Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

1957 : Jaihouse Rock - Elvis Presley

Having said that Elvis could easily have won last year, it didn't take him long to get it together and have another go, with slightly more success.  I actually don't mind most of Elvis's stuff and admire the way he has different eras which are nothing like each other, but somehow I still generally like them.  However, what I can never forgive him for is his films which were always shown on the telly during the summer holidays when I really wanted to be watching ANYTHING else - but fortunately this is the single and not the film.

And is there anyone out there that doesn't know this?  Over the age of X anyway - and it would be interesting to see at what value of X the awareness of Mr Presley drops off (I imagine my kids have very little idea who the man was).  Anyways, it's 2:35 of pure rock'n'roll baby - you can't fault the energy coming off this.

Wikipedia tells us it was written by Leiber & Stoller - those boys churned out the odd hit or two in their time.  It also tells us that it's in the Grammy Hall Of Fame, which somewhat impressed me until I checked out exactly how many records are in there - I gave up reading the list by the letter C.  But woah - what's this?!?  "Gender studies scholars cite the song for "its famous reference to homoerotics behind bars"" - really?!?

Number 47 said to number three
"You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see
I sure would be delighted with your company
Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me"

Yeah, I guess you can read it that way - I kinda knew the lyrics but just assumed they were a bit silly because, well, the song's a bit silly really.  But if people want to claim it's a breakthrough in queer representation in 50s rock'n'roll then I'm happy for them to do so (but I imagine others might not be so accepting).  Whatever it means, it's fair to say the song did well at the time - #1 in the US and the UK.  And then #1 again in the UK in 2005 (which I totally don't remember).  And it also got to #18 in '58, #42 in '71 and #44 in '77 - it's never been out of the charts!

The Wikipedia list of covers is very disappointing - Mötley Crüe and, errr, that's it!  My go-to backup of secondhandsongs.com gives us a much better selection - Cliff Richard, David Cassidy, ZZ Top, John Mellancamp, Shakin' Stevens (featuring Fumble, apparently), Freddie Starr, Chas'n'Dave, Queen and Fleetwood Mac.  And I'd have to say I'm positively terrified at the thought of even accidentally listening to some of them.

In terms of competition for the year's top spot, I suspect Elvis is up against a load more Elvis tracks - yup, "All Shook Up", "Teddy Bear" and "Too Much" (which I don't know) all featured in the US top 50 of the year.  The Everly Brothers "Bye Bye Love" and Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" are the other tracks that jump out at me as still relevant.  Looking on this side of the Atlantic, not a lot jumps out but "Reet Petite" must be up there because it got to #1 in '86 as well as #6 in '57 and Harry Belafonte's "Mary's Boy Child" would be up there if it wasn't for those pesky Boney M kids.  I'm also going to mention "Around The World" not because it was a contender but because there were three different versions of it in the charts at the same time - how mad is that?

I do feel that Elvis deserves to have either '56 or '57 (or maybe even '58 when we get there) so I'm happy to give this one to him - I'm not sure I'd have picked this song though and I do think there's a good argument for a more poppy element from The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly having more of a legacy.  But I suspect there are plenty who would argue strongly with such a viewpoint and I'm not going to go to war with anyone on such things (or, in fact, anything).  So well done to The King!

1956 - Because you're mine...
1958 - Our last rock'n'roll track