Cover Me: Hang on Sloopy

Somewhat improbably, I find myself pulling into Greensboro, North Carolina on the first evening of a ten-day cross-country bus trip/publicity stunt for work (long story, not relevant), about an hour before Bruce Springsteen is due to take the stage at the Coliseum.

I manage to snag an entire row of late-breaking side-stage tickets and drag my co-workers (some fans, some newbies) to the show. I’m fully expecting a standard Working on a Dream show, but that’s fine by me–this is a “bonus” show, after all.

If you want to read my full account of that night, I wrote about it here. Suffice to say, I was blown away by the crowd and resolved on the spot to never miss a Greensboro show again.

But if you’d shown me the set list in advance, I would never have predicted that the high-energy highlight of the night would be a cover of The McCoys’ 1965 smash hit, “Hang On Sloopy.”

We weren’t even at the encore yet (in fact, we were smack dab in the middle of the main set) but the house lights were on, the crowd was on its feet, and the singalong was absolutely deafening–more than in any performance of “Born to Run” I’ve ever heard.

That performance of “Hang On Sloopy” remains one of the most electrifying moments I’ve ever experienced at a Springsteen concert.

And in retrospect, how could it not be?

“Hang On Sloopy” has all the elements of a monster hit: ridiculous hooks, a scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs chorus, and a beat that sweeps you up in it. No wonder it was a #1 hit for The McCoys in 1965.

Funny thing about that McCoys version, though–it actually used a backing track recorded by The Strangeloves.

The Strangeloves knew they had a hit on their hands, but their previous hit (“I Want Candy”) hadn’t yet finished its chart run. Rather than wait it out and risk being beaten to the punch by another band (The Dave Clark Five were preparing to record their own version), they recruited the lead singer of their opening act, Rick and the Raiders, to record new lead vocals. The resulting frankentrack was released under the name The McCoys, and the rest is history.

Well, except for the history. “Hang On Sloopy” actually started life as “My Girl Sloopy.” The Vibrations released the original version in 1964, and although largely forgotten in the wake of The McCoys’ chart-topping version, The Vibrations’ original actually was a hit too–it peaked at a respectable #26 on the pop chart and cracked the top ten on the R&B chart.

But it was The McCoys/Strangeloves version that most people remember today, and remember it they do–at least in Greensboro.

Bonus: Although that 2009 Greensboro performance was the first time Bruce performed “Hang On Sloopy” at an “official” concert, he’d actually played it fourteen years earlier on a whim when The Del Fuegos invited Bruce to the stage when he and Nils stopped by to see the band perform at a local club… in Greensboro.

But even that wasn’t Bruce’s first performance of “Hang On Sloopy.” For that, you’ve got to go back one year further, to the night of January 14, 1984 at the Patrix in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

John Eddie & The Frontstreet Runners were performing that night, and Bruce Springsteen was in the audience. Until he wasn’t.

John invited Bruce to the stage for the encores, and they ended up playing five songs together. They finished the night with an epic “Twist and Shout,” except at least half of the song was actually Bruce’s first known performance of “Hang On Sloopy.”

Here’s that loose, fun performance–“Hang On Sloopy” starts at about the 3:15 mark.

Hang On Sloopy
First performed: January 14, 1984 (New Brunswick, NJ)
Last performed: August 23, 2009 (Mansfield, MA)