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N0KFQ > TODAY 18.03.12 00:18l 47 Lines 2263 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 19235_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Mar 17
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<DB0RES<ON0AR<VK6HGR<ZL2BAU<GB7LDI<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120317/2251Z 19235@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.49
Mar 17, 1958:
The Champs' "Tequila" is the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts
Written on the spot and recorded as an afterthought near the end
of a session at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, the
song_"Tequila" _hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart on March 17,
1958. It was the Champs' one, and only, pop hit. Half a century
later, this accidental, one-word classic still sounds as fresh
and irresistible as it did to the long-forgotten Cleveland disk
jockey who rescued it from the cutout bin of history.
The reason "Tequila" needed rescuing is that it was never really
intended to be a hit. It was recorded rather hastily one
afternoon in December 1957 to fill the B-side of a single called
"Train to Nowhere," by Dave Burgess. Burgess was a minor
rockabilly guitarist in the Los Angeles area whose day job was as
an A&R man with Gene Autry's fledgling record label, Challenge.
After a session of laying down instrumental tracks for the
country singer Jerry Wallace's next album on Challenge, a frugal
Dave Burgess decided to use the leftover studio time to record
his own B-side. It was not uncommon at the time for B-sides to be
devised in the studio from some or other riff contributed by a
session musician, and this one would be no exception. Saxophonist
Danny Flores contributed the now-familiar melody and vaguely
Latin, syncopated rhythm. He also contributed the low, growling
vocal line, "Tequila," without which the song might truly have
remained the throwaway it was intended to be.
It was only after the "Tequila" session that the musicians
present that day came up with a name for themselves, inspired by
the name of Gene Autry's horse, Champion. It was also after that
session that Danny Flores came up with the pseudonym "Chuck Rio,"
under which he was given the songwriting credit on "Tequila."
None of this would have mattered, however, had a Cleveland DJ not
decided to "flip" the flop called "Train to Nowhere" one day in
the winter of 1958 and treat his listeners to the first broadcast
of "Tequila," which in short order went on to become one of the
biggest B-side hits in rock-and-roll history and a #1 hit for the
Champs on this day in 1958.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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