One of my earliest musical memories was listening to a selection of 45 rpm singles brought home by my brother Alan in about 1959. Many of them were ex-jukebox copies from the coffee bar in Liphook. Although I may have taken artistic licence by describing them as "given away", they were certainly a lot cheaper than the six shillings and eightpence which you normally paid for 45s at the time. They were scratched and the sleeves were torn and they often didn't match the label of the single but I can still remember the sleeve and label designs and the smell of the hot vinyl when the record player had been continuously playing for a few hours. Also they had the centres punched out to fit the large spindle on the jukebox so we had to invest in a box of centre adapters.
This was, of course, three or four years before the Beatles and Rolling Stones appeared on the scene, sweeping all before them. The names I remember included Duane Eddy (who was a particular favourite of my brother's), Johnny and the Hurricanes, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and Cliff and the Shadows.
I've given the song a more modern treatment in the style of late-period Dire Straits but I couldn't resist trying to re-create Duane Eddy's signature guitar sound. Although purists may disapprove, I didn't use my Variax guitar to emulate the Gretsch 6120 which was the weapon of choice for both Eddie Cochran and Duane Eddy. It simply didn't sound right, so I used the Gibson ES335 setting instead which is one of my favourite Variax emulations. Also I couldn't reproduce the exact reverb setting used by the master of twang as he used a 2000 gallon empty water storage tank with a speaker at one end and a microphone at the other!
Once again I am indebted to Mark Thomas for suggesting several tweaks to my initial rough mix. One of the most important was to increase the level of reverb on the guitar solo until it sounded as if it had been recorded in a bathroom. As usual his instinct was spot-on.