Wake Up Little Susie

"Wake Up Little Susie" is a popular song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and published in 1957.

The song is best known in a recording by The Everly Brothers, issued by Cadence Records as catalog number 1337. The song reached number one on the Billboard Pop chart and the Cash Box Best Selling Records chart, despite having been banned from Boston radio stations for lyrics that, at the time, were considered suggestive.^[1] "Wake Up Little Susie" also spent seven weeks atop the Billboard country chart^[2] and got to number two on the UK Singles Chart. The song was ranked at #311 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

In an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show during the 2000 U.S. presidential election, then-Governor George W. Bush named "Wake Up Little Susie" as his favorite song.^[3] According to filmmaker David Lynch, "Wake Up Little Susie" was the first single he ever bought.^[4]

Song premise

The song is written from the point of view of a high school boy to his girlfriend, Susie. In the song, the two go out on a date to a drive-in movie theater, only to fall asleep during the movie. They do not wake up until 4 o'clock in the morning, well after the 10 o'clock curfew. They then contemplate the reactions of her parents and their friends.

Although banned in such places as Boston, the song does not state that Susie and her boyfriend had sexual relations. Indeed, it strongly implies that they did not; the couple simply fell asleep because they were bored by the movie. One line in the lyrics states that the movie "wasn't so hot, it didn't have much of a plot. We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot."

Cover versions and parodies

• Joe Melson on the album Wake Up Little Susie
• Blue Suede Daddys
• In 2008, a part of the song was sung in the bluegrass version of The Raconteurs' "Old Enough", featuring Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe.
• The musical duo Evan and Jaron recorded a version of the song on their album, 52 Sundays.
• During Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends" tour in 2003-2004, they performed this song and others in a segment with the Everly Brothers, who toured in support. Simon and Garfunkel have cited the Everly Brothers as strong influences on their own music. Their live version of "Wake Up Little Susie," recorded in the duo's concert in New York's Central Park on September 19, 1981, reached #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, and is the duo's last Top 40 hit.
• The Grateful Dead played "Wake Up Little Susie" 13 times in their acoustic sets between February and November of 1970. ^[5]
• Brand New Rockers
• Count Dee's Music Explosion
• David Ross
• Frankie Lymon
• Golden Boys
• Loggins and Messina
• Sam Levine
• Stavely Makepeace
• Suzi Quatro
• The Booze Bros
• The Flying Burrito Brothers
• The King Brothers
• The Magic Time Travellers
• Outlaws
• The Rattles
• The Rockhouse Brothers
• ApologetiX parodied this song in their 2004 album, "Adam Up". The song was called, "Wake Up Talitha Cumi".
• Rockapella parodied this song in an episode of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? as "Look Out, Double Trouble".

References