“20 Flight Rock”: An overview

“20 Flight Rock”: An overview

By Jonathan Weigl

In this book, I’m going to provide information and analyze the song “20 Flight Rock” originally written by Eddie Cochran and Ned Fairchild. In addition, I will try to explain what makes it unique, popular, and memorable.

“20 Flight Rock” is a classic, well-known Rock and Roll tune that was originally written for the 1956 comedy film “The Girl Can’t Help It”. In 1957, it was released as a single co-credited to Cochran and Fairchild. The song was mainly performed by the popular 50’s Rock and Roll musician Eddie Cochran who played on the guitar and sang lead vocals on the record.

Here is the song, along with the lyrics.

THE SONG:

THE LYRICS:

“20 FLIGHT ROCK”

A bit of history about the two co-writers of “20 Flight Rock”:

Eddie Cochran was an American Rock and Roll artist and performer born in Minnesota, United States in 1938. As a child and a young teenager, he became interested in music he heard on the radio and learned how to play the guitar. He dropped out of high school to become a professional musician and around that time he met Hank Cochran. Although they were not related, they recorded as the “Cochran Brothers” and began performing together. They recorded a few singles for Ekko Records and enjoyed moderate success in the early-mid 50’s. Eddie Cochran went on to work alone as a solo artist and as a session musician.

Eddie Cochran’s appearance in the 1956’s film “The Girl Can’t Help It”, where he sang “20 Flight Rock” for the first time, made him famous and well-known throughout the States. Soon after the release of “20 Flight Rock”, he made a recording contract with Liberty Records company. He was notably one of the first Rock and Roll musicians who wrote a lot of his own material. His 1958’s hit “Summertime Blues” (co-written with Jerry Capehart) also became one of his famous tracks.

SUMMERTIME BLUES:

Cochran’s only studio album released in his lifetime “Singin’ to my Baby” was published in 1957. Tragically, Eddie Cochran died prematurely in a car accident in Britain in 1960. He was only 21 years old. Throughout his short career, he enjoyed tremendous success and one could only imagine what a career he might’ve had had he not died so young. It will be a crime not to mention here another Rock and Roll superstar of the 50’s, Buddy Holly, who also died prematurely in an airplane crush in 1959. Eddie Cochran knew Buddy Holly and was badly shaken by his death. As mentioned, tragically, Eddie Cochran’s death soon followed.

Nelda Fairchild (1929-2015) was a female American songwriter that used the pen name “Ned Fairchild”. She is best known for her work on “20 Flight Rock” which was co-credited to her and to Eddie Cochran. Her contribution to the song was mainly to the lyrics and to its basic structure, while Eddie Cochran’s contributed mainly to the music and to the arrangement of the song.

The Connection to The Beatles:

The 1956’s film “The Girl Can’t Help It”, in which “20 Flight rock” was performed, had a major influence on Rock and Roll. The film reached Liverpool, England in the early summer of 1957. The cameo performances of early Rock and Roll artists such as Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent in the film, fascinated a 16-year-old John Lennon. “20 Flight Rock” was famously the song that convinced the young John Lennon to accept teenager Paul McCartney into his first band in Liverpool in the late 50’s. Paul McCartney often mentions in interviews (for example, in the Beatles Anthology film) the fact that Lennon was impressed because he (McCartney) knew all the chords and lyrics of the song. So, interestingly, one could say that “20 Flight Rock” contributed to the formation of the legendary Lennon/McCartney partnership and the Beatles!

See here Paul McCartney himself talking about it and playing the song:

What makes the song “20 Flight Rock” well known and memorable even so many years after it was written?

In this segment I will refer to several aspects and criteria that makes a great song, as was discussed in the popular music of the 20^th century course throughout the semester. It goes without saying that the very question itself, aka what makes a great song or even what a great song is, is complicated, and there are no clear-cut answers. In our course throughout the semester, we have created a list of criteria that makes a great song, as suggested by experts in books, and by the students.

I will mention here a few of those criteria and demonstrate how they exist in “20 Flight Rock”.

1. Danceability

That is probably the easiest criteria to identify in the song. The song is a pure Rock and Roll tune, and it is known that people love to dance to Rock and Roll. Not only the people, but also the artists themselves developed a certain way to move on stage while singing Rock and Roll. From Elvis to Chuck Berry, to Eddie Cochran, Almost every Rock and Roll performer moves in a unique way while singing, and that surely influences the people that listen to the artists and the tunes.

FAMOUS CHUCK BERRY DUCK WALK:

2. Hooks & Rhymes

I find two hooks in the song that captures the listener’s attention:

# A musical hook – the song contains a simple guitar riff that repeats throughout the verse, which consists of notes from three simple major disassembled chords, following a familiar progression.

# A lyrical hook – The Chorus of the song is very repetitive:

“So I’ll walk one, two flight, three flight, four/

Five, six, seven flight, eight flight, more/

Up on the twelfth I’m startin’ to drag/

Fifteenth floor I’m a-ready to sag/

Get to the top, I’m too tired to rock“

As demonstrated in the previous page, the word “flight” is repeated four times in a few seconds. Also, as demonstrated in colours in the previous page, the rhyming is preserved pretty much throughout the song, and that contributes to the catchiness of the song.

3. Similar but different, Musical Structure

The song has a lot of familiar aspects which helps the listener identify with it, but still has some uniqueness and is not too familiar and boring.

The structure of the song is a simple 12 bar blues structure that is present in many of the Rock and Roll tunes of the 50’s.

Still, I think the song has some uniqueness, for example in the strained, tight voice of the singer, the funny lyrics, the sudden pauses in the middle of the song and so on.

4. Story & empathy for the main        character in the song

The song definitely has a story, an amusing one.

It’s not a complicated story, the lyrics are pretty simple and straight forward, but they still make a great, funny story.

The story is about a guy who has a girlfriend that lives in the 20^th floor, but the elevator in her building is broken, so the guy has to walk up the stairs to her flat. When he finally reaches her apartment, the guy is too tired to “rock”. It’s a simple story, but it is an amusing one, and it’s easy to relate too. Notice the rather grim lyrics in the final verse:

“…Hope they hurry up before it’s too late (Here the singer wishes that the builders will fix the elevator quickly)

Want my baby too much to wait

All this climbin’ is a-gettin’ me down

They’ll find my corpse draped over a rail “

In addition to that, as mentioned above, the song was first performed in a 1956 comedy movie, which further provides context to it. Interestingly, as it sometimes happens, the song became much more famous than the movie it was featured in.

5. Authenticity & Humanness

Although Eddie Cochran’s singing style is similar to that of many Rock and Roll singers, I think that there is a unique authenticity and humanness in it. That is for the simple reason that unlike many artists at the time, Cochran sang mostly his own material, or material that was co-written by him and other artists. As mentioned, “20 Flight Rock” is co-written by Cochran, and that alone must have brought authenticity to it.

To sum up this short analysis, I think that “20 Flight Rock” is a great song, and it surely has a place in the history of popular music, as demonstrated in this overview.