THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

50-Eddie Cochran-C’mon Everybody.

1959-Number 6 single. When it was re-issued in 1988 it reached Number 14.

Best Bit-At 0.01. Teenagers must always have their own music that the previous generations will detest. Remember when a 75 year old tells a teenager that the music that they listen to is rubbish, they were told the same thing by someone 60 years earlier.

Eddie Cochran was born Ray Edward Cochran on October 3rd, 1938, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, United States, he was only 21 years old when he was killed in a car crash on April 17th, 1960. Eddie Cochran was on tour in the United Kingdom from January through until April 1960. He and his fellow performer Gene Vincent, (1935-1971) (see also best songs 757) had just finished performing at the ‘Bristol Hippodrome’ on April 16th, and were travelling along the ‘Bath Road’ in a taxi, with Cochran’s tour manager Patrick Tompkins, and Sharon Sheeley, (1940-2002) who was Cochran’s fiance. At about 11.50.pm, the taxi’s driver who was 19 year old George Martin lost control of the vehicle which crashed into a concrete lamppost at Rowden Hill in Chippenham. At the moment of impact, Cochran who was seated in the centre of the back seat threw himself over Sheeley to shield her. The force of the collision caused the left rear passenger door to open, and Cochran was ejected from the vehicle, sustaining a massive traumatic brain injury from blunt force trauma to the skull. The road was dry and the weather was good, but the vehicle was later determined to be travelling at an excessive speed. No other vehicle was involved in the incident. Sheeley suffered injuries to the back of her thigh, Vincent suffered a fractured collarbone, and severe injuries to his legs, and Tompkins sustained facial injuries, and a possible fracture of the base of the skull. The taxi driver Martin did not sustain any significant injuries. Eddie Cochran never regained consciousness, and died at 4.10.pm, the following day. For the discography of Eddie Cochran, see best songs 422.

‘C’mon Everybody’ was co-written by Eddie Cochran, and Jerry Capehart, (1928-1999) and produced by Cochran. Capehart who was also Eddie Cochran’s manager had previously written ‘Summertime Blues’ (1958) with Cochran, and had also provided Glen Campbell (1936-2017) (see also best songs 846 and 197) with his first hit single ‘Turn Around, Look at Me,’ a song he co-wrote with Campbell, that made Number 9 in Canada in 1961.

There are actually two studio recordings of ‘C’mon Everybody.’ When Cochran recorded his lead vocal for the song, he also created an alternate version of the track called ‘Let’s Get Together’. The only change to the lyrics was exactly that, the phrase ‘Let’s get together’ in place of ‘C’mon everybody’. This alternate version was eventually released on one of many compilation Album issued for Cochran in the 1960’s. Of the many cover versions of the song, perhaps the most notable is the one from The Sex Pistols, (see also best songs 576-92 and 27) who recorded the song for ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle,’ their 1979 Album, and film of the same name. When it was issued as a single it reached Number 3 in the UK in 1979. In 1988 following it’s use by ‘Levi Strauss & Co,’ in one of their television adverts, the Eddie Cochran version of ‘C’mon Everybody’ was re-issued and returned to the UK top 40, 29 years after it had first charted, this time reaching Number 14.

‘Well we’ll really have a party but we gotta put a guard outside. If the folks come home I’m afraid they’re gonna have my hide. They’ll be no more movies for a week or two, no more runnin’ round with the usual crew, who cares, c’mon everybody.’