About The Song
“Twenty Flight Rock” is a rockabilly gem by Eddie Cochran, first performed in the 1956 film The Girl Can’t Help It and released as a single in 1957 by Liberty Records (F 55112) with “Cradle Baby” as the B-side. Written by Ned Fairchild (real name Nelda Fairchild) with Cochran credited for music contributions, it’s a twelve-bar blues with a playful edge, counting flights of stairs (“one flight, two flight, three flight, four”) like “Rock Around the Clock” ticks hours. The lyrics follow a guy climbing twenty floors to dance with his girl, only to be too wiped out to rock, hinting at a cheeky innuendo about what “dancing” might mean. As Songfacts puts it, “Hope they hurry up before it’s too late / Want my baby too much to wait” carries a sly wink. The song was a moderate seller in the US but gained a cult following in Europe, especially after Cochran’s 1960 UK tour. 500songs.com notes its “demo-like rawness” in the film, recorded in July 1956 at Gold Star Studios with Connie “Guybo” Smith on double bass and Jerry Capehart thumping a soup carton. A later 1957 version added backing vocals but kept the gritty charm.
The track’s cultural impact outweighs its chart performance. Cochran, born October 3, 1938, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, was a rock pioneer, blending Elvis’s swagger with a Gretsch 6120 guitar’s twang. His role in The Girl Can’t Help It, a satirical rock film that ironically fueled the genre’s explosion, made him a teen idol. The movie, starring Jayne Mansfield, featured Little Richard and Gene Vincent, but Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” stole scenes, even with its guitar solo cut for the film. Paul McCartney, then 15, played it to impress John Lennon at their first meeting on July 6, 1957, in Liverpool, earning a spot in The Quarrymen, the Beatles’ precursor. McCartney later said, “I think what impressed him most was that I knew all the words,” a testament to the song’s catchy pull. Cochran’s tragic death at 21 in a 1960 car crash in England, alongside Gene Vincent and songwriter Sharon Sheeley, cemented his legend, leaving fans wondering what might’ve been, much like Buddy Holly’s loss.
“I was a big fan of Eddie Cochran,” McCartney told UNCUT in 2004, reflecting on that fateful audition. “If I hadn’t known the chords to ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ and ‘Be Bop A Lula,’ I might have got the elbow and ended up playing in some little pub band.” The song’s raw energy— Cochran’s Gretsch bending notes with an unwound third string, a trick that influenced UK guitarist Joe Brown—made it a guitarist’s dream. Covers abound: The Rolling Stones cut it for their 1982 live album Still Life, Paul McCartney recorded it for his 1988 Russian album CHOBA B CCCP, and others like Cliff Richard, Stray Cats, and Conan O’Brien with Jack White in 2010 kept it alive. Its morbid closer, “They’ll find my corpse draped over a rail,” was unusually dark for 1950s pop, yet its humor and drive made it timeless. AllMusic calls it a “rockabilly classic,” and powerpop.blog says it’s “the type of song where you just can’t sit still.”
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Lyric
Oh well, I’ve got a girl with a record machine
When it comes to rockin’ she’s the queen
We love to dance on a Saturday night
All alone, I can hold her tight
But she lives on the twentieth floor uptown
The elevator’s broken downSo I walked one, two flight, three flight, four
Five, six, seven flight, eight flight more
Up on the twelfth I’m startin’ to drag
Fifteenth floor I’m ready to sag
Get to the top, I’m too tired to rockWhen she calls me up on the telephone
Said, “Come on over, honey, I’m all alone”
I said, “Baby, you’re mighty sweet
But I’m in bed with achin’ feet”
This went on for a couple of days
But I couldn’t stay awaySo I walked one, two flight, three flight, four
Five, six, seven flight, eight flight more
Up on the twelfth I’m startin’ to drag
Fifteenth floor I’m ready to sag
Get to the top, I’m too tired to rockWell, they sent to Chicago for repairs
Till it’s fixed I’m usin’ the stairs
Hope they hurry up before it’s too late
Want my baby too much to wait
All this climbin’ is gettin’ me down
They’ll find my corpse draped over a railBut I climbed one, two flight, three flight, four
Five, six, seven flight, eight flight more
Up on the twelfth I’m startin’ to drag
Fifteenth floor I’m ready to sag
Get to the top, I’m too tired to rock