| "Needles and Pins" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Jackie DeShannon | |
| Released | April 11, 1963 |
| Format | 7" single |
| Genre | Rock and roll, beat |
| Label | Liberty F-55563 |
| Writer(s) | Jack Nitzsche, Sonny Bono |
| "Needles and Pins" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Searchers | ||||
| B-side | "Saturday Night Out" | |||
| Released | January 7, 1964 [1](UK) | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Genre | Merseybeat | |||
| Length | 2:14 | |||
| Label | Pye 7N15594 (UK) Kapp 577 (USA) |
|||
| The Searchers singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
| "Needles and Pins" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Stevie Nicks | ||||
| from the album 'Pack Up the Plantation: Live!' | ||||
| Released | December 30, 1985 | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 2:23 | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Stevie Nicks singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"Needles and Pins" is a song written by Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono. In his autobiography, Bono states that he sang along with Nitzsche's guitar-playing, thus creating both the tune and the lyrics, being guided by the chord progressions.[2]
The song was originally recorded by Jackie DeShannon. Other hit versions of the song were recorded by The Searchers, Cher, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Stevie Nicks, Willie DeVille, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, Smokie and by the Ramones.
Contents |
The song was first recorded by Jackie DeShannon in 1963; in the US it peaked at #84 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in May of that year.[3] Though it was only a minor US hit, DeShannon's recording of the song topped the charts in English Canada, hitting number one on the CHUM Chart in early 1963.
| Chart (1963) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian CHUM Singles Chart | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 84 |
The Searchers heard British performer Cliff Bennett perform "Needles and Pins" at a club in Hamburg, Germany, and instantly wanted it to be their next single. The Pye Records single was released in January 1964. It was number one in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States. Soon after, in April 1964, "Needles and Pins" appeared on the Searchers' next album, It's the Searchers.
Audible during the Searchers' recording of "Needles and Pins" is a faulty bass drum pedal, which squeaks throughout the song. It is particularly noticeable during the opening of the number.
Part of The Searchers' version can be heard as the intro of the song "Use the Man" from American thrash metal band Megadeth.
| Chart (1964) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia Kent Music Report | 2 |
| French Singles Chart | 29 |
| German Singles Chart[4] | 8 |
| Irish Singles Chart[5] | 1 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 5 |
| UK Singles Chart[6] | 1 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 13 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart[7] | 8 |
| South African Singles Chart | 1 |
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their first live album in 1985, Pack Up the Plantation: Live!, on which singer-songwriter and vocalist Stevie Nicks performed "Needles and Pins" alongside Tom Petty at the Forum in Los Angeles, California.
| Chart (1985) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 37 |
| U.S. Billboard Album Rock Tracks | 17 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 85 |
| Preceded by "Glad All Over" by Dave Clark Five |
UK number-one single (The Searchers version) 30 January 1964 (3 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Diane" by The Bachelors |
|
||||||||||||||