TWENTY FLIGHT ROCK
EDDIE COCHRAN
EDDIE COCHRAN
Written by: Fairchild/Cochran
Recorded by: Eddie Cochran (1957)
Recorded by: Eddie Cochran (1957)
ASONG ABOUT THE TRIALS of having
a girlfriend who lives on the 20th
floor when the elevator breaks
down was clearly an American concept back in
the days when few British residential buildings
rose any higher than three floors. Written by
Nelda Fairchild, a prolific female songwriter
with whom Cochran shared the writing credits
for purely commercial reasons, ‘Twenty Flight
Rock’ is performed by him in the film The Girl
Can’t Help It. The young Paul McCartney found
the single particularly hard to obtain, but he duly
ordered it and when it finally arrived weeks later
(surely an inexplicable phenomenon to today’s
instant digital downloaders) he set about learning
a girlfriend who lives on the 20th
floor when the elevator breaks
down was clearly an American concept back in
the days when few British residential buildings
rose any higher than three floors. Written by
Nelda Fairchild, a prolific female songwriter
with whom Cochran shared the writing credits
for purely commercial reasons, ‘Twenty Flight
Rock’ is performed by him in the film The Girl
Can’t Help It. The young Paul McCartney found
the single particularly hard to obtain, but he duly
ordered it and when it finally arrived weeks later
(surely an inexplicable phenomenon to today’s
instant digital downloaders) he set about learning
the guitar part with enthusiasm. The short-lived
Cochran – dead at 22 in the Wiltshire car crash
that also injured Gene Vincent and Sharon Sheeley
– was a rockabilly-flavoured singer/guitarist from
Oklahoma (or possibly Minnesota – records
are vague) whose music was characterised by an
unusually rich, chopping rhythm guitar sound that
was a big influence on the Who’s Pete Townshend.
In a very short career he produced at least three
other memorable records (‘Summertime Blues’,
‘C’mon Everybody’ and ‘Three Steps To Heaven’).
His posthumous hit ‘Something Else’ (co-written
by Sheeley) also became a hit for Sid Vicious and
The Sex Pistols in 1979. But it was his ‘Twenty
Flight Rock’ that was to be Paul McCartney’s
passport into The Quarrymen. John Lennon
was clearly impressed by Paul’s ability to play
the song during an informal audition on July 6,
1957, the propitious day on which they first met
at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fête in
Liverpool. After a few days spent weighing up
the pros and cons of having someone in the group
who was as good as, if not better than him, John
invited Paul to become a Quarryman. McCartney
has drily noted that he thought Lennon was
impressed simply because he knew all the words.
Cochran – dead at 22 in the Wiltshire car crash
that also injured Gene Vincent and Sharon Sheeley
– was a rockabilly-flavoured singer/guitarist from
Oklahoma (or possibly Minnesota – records
are vague) whose music was characterised by an
unusually rich, chopping rhythm guitar sound that
was a big influence on the Who’s Pete Townshend.
In a very short career he produced at least three
other memorable records (‘Summertime Blues’,
‘C’mon Everybody’ and ‘Three Steps To Heaven’).
His posthumous hit ‘Something Else’ (co-written
by Sheeley) also became a hit for Sid Vicious and
The Sex Pistols in 1979. But it was his ‘Twenty
Flight Rock’ that was to be Paul McCartney’s
passport into The Quarrymen. John Lennon
was clearly impressed by Paul’s ability to play
the song during an informal audition on July 6,
1957, the propitious day on which they first met
at the Woolton Parish Church Garden Fête in
Liverpool. After a few days spent weighing up
the pros and cons of having someone in the group
who was as good as, if not better than him, John
invited Paul to become a Quarryman. McCartney
has drily noted that he thought Lennon was
impressed simply because he knew all the words.
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran had the looks and the moves buthardly needed them. A great guitarist and good
singer, he made records that sold themselves.
Cochran’s full guitar sound and teen-orientedlyrics meant most of his records had instant
appeal for young rock ’n’roll fans of the
mid-1950s. Paul McCartney was no exception.