Remember (Walking in the Sand)

"Remember (Walking in the Sand)", also known as "Remember", is a song written by George "Shadow" Morton. It was originally recorded by the girl group The Shangri-Las, who had a top five hit with it in 1964. A cover by Aerosmith in 1980 was a minor hit. There have been many other versions of the song as well.

The Shangri-Las' version

Background

Morton was looking to break into the music business, and went to the Brill Building in New York City to see an old girlfriend, Ellie Greenwich, who had become a successful pop songwriter. Morton and Greenwich's writing partner, Jeff Barry, took a dislike to one another. Asked what he did for a living, Morton replied "I write songs", although he had never written one. When Barry asked him what kind, Morton retorted, "Hit songs!" Barry said he would love to hear one of Morton's tunes, and invited him to come back the following week with something.

Morton hired a teenage group from Queens, The Shangri-Las, to sing. Realizing that he did not have a song yet, he immediately wrote "Remember (Walking in the Sand)". There are several stories as to how it was written. One is that immediately upon his realization of not having a song, he stopped his car on the spot next to the ocean beach and there wrote the song. The song contains recurring seagulls-and-surf sound effects.^[2] He used The Shangri-Las on the demo, which he himself produced. (A not-yet-famous Billy Joel is said by Morton to have played the piano chords that open the song.) Jeff Barry was impressed and Red Bird Records picked up the song for release and signed Morton and The Shangri-Las to contracts. According to some accounts, the original version was nearly seven minutes long. In order to fit the AM radio format of the time, the song had to be cut in length, but rather than edit it, Morton simply faded it out after 2:10. In another version Morton presents the demo to various Red Bird staffers, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Artie Butler^[3] and others and they and some session musicians (including drummer Gary Chester^[4]) took the demo into the studio where it became, "a whole other record."^[5]

Reception

The song was released as the debut single by The Shangri-Las on Red Bird Records and became a number five hit on the Billboard Hot 100,^[6] and number nine on the Cashbox R&B chart.^[7] It also hit number fourteen on the UK Singles Chart, and became more successful in the UK when reissued on several occasions in the 1970s.

As noted above, Billy Joel, an unknown working as a session musician at the time, played piano on the original demo recording of the song and has playfully claimed that Morton failed to pay him his $67 union scale fee for the performance. The Shangri-Las' recording placed #395 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list in 2004. Billboard named the song #26 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.^[8]

In the early 1970s, Buddah Records released a "Radio Active Gold" oldies 45 containing an undubbed version of the demo (no echo or sound effects). This version is timed at 2:17, and the intro is the "Remember..." chorus without Mary Weiss' lead vocal. This version (the technical term for it is an underdub) first appeared on a 1969 Buddah compilation album entitled Incense and Oldies, along with an alternate version of "Give Him a Great Big Kiss".

Aerosmith version

Background

Aerosmith released a more rock oriented cover version of the song featuring uncredited backing vocals by Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las as a single in 1980. Released on Columbia Records it was taken from the group's sixth studio album Night in the Ruts and was also included on their Greatest Hits album. Aerosmith's cover was co-produced by Gary Lyons. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 67. It also peaked at number 29 on the Canadian RPM singles chart in March 1980.^[9]

Other versions

Other artists to release versions include:

• In 1965, the song was also covered by the New Zealand band Ray Columbus & the Invaders and released on the Australian Zodiac label. As they did not have access to sound effects of seagulls like the original, the guitar player improvised and scraped his guitar pick across the strings to make the sound of seagulls crying.
• In 1979, Louise Goffin issued a remake of the song and included it on her debut album, Kid Blue. That version also became popular, charting in the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100.
• Skeeter Davis also recorded a version.
• The Adult Net did a cover as a b-side to their 1986 single "Waking Up In The Sun".
• Mouth & MacNeal on the 1972 album How Do You Do?.
• The Nylons, from their 1997 album Perfect Fit.
• The Beach Boys on the 1992 album Summer in Paradise.
• The Go-Go's performed the song in their early days and a live version from 1981 is included on their 1994 album Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's.
• Little Jackie has covered the song in her live shows.
• Amy Winehouse would occasionally interpolate the chorus of the song into the bridge of her own song "Back to Black" during live performances.
• Guitarist John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed this song live with the band as a solo cover in 2004.
• Jens Lekman sampled this song on his song "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill".
• The Eden House covered it on the CD of their 2010 DVD-CD set The Looking Glass.
• Jeff Beck and Imelda May covered the song on the PBS special Jeff Beck Honors Les Paul.
• Hollie Cook covered the song on her self-titled debut album released in 2011.
• Club Dogo Italian rappers used the song in their song "Voi non siete come noi" from their 2010 album Che bello essere noi

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics