"Endless Sleep" is a "teenage tragedy" pop song written and originally recorded by

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

singer Jody Reynolds in 1957.

Background

Reynolds wrote the song in 1956, after listening to

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

's "

Heartbreak Hotel "Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being g ...

", and first performed it soon afterwards at a performance in

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. The song told the story of a teenager whose girlfriend had gone missing after a row:

The night was black, rain fallin' down
Looked for my baby, she's nowhere around
Traced her footsteps down to the shore
Afraid she's gone for ever more

Although record companies initially rejected the song as too depressing, Reynolds eventually had a demo accepted by Demon Records in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, who agreed that Reynolds record it provided that he changed the song's ending so that the protagonist saved the girl from drowning.:

I looked at the sea and it seemed to say
“You took your baby from me away"
My heart cried out “She's mine to keep"
I saved my baby from an endless sleep.

The song was recorded with echo-drenched vocals, and with Al Casey and

Howard Roberts Howard Mancel Roberts (October 2, 1929 – June 28, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist, educator, and session musician. Early life Roberts was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Damon and Vesta Roberts, and began playing guitar at the age of 8 — a ...

on guitars. The record label credited the songwriting to Reynolds and the fictitious "Dolores Nance", in order to make it appear to have been written by a 'professional' songwriting team.

Chart performance

Reynolds' recording reached the number 5 position on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart on July 7, 1958, sold over one million copies, and inspired a trend of "teen tragedy" songs. The song was reissued in 1979 reaching number 66 on the UK singles chart. Reynolds' recording also went to number 5 on the Most Played R&B By Jockeys chart. A re-recorded version by Reynolds appears the 1984

Rhino A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

compilation LP '' Teenage Tragedies.''

Other versions

*British act Marty Wilde and His Wildcats covered the song in 1958 and reached #4 on the UK singles chart, becoming their first chart hit. * Hank Williams, Jr. covered the song in 1964, an early-career release that was his third charting single. It peaked at #46 on the Country chart and #90 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. *

Marc Bolan Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer-songwriter and poet. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex (band), T. Rex. Bolan strongly i ...

performed a glam version on his short-lived eponymous show Marc in 1977 and recorded it as a

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

to ″Sing Me A Song″ in 1981. *American country music duo

The Judds The Judds were an American country music duo composed of lead vocalist-guitarist Wynonna Judd and her mother Naomi Judd on backup vocals. The duo signed to RCA Records in 1983 and released six studio albums between then and 1991. The Judds wer ...

recorded a cover in 1984, which was released on their first album, ''Why Not Me'' in 1984. It was not released as a single. *In 1990, English punk/rocker

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

recorded a cover that was true to Reynolds's rockabilly original. It was released on his

Platinum record Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music Sound recording and reproduction, recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video ...

, ''Charmed Life''.

References

{{authority control 1958 songs 1958 singles Teenage tragedy songs Shakin' Stevens songs