Twangy-twang-twang

Continuing my trip back through the 1959 album charts.

22/11/59 : Especially For You - Duane Eddy


I'm unable to read that album title without imagining Kylie & Jason singing it - hopefully this is better than that monstrosity.

Well, it starts with "Peter Gunn" so it's already better - it's a surprisingly decent track for the fifties! Overall, I didn't mind this at all because there's decent musicianship and variety across the album - I'm never going to listen to it again, but we've had many far, far worse albums in this decade. All in all, this was a pleasant surprise.

We're at #10 in the chart this week on his fifth week of a six week run, with it having peaked at #6 in its debut week. The top five this week were South Pacific, Cliff, Gigi, Russ Conway and Mario Lanza and we have a new entry for The Goon Show (#9) but still no named women. 

Wikipedia tells us this is his second album and unusual that it's not based around singles - and that's your lot. His entry is reasonably standard but does give us an unusual story - he loved that twang but one of his recording studios didn't have an echo chamber, so he went out and bought a 2000 gallon water tank to play in. As you do. I also learned that "Peter Gunn" was written by Henry Mancini and the piano riff on the original version was played by John Williams (better known for his film work these days). It's funny how my knowledge of this track has moved back in time - first from the Art Of Noise, then the Blues Brothers and Duane to finally get back to its roots.

"Customers also listened to" Johnny & The Hurricanes and The Ventures and apparently The Ventures are still going - obviously not with their original members, but the last one only left the group in '15. And Duane Eddy kept at it right up until he died last year - we're going to get another album from him later this year and after this I'm quite looking forward to it.

15/11/59 - Meh
29/11/59 - Surprisingly not dated

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