He died way too young at the age of 21, but he left us with a string of rockabilly classics that would influence generations of artists to come.
Eddie Cochran’s biggest hit was “Summertime Blues,” a song Springsteen covered as far back as the Darkness Tour. But that’s not the only song of Cochran’s that Bruce covered.
On the evening of July 23, 1982, Bruce joined rockabilly band Stray Cats on guitar at The Fast Lane for a one-time-only cover of Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock.”
Cochran’s original performance of “Twenty Flight Rock” debuted in the 1956 movie The Girl Can’t Help It. Eddie was only eighteen at the time.
Cochran released “Twenty Flight Rock” as a single the following year, but it never became a hit.
That didn’t stop it from being an important, influential song, however:
On July 6, 1957, a fifteen-year-old Liverpool musician chose “Twenty Flight Rock” as his first song for his audition for a local band called The Quarrymen–and he played it so well that the young Paul McCartney was asked to join The Quarrymen by its leader, one John Lennon.
Twenty Flight Rock
First performed: July 23, 1982 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: July 23, 1982 (Asbury Park, NJ)
