Mystery Train

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For other uses, see Mystery Train (disambiguation).
"Mystery Train"
Single by Little Junior's Blue Flames
B-side "Love My Baby"
Released November 1953 (1953-11)
Format 10" 78 rpm & 7" 45 rpm record
Recorded September–October 1953 at Memphis Recording Service, Memphis, Tennessee
Genre Blues
Length 2:20
Label Sun 192
Writer(s) Junior Parker
Producer Sam Phillips

"Mystery Train" is a song recorded by American blues musician Junior Parker in 1953. Considered a blues standard,[1] Parker, billed as "Little Junior's Blue Flames", recorded the song for producer/Sun Records owner Sam Phillips and it was released on the Sun label. The song was written by Junior Parker (aka Herman Parker), with a credit later given to Phillips.[2]

One commentator noted "One of the mysteries about 'Mystery Train' was where the title came from; it was mentioned nowhere in the song".[2] The song uses lyrics similar to those found in the traditional American folk music group Carter Family's "Worried Man Blues", itself based on an old Celtic ballad,[1] and their biggest selling record of 1930:[3]

The train arrived sixteen coaches long
The train arrived sixteen coaches long
The girl I love is on that train and gone

Parker's lyrics include:

Train I ride sixteen coaches long
Train I ride sixteen coaches long
Well, that long black train carries my baby home

"Mystery Train" was the follow-up single to Junior Parker's 1953 number five Billboard R&B chart release "Feelin' Good" (Sun 187). Accompanying Parker (vocal) is his backup band the "Blue Flames", whose members at the time are believed to include:[2] Floyd Murphy (guitar);[4] William Johnson (piano); Kenneth Banks (bass); John Bowers (drums); and an unidentified tenor sax player.

Contents

[edit] Elvis Presley version

"Mystery Train"
Single by Elvis Presley
A-side "I Forgot to Remember to Forget"
Released August 1955 (1955-08)
Format 7" 45 rpm & 10" 78 rpm record
Recorded July 11, 1955 at
Memphis Recording Service, Memphis, Tennessee
Genre Rockabilly
Length 2:24
Label Sun 223
Writer(s) Junior Parker, Sam Phillips[5]

Elvis Presley's version of "Mystery Train" was first released on August 20, 1955 as the B-side of "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" (Sun 223). Presley's version would be ranked #77 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list in 2003.[6] It was again produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios, and featured Presley on vocals and rhythm guitar, Scotty Moore on lead guitar, and Bill Black on bass. Moore used a country lead break,[7] and toward the end of the record is an echo of the 1946 "Sixteen Tons" by Merle Travis.[8]

Victor released a pop version of the song by "The Turtles" with backing by the Winterhalter ork (Victor 6356) in December 1955. Billboard wrote that Presley's version had "cut a swath in the country field." Paired with "I Forgot to Remember to Forget", the record was in the Top 10 in Billboard's C&W listings.[9]

RCA Victor rereleased this recording, actually an edit of the original tape, in December 1955 (#47-6357) after acquiring it as part of a contract with Presley.[10] This edited version fades out at 2:24, while the original tape (and the very first Sun release) runs 3 minutes and 10 seconds. This version of the song peaked at # 11 on the national Billboard Country Chart.[11]

Although "Mystery Train" is now considered to be an "enduring classic", the flip side of this record "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" reached the Billboard National Country music chart #1 position by February 1956, remained there for 5 weeks, and stayed on the charts for 39 weeks.[12] The May 12, 1956 issue of Billboard listed "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" at the #1 "Country & Western" "Top Juke Box Hit Records" for the period Januarty-April 1956 with no mention of "Mystery Train".[13] It was the first recording to make Elvis Presley a national known country music star.[11][14]

Black, who had success with the Bill Black Combo, once said to a visitor to his house in Memphis, as he pointed to a framed 78rpm Sun Record of "Mystery Train" on the wall, "Now there was a record."[15]

Presley's version of the song was also ranked the third most acclaimed song of 1955, by Acclaimed Music.[16]

[edit] Influence

The song has lent its name to several other works:

[edit] Artists who have recorded the song

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. p. 463. ISBN 1557282528. 
  2. ^ a b c Escott, Colin (1990). Mystery Train (liner notes). Rounder Records. pp. 1–2. CD SS 38. 
  3. ^ "American Experience | The Carter Family: Will the Circle Be Unbroken". Pbs.org. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carterfamily/sfeature/sf_song_pop_03_qry.html. Retrieved 2010-11-29. 
  4. ^ Floyd Murphy is a brother of Matt "Guitar" Murphy. Dahl, Bill (1996). All Music Guide to the Blues. Miller Freeman Books. p. 197. ISBN 0879304243. 
  5. ^ Burke, Ken and Dan Griffin. The Blue Moon Boys - The Story of Elvis Presley's Band. Chicago Review Press, 2006. pg. 48. ISBN 1-55652-614-8
  6. ^ "Search Articles, Artists, Reviews, Videos, Music and Movies". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6595922/mystery_train. Retrieved 2010-11-29. 
  7. ^ Blue Moon Boys. page 48
  8. ^ Tosches, Nick. Country - the Twisted Roots of Rock 'n' Roll. DeCapo Press, 1985. pg 54. ISBN 0-306-80713-0
  9. ^ Billboard Dec 17, 1955. Reviews of New Pop Records. p 56, 61.
  10. ^ Presley, Elvis (RCS Artist Discography) samples and labels
  11. ^ a b Elvis Presley's Sun Recordings
  12. ^ The Blue Moon Boys - The Story of Elvis Presley's Band. Ken Burke and Dan Griffin. 2006. Chicago Review Press. page 46. ISBN 1-55652-614-8
  13. ^ Billboard May 12, 1956. page 56
  14. ^ Collins, Ace (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music's All-time Greatest: 100 Songs. New York: The Berkeley Publishing Group. pp. 94–96. ISBN 1-57297-072-3. 
  15. ^ The Blue Moon Boys - The Story of Elvis Presley's Band. Ken Burke and Dan Griffin. 2006. Chicago Review Press. page 152. ISBN 1-55652-614-8
  16. ^ "Acclaimed Music Top 3000 songs". 27 May 2009. http://www.acclaimedmusic.net. 
  17. ^ Plasketes, George (1997). Images of Elvis Presley in American Culture, 1977-1997: The Mystery Terrain. Haworth Press. pp. 247–254. ISBN 1560249102. http://books.google.com/books?id=ABTk3bzu0pgC. Retrieved 2009-05-20. 
  18. ^ KFAI Radio Without Boundaries | 90.3 Minneapolis | 106.7 St. Paul
  19. ^ Gray, Michael (2006). The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. New York-London: Continuum International. p. 127. ISBN 0-8264-6933-7. 
  20. ^ catalog and sound samples, www.theconnextion.com/artgreenhaw
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