| "I Hear You Knocking" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single bySmiley Lewis | ||||
| B-side | "Bumpity Bump" | |||
| Released | July 1955 (1955-07) | |||
| Recorded | 1955 | |||
| Studio | J&M,New Orleans,Louisiana | |||
| Genre | New Orleans R&B | |||
| Length | 2:23 | |||
| Label | Imperial | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Dave Bartholomew[1] | |||
| Producer(s) | Dave Bartholomew | |||
| Smiley Lewis singles chronology | ||||
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| Official audio | ||||
| "I Hear You Knocking" onYouTube | ||||
"I Hear You Knocking" (or "I Hear You Knockin'") is arhythm and blues song written by American musicianDave Bartholomew.New Orleans rhythm and blues singerSmiley Lewis first recorded the song in 1955. The lyrics tell of the return of a former lover who is rebuffed.
"I Hear You Knocking" reached number two on theBillboardR&B singles chart in 1955, making it Lewis's most popular and best-known song. Subsequently, numerous artists have recorded it, including Welsh singer and guitaristDave Edmunds, whose version reached number one in theUK Singles Chart for six weeks in 1970 and was in the top 10 in several other countries.
Several earlier blues andR&B songs use lyrics similar to "I Hear You Knocking".[2]James "Boodle It" Wiggins recorded an upbeat piano blues in 1928 titled "Keep A Knockin' An You Can't Get In"[3] which repeated the title in the lyrics. It was followed by songs that used similar phrases, including "You Can't Come In", by Bert M. Mays (1928);[4] "Keep On Knocking", byLil Johnson (1935); "Keep a Knocking", byMilton Brown & His Brownies (1936); and "Keep Knocking (But You Can't Come In)", byBob Wills and His Texas Playboys (1938).[5] None of these early singles listed a songwriter or composer.
However, when popularjump blues bandleaderLouis Jordan and hisTympany Five recorded the song as "Keep A-Knockin'" in 1939,[6] the single's credits listed "Mays-Bradford" (Bert Mays andPerry Bradford). In 1957,Little Richard recorded it with the songwriter listed as "R. Penniman", Richard's legal name, although Bert Mays andJ. Mayo Williams were later credited as songwriters.[2]
Beginning with his signing by the Los Angeles–basedImperial Records in 1950,Smiley Lewis was one of the main proponents of the emergingNew Orleans rhythm and blues style, along withFats Domino,Lloyd Price,Dave Bartholomew, andProfessor Longhair.
Smiley Lewis recorded "I Hear You Knocking" withDave Bartholomew's band atJ&M Studios in New Orleans, owned byCosimo Matassa. Bartholomew is listed as the producer and songwriter, along with Pearl King (a Bartholomew pseudonym; the maiden name of his wife). He claims that he wrote it "in the backseat of a car coming out of San Francisco".[7] "I Hear You Knocking" uses a modifiedtwelve-bar blues arrangement, in which the progression to the IV chord is repeated:[8]
| I | I | I | I7 | IV | IV | I | I7 | IV | IV | V | V |
It has been notated in 4/4 time in the key of C with a moderate tempo.[9] Instrumentally, the song is dominated by pianotriplets in the style of Fats Domino, played byHuey "Piano" Smith.[10] The lyrics echo some of the lines from the earlier songs:
You went away and left me long time ago
Now you're comin' back knockin' on my door
I hear you knockin', but you can't come in
I hear you knockin', go back where you been
"I Hear You Knocking" was released as a single by Imperial Records in 1955. It enteredBillboard's R&B charts[11] on September 3, where it spent eighteen weeks and reached number two.[12]
Also in 1955, actress and pop singerGale Storm recorded "I Hear You Knockin'" forDot Records. Hercover version reached number two on theBillboard Hot 100 singles chart,[12] number three on theCash Box Best-Selling Record chart and became agold record. Bartholomew believed her version "killed his [Lewis's] record";[7] blues researcher Bill Dahl added, "Storm swiped his [Lewis's] thunder for any crossover possibilities with her ludicrous whitewashed cover of the plaintive ballad."[13] The experience reportedly led Bartholomew to refer to Lewis as a "'bad luck singer', because he never sold more than 100,000 copies of his Imperial singles".[13] English singerJill Day also recorded the song in 1956, as didConnie Francis in 1959. In 1961, Bartholomew produced Fats Domino's remake of the song.[7]
| "I Hear You Knocking" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single byDave Edmunds | ||||
| B-side | "Black Bill" | |||
| Released | November 1970 (1970-11) | |||
| Recorded | 1970 | |||
| Studio | Rockfield,Monmouthshire, Wales | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:48 | |||
| Label | MAM | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Dave Bartholomew | |||
| Producer(s) | Dave Edmunds | |||
| Dave Edmunds singles chronology | ||||
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| Official Audio | ||||
| "I Hear You Knocking" onYouTube | ||||
Welsh singer and guitaristDave Edmunds recorded "I Hear You Knocking" in 1970 after originally planning to record "Let's Work Together" byWilbert Harrison, but finding it had been recorded byCanned Heat.[15] He recalled:
Then an album of Smiley Lewis was released onUnited Artists in Britain, and they played "I Hear You Knocking" on the radio in Britain while I was driving along. I thought, "hang on", the two songs have identical format. You could use the same backing track for both songs. It's just a simple 12-bar thing. So I thought, I'll do that.[15]
Edmunds recorded the song atRockfield Studios, nearMonmouth in Monmouthshire.[16] Whereas Lewis's original recording is a piano-driven R&B piece with a 12/8 shuffle feel, Edmunds' version features prominent guitar lines and a stripped-down, straight-quaver rock-and-roll approach.[17] He plays all the instruments (except possibly bass guitar) andAllMusic writerStephen Thomas Erlewine suggests that the song "has a mechanical rhythm and a weird, out-of-phase vocal that qualifies as an original interpretation".[18] Edmunds uses fills and a solo played onslide guitar, and during theinstrumental break he shouts out the names of several recording artists: "Fats Domino,Smiley Lewis,Chuck Berry,Huey Smith"[19]
The recording was the first single to be released onMAM Records. In November 1970, "I Hear You Knocking" reached number one in the UK, where it remained for six weeks,[20] and became aChristmas number one. In his famousLennon Remembers interview forRolling Stone,John Lennon commented, "Well, I always liked simple rock. There's a great one in England now, 'I Hear You Knocking'."[21] Lennon mentioned the song in the final interview he gave on December 8, 1980, calling it "One of the great records of all time."[22] It eventually sold over three million copies, and was awarded agold disc.[23] The single also placed in the top 10 in several other countries, including number four on the U.S.Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.[24] In 1972, the song was included on Edmunds' first solo albumRockpile.[18]
Edmunds performed the song, with theJools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, on the 2008Jools' Annual Hootenanny.[25][26]
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