Released August 21, 1961 Length 2:18 Writer(s) Kal Mann, Dave Appell | Genre Doo Wop Label Parkway Records 31348 | |
B-side "Letters of Love" (original releases)
"Out in the Cold Again" (later releases) | ||
"Bristol Stomp" is a song written in 1961 by Kal Mann and Dave Appell, two executives with the Cameo-Parkway record label, for The Dovells, an a cappella singing group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who recorded the song for Cameo-Parkway late that year. It was originally recorded by a group from Bristol, Pennsylvania, Terry and the Appeljacks (Terry Appel was the son of Dave Appel). The recording by Terry and the Appeljacks made neither the Billboard Hot 100 nor the "Bubbling Under" charts.
The Dovells' recording made the #2 spot on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 singles chart in 1961. "Bristol Stomp" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
The song was written about teenagers in 1961 who were dancing a new step called "The Stomp" at Good Will Hose Company dances in Bristol. It refers to Bristol, Pennsylvania, a blue collar suburb of Philadelphia.
The refrain of the song:
"The kids in Bristol are sharp as a pistol When they do the Bristol Stomp Really somethin' when the joint is jumpin' When they do the Bristol Stomp"The distinctive guitar introduction to the "Bristol Stomp" is identical to that in "Everyday of the Week," a charting doo-wop single by The Students in 1958.
Covers
In 1962, under the Columbia record label, Chubby Checker released his version of "Bristol Stomp" on his album Don't Knock the Twist. In this version, Chubby Checker performs lead vocals with the Dovells providing backup. Though it was not as instrumentally polished as the Dovells's original version, the Checker version added more pep to the song. The album title is the same name as the movie (released in the USA on 13 April 1962 (New York City, New York); released in Venezuela on 6 June 1962 and in Mexico on 1 November 1962) starring Checker.
On the live performance of Gary U.S. Bonds's "Seven Day Weekend" found on Johnny Thunders's live soundtrack album Stations of the Cross, Walter Lure begins singing the chorus of the song, playing on the fact that the two songs share the same chord sequence.
The song has been used by Fox Sports during broadcasts of the Food City 500, a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race from the Bristol Motor Speedway, in Sullivan County, Tennessee, also referring to massively wrecked racecars as having been "Bristol Stomped." (Prior to changes that were first shown on Fox Sports when it transmitted the 2008 race, the crashes on the notorious one-groove concrete track were known for heavy damage.)
This song was played on Family Guy's fourteenth-season episode "A Lot Going on Upstairs," which was transmitted as the fifteenth episode of that season.