Eddie Cochran – C’mon Everybody

Don’t be a square man… listen to Eddie Cochran and play backseat bingo. Well, I thought I would try some of the fifties phrases.

Eddie Cochran was one of the first rock star guitar players…he was ahead of his time.  He didn’t use his guitar as a prop like some did (cough cough Elvis)…he played it and played it well. He also worked as a session musician. He helped bring rock guitar along in more ways than just his playing. He was one of the first to modify his pickups and he did away with the wound G string on the guitar. He replaced it with an unwound string which made it easier to bend. Many future musicians were paying attention, sitting on the front row of his British tour.

His influence can be heard throughout rock and roll…It was because Paul McCartney knew the chords and words to “Twenty Flight Rock” that impressed John Lennon enough to ask Paul to become a member of the Quarrymen.

Eddie was popular, especially in the UK where they never forgot the 50s stars that started it all. C’mon Everybody peaked at #6 in the UK and #35 on the Billboard 100 in 1958.

During a British tour in 1960, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Sharon Sheeley (Eddie’s fiancé), and tour manager Pat Thompkins were in a taxi. They were leaving a show in Bristol, England to go to the London Airport…the taxi hit a lamp post and Eddie was thrown from the car and suffered a head injury and died in a hospital. He was only 21 years old. Gene Vincent received injuries to his already bad leg and walked with a limp after the crash. Eddie was the only one to die.

Sharon Sheeley was a songwriter. She wrote Ricky Nelson’s first hit “Poor Little Fool” and a couple of songs (Love Again and Cherished Memories) for Cochran.

I love the set of this video!

C’mon Everybody

Oh, well, c’mon everybody and let’s get together tonightI got some money in my jeans, and I’m really gonna spend it rightWell, I’ve been a doin’ my homework all the week longAnd now, the house is empty and the folks are goneOoh, c’mon everybody

Oh well, my baby’s number one, but I’m gonna dance with three or fourAnd then the house’ll be shakin’ from the bare feet a-slappin’ the floorWell, when you hear that music, you can’t sit stillIf your brother won’t rock, then your sister willOoh, c’mon everybody

Oh well, we’ll really have a party, but we gotta put a guard outsideIf the folks come home, I’m afraid they’re gonna have my hideThere’ll be no more movies for a week or twoNo more runnin’ ’round with the usual crewWho cares, c’mon everybody

…

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

23 thoughts on “Eddie Cochran – C’mon Everybody”

  2. I love that song, Max! You just can’t listen to it without moving, unless you’re dead! It’s just infectious. And, my goodness, yet another super-talented young artist who died in an accident. Now that you mentioned it, I do recall previously reading about it. And the fact that Gene Vincent was in that doomed taxi as well!

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    1. His music was awesome…I wonder why he wasn’t as big over here. The man could flat out play a guitar…yea I agree…that ending was terrible.

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  4. As many times as I have listened to this song I have never seen that video, absolutely brilliant. Another tragic loss to the music world and as you say he was an amazing guitar player and the voice to match. I loved Brian Setzer’s depiction of him in La Bamba as I thought of Setzer as Eddie Cochran incarnate. You reminded me about Sharon Seeley as well. A great songwriter and under utilized in the business I think. She is on my list of future blog subjects and you may already know about a CD released awhile back of her songs, recorded by the Wrecking Crew, some real gems on there.

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    1. I’m right with you…when I see Setzer I think of Cochran right away. His guitar playing was really ahead of his time…and the experiments he did foretold Hendrix and others.
      She was a great songwriter…I love Poor Little Fool by Nelson.

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    1. Scotty Moore was great…he lived near me and we would go by his house.
      To be fair though…Elvis wasn’t a bad rhythm guitar player at times.

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  6. I agree about that set – that was imaginative, especially for that era! Yep, another ‘what might have been’ kind of talent from the ’50s who was gone too soon through no fault of his own. You get to thinking the only safe way for those early rock stars to get around would be walking city to city. But no, they’d probably get run over by a bus doing so.

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  7. Great song, great singer, great loss. I guess the odds of getting hurt in those days when touring the big wide country from North South East to West and back again got greater and greater. In those days, no seatbelts, everyone smoked when gassing up the De Soto, the puddle-jumping piddly little Pipers and Cessna’s were poorly -if- maintained, safety regulations were just a gleam in Ralph Naders eye. In some ways it’s no wonder there were casualties.

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      1. Oh yeah; I mean, the 15 year olds of today ain’t gonna look at the Priuses of today and dream about tearing off in a cloud of smoking tyres on the way outta town and off to California in one of them.

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