B-side "Love My Baby" | Length 2:20 | |
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Released November 1953 (1953-11) Format 10" 78 rpm & 7" 45 rpm record Recorded September–October 1953 at Memphis Recording Service, Memphis, Tennessee Genre Blues, electric blues, Memphis blues | ||
"Mystery Train" is a song written and recorded by American blues musician Junior Parker in 1953.
Contents
History
Junior Parker (aka Herman Parker), billed as "Little Junior's Blue Flames", recorded the song, considered a blues standard, for producer/Sun Records owner Sam Phillips. The song was released on the Sun label. The song was written by Junior Parker, with a credit later given to Phillips.
One commentator noted "One of the mysteries about 'Mystery Train' was where the title came from; it was mentioned nowhere in the song". The song uses lyrics similar to those found in the traditional American folk music group Carter Family's "Worried Man Blues", itself based on an old Celtic ballad, and their biggest selling record of 1930:
The train arrived sixteen coaches long The train arrived sixteen coaches long The girl I love is on that train and goneParker's lyrics include:
Train I ride sixteen coaches long Train I ride sixteen coaches long Well, that long black train carries my baby home"Mystery Train" was the follow-up single to Junior Parker's 1953 number five Billboard R&B chart release "Feelin' Good" (Sun 187). Accompanying Parker (vocal) is his backup band the "Blue Flames", whose members at the time are believed to have included: Floyd Murphy (guitar), William Johnson (piano), Kenneth Banks (bass), John Bowers (drums), and Raymond Hill (tenor sax).
Elvis Presley version
Elvis Presley's version of "Mystery Train" was first released on August 20, 1955 as the B-side of "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" (Sun 223). Presley's version would be ranked #77 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list in 2003. It was again produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios, and featured Presley on vocals and rhythm guitar, Scotty Moore on lead guitar, and Bill Black on bass. Moore used a country lead break, and toward the end of the record is an echo of the 1946 "Sixteen Tons" by Merle Travis. For Presley's version of "Mystery Train", Scotty Moore also borrowed the guitar riff from Junior Parker's "Love My Baby" (1953), played by Pat Hare.
Victor released a pop version of the song by The Turtles with backing by Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra (Victor 6356) in December 1955. These Turtles are unlikely to have been the 1960s pop group of the same name, since the lead singers of that group were eight years old at the time.
Paired with "I Forgot to Remember to Forget", the record was in the Top 10 in Billboard's C&W listings.
RCA Victor rereleased this recording in December 1955 (#47-6357) after acquiring it as part of a contract with Presley. This issue of the song peaked at # 11 on the national Billboard Country Chart.
"Mystery Train" is now considered to be an "enduring classic". It was the first recording to make Elvis Presley a nationally known country music star.
Black, who had success with the Bill Black Combo, once said to a visitor to his house in Memphis, as he pointed to a framed 78rpm Sun Record of "Mystery Train" on the wall, "Now there was a record."
Presley's version was ranked the third most acclaimed song of 1955, by Acclaimed Music.
Presley's version also appeared in Jim Jarmusch's film of the same title.
The Band version
In 1973, with the approval of Sam Phillips, Robbie Robertson of The Band wrote additional lyrics for "Mystery Train", and the group recorded this version of the song for their Moondog Matinee album. They later performed the song with Paul Butterfield for their 1976 "farewell" concert The Last Waltz.
Other recordings
A variety of musicians have recorded "Mystery Train", including:
Book
In 1975, rock author Greil Marcus published his widely lauded book Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music, inspired by the Elvis Presley recording of the Junior Parker song.