a partially tongue-in-cheek column in 2014 calling this “one of the greatest works of music ever written” because it’s easy to play and “has excellent lyrics.” The song spells out the girl’s name — “G-L-O-R-I-A” — and measures her as “just about 5 feet 4, from her head to the ground.” An easy song to mock, it’s also an easy one to love.
13. “Stay.” Maurice Williams (15), 1953
Seven years after he wrote it, “Stay” became a hit for Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs. Williams said he wrote it after trying to convince a date to stay with him past her 10 p.m. curfew. At one minute and thirty-seven seconds, “Stay” is the briefest number-one single in Billboard history.
Those who’ve seen Silver Linings Playbook (2012) may forever associated “My Cherie Amour” with the Bradley Cooper character, who hears it at a doctor’s office and yells, “Is that song really playing?” Turns out, “My Cheri Amour” had accompanied his mental breakdown. A song with the simplest of choruses — “La la la la la la, / La la la la la la” — was first recorded two years before its 1969 release.
15. “ Complicated.” Avril Lavigne, co-writer (17), 2002
“I write my own songs,” Lavigne told USA Today the year she recorded “Complicated,” “and when I’m in front of a camera, I don’t try to act like something or someone I’m not.” That “be yourself” stance is the central message to her first hit single, which rails against someone “acting like you’re somebody else.” The song from her debut album Let Go, “Complicated” was nominated for two Grammy awards and brought Avril a Video Music Award for Best New Artist in a Video.
16. “And When I Die.” Laura Nyro (18), 1966.
One of the finest songwriters of her generation, Nyro wrote this tune and “Wedding Bell Blues” around the same time, with both songs flying up the charts in 1969 — “And When I Die” reached number two for Blood, Sweat and Tears and The 5th Dimension’s version of “Wedding Bell Blues” topped the chart for three weeks. She also wrote “Stone Cold Picnic” and “Eli’s Coming,” late-1960s hits for The 5th Dimension and Three Dog Night.
17. “ Poor Little Fool.” Sharon Sheeley (18), 1958.
Poor Little Fool” became the first number-one hit for eighteen-year-old Ricky Nelson and the first chart topper of the Billboard Hot 100 era. Sheeley, known for being Eddie Cochrane’s girlfriend when the rocker died in a 1960 taxi crash in England, is the youngest woman to write a number-one hit.
18. “Wuthering Heights.” Kate Bush (18), 1977.
If you’re an American, you’re probably thinking, “Huh?” This song, based on the Emily Bronte classic (duh!), was a number-one smash in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, but didn’t chart in the U.S. or Canada. It was the first number-one song in the UK written and performed by a female artist.
19. “Angel Baby.” Rosie Hamlin (14), 1959.
Hamlin has said this song started out as a poem for her first boyfriend. A year later, she recorded it with a band that called itself Rosie and the Originals. John Lennon in 1969 called Hamlin one of his favorite singers and recorded “Angel Baby” in 1973. The Originals version peaked at number five on the Billboard singles chart.
20. “Diana.” Paul Anka (15), 1957.
Not everyone loves this tune, written about a slightly older girl named Diana Ayoub, but it sure did sell a lot of records. Paul began “Diana” with the lines “I’m so young
and you’re so old,” sang it “at parties, at the choir, and in stage productions,” and decided, “Dammit, I like this thing.” Released shortly before his sixteenth birthday, “Diana” shot to the top of the U.S. singles charts on September 9, 1957, and spent nine weeks at number one in the U.K.
ON THIS DAY IN TEENAGE HISTORY (1958), nineteen-year-old Eddie Cochran peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with his single, “Summertime Blues.” Co-written by Cochran, the tune about a frustrated kid who gets no help because he’s “too young too vote” has been covered by Blue Cheer, The Who, and country singer Alan Jackson (as well as Olivia Newton-John and Alvin and the Chipmunks). An early innovator, Cochran overdubbed his guitar work in the studio to create a unique sound on the record, which Rolling Stone ranked 73rd on its 2004 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” Two years later, Cochran died in an auto crash in England.
TODAY, SEPTEMBER 28, marks a special date for two memorable songs that never reached number one on the pop singles charts. On Sept. 29, 1958, nineteen-year-old Eddie Cochrane’s “Summertime Blues” peaked at number eight; exactly four years later, Booker T. and the MGs hit their highest mark, number three, with “Green Onions.”
BEST TEENAGERS EVER 