Fact #103367
When:
Short story:
The
Drifters final Top Ten hit, Under The
Boardwalk, enters the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the USA.
Full article:
Kenny Young (co-composer) : My mother lived in Brooklyn right near Coney Island and I used to wander down there, literally Under The Boardwalk. It was a weekend sub-cutture hang-out place. There was all these things going on, there were people under blankets making out and having a great time, you could see through the cracks as girls?walked by. Being 'Under The Boardwalk' seemed like an obvious thing to write about, and I remember wondering why hadn't anybody thought of that before.
I was writing songs with Arty Resnick, who also wrote Yummy, Yummy, Yummy and Good Loving. We wrote Under The Boardwalk in the Brill Building, where we used to work out of the office of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, with Motown and Leiber and Stoller next door.
I had written a few things with Arty before mat but they weren't successful. This was to be our first major hit. Under The Boardwalk was written pretty quick one afternoon. We took the song to Jerry Wexler of Atlantic who took it to producer Bert Berns, who took it to The Drifters, who had a recording session booked.
The lead singer at the time was Rudi Lewis who had sung on all The Drifters' hits like On Broadway and Up On The Roof. However, the day the session was booked to do Under The Boardwalk, Rudi died - a terrible thing to happen. So we got the news that the session had been cancelled, and thought that was that.
However, Johnny Moore, who used to do backing vocals, was then brought in as new lead singer of The Drifters and he did the vocals with Under The Boardwalk as his first lead. It turned out great, and it just took off, like they did in those days - you put a record out, it gets played, and The Drifters would get plays automatically, they were?pretty big then.
I didn't play close attention in those days about records breaking in different territories or different states, but it was a big summer hit in July 1964.
There have been many cover versions, probably over 100, maybe more. The major ones were by The Rolling Stones, and Bruce Willis who did a version which made Number Two in the UK, along with I others by Tom Tom Club, Ricky Lee Jones, Bette Midler, Sam And Dave and many others. It's been good to us over the years - I'm glad ?my mother lived right near that boardwalk.
(source : not known)
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I was writing songs with Arty Resnick, who also wrote Yummy, Yummy, Yummy and Good Loving. We wrote Under The Boardwalk in the Brill Building, where we used to work out of the office of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, with Motown and Leiber and Stoller next door.
I had written a few things with Arty before mat but they weren't successful. This was to be our first major hit. Under The Boardwalk was written pretty quick one afternoon. We took the song to Jerry Wexler of Atlantic who took it to producer Bert Berns, who took it to The Drifters, who had a recording session booked.
The lead singer at the time was Rudi Lewis who had sung on all The Drifters' hits like On Broadway and Up On The Roof. However, the day the session was booked to do Under The Boardwalk, Rudi died - a terrible thing to happen. So we got the news that the session had been cancelled, and thought that was that.
However, Johnny Moore, who used to do backing vocals, was then brought in as new lead singer of The Drifters and he did the vocals with Under The Boardwalk as his first lead. It turned out great, and it just took off, like they did in those days - you put a record out, it gets played, and The Drifters would get plays automatically, they were?pretty big then.
I didn't play close attention in those days about records breaking in different territories or different states, but it was a big summer hit in July 1964.
There have been many cover versions, probably over 100, maybe more. The major ones were by The Rolling Stones, and Bruce Willis who did a version which made Number Two in the UK, along with I others by Tom Tom Club, Ricky Lee Jones, Bette Midler, Sam And Dave and many others. It's been good to us over the years - I'm glad ?my mother lived right near that boardwalk.
(source : not known)