Mystery Train
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Mystery Train" was a 1955 single recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee by Elvis Presley, his first #1 single in any of the Billboard charts, reaching #1 in the Country music chart.
Mystery Train was originally recorded for Sun Records by Little Junior's Blue Flames in 1953.
The song has lent its name to several other works:
- Mystery Train was the name of a TV series that documented Presley's early career while he was at Sun.
- Mystery Train is a 1989 dark comedy movie written and directed by indie film director Jim Jarmusch.
- Mystery Train is the title of a book (ISBN 0-452-27836-8) by Greil Marcus on the early history of rock and roll.
- Mystery Train has been covered by Bruce Springsteen on many occasions, most recently, during his 2006 Seeger Sessions Tour by combining Mystery Train's chorus with Cadillac Ranch from the 1980 The River (album).
In early December of 2005, the US Army initiated a probe on a video which first appeared on the Internet showing contractors in Iraq firing at civilians while Elvis' Mystery Train is being played in the background. The video purports to show the firing of automatic rifles shooting into traffic, causing civilian vehicles to swerve and crash on the dusty West Baghdad roads.