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| "Twenty Flight Rock" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byEddie Cochran | ||||
| B-side | "Cradle Baby" | |||
| Released | November 1957[1] | |||
| Studio | Gold Star, Hollywood | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll,rockabilly | |||
| Length | 1:42 | |||
| Label | Liberty | |||
| Songwriters | Eddie Cochran Ned Fairchild | |||
| Producer | Simon Jackson | |||
| Eddie Cochran singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Official audio | ||||
| "Twenty Flight Rock" onYouTube | ||||
"Twenty Flight Rock" is a song originally performed byEddie Cochran in the 1956 film comedyThe Girl Can't Help It, and released as a single the following year. The song was published in 1957 as written byNed Fairchild and Eddie Cochran, by American Music Incorporated and Campbell, Connelly and Company.[2][3][4] Cochran's contribution was primarily on the music. His version isrockabilly-flavored, but artists of a variety ofgenres have covered the song.
The first version of "Twenty Flight Rock" was recorded by Cochran in July 1956 atGold Star Studios, with Connie Smith on the bull fiddle and Jerry Capehart thumping a soup carton. Cochran re-recorded the song sometime between May and August 1957. This later version was released in the United States (Liberty 55112) with "Cradle Baby" as aflipside. It was a moderate seller, but was more popular in Europe and had steady sales for a long period. The song is from the point of view of a man whose girlfriend lives on the twentieth floor of a high-rise apartment building with a broken elevator, forcing him to climb the stairs (exhausting himself) to reach her.
The song follows thetwelve-bar blues format, using the device of counting upwards ("One flight, two flight, three flight, four/five, six, seven flight, eight flight, more") in therefrain in a manner similar to "Rock Around the Clock". The final verse ends on a surprisingly morbid note compared to otherpop songs of the time: "All this climbin' is a-gettin' me down. They'll find my corpse draped over a rail."
The barely 15-year-oldPaul McCartney used "Twenty Flight Rock" as his first song when he auditioned forJohn Lennon on July 6, 1957, inLiverpool, England. The 16-year-old Lennon, introduced that day to McCartney at St. Peter's Church Hall prior to a church garden fete, was impressed by his new acquaintance's ability to play the song on the guitar.[5] The good first impression of McCartney's performance led to an invitation to jointhe Quarrymen—Lennon's band that would eventually evolve intothe Beatles. OnThe Beatles Anthology, McCartney noted that: "I think what impressed him most was that I knew all the words."
Cochran appeared in the filmThe Girl Can't Help It performing "Twenty Flight Rock" as a tongue-in-cheek example of the supposed lack of classically trained vocal ability required to perform rock and roll. The guitar solo was edited out in the movie. The song also featured in the filmThe Delinquents (1989).
