"Walk Right In" is a

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

song written by musician

Gus Cannon Gustavus Cannon (September 12, 1883 – October 15, 1979) was an American blues musician who helped to popularize jug bands (such as his own Cannon's Jug Stompers) in the 1920s and 1930s. There is uncertainty about his birth year; his tombstone ...

and originally recorded by Cannon's Jug Stompers in 1929 by

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

. In 1959, it was included on the compilation album ''

The Country Blues ''The Country Blues'' is a seminal album released on Folkways Records in 1959, catalogue RF 1. Compiled by Samuel Charters from 78-rpm recordings, it accompanied his book of the same name to provide examples of the music discussed. Both the boo ...

''. Another version of the song by the Rooftop Singers, with the writing credits allocated to group members Erik Darling and Bill Svanoe, became an international hit in 1963.

The Rooftop Singers

In 1962, the American

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

trio the Rooftop Singers recorded a version of the song. Group member Erik Darling recruited two friends to join him in this effort after hearing the original Cannon recording. Darling wanted the track to have a distinctive sound, so he and group member Bill Svanoe both played

twelve-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 string (music), strings in six Course (music), courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lo ...

s, although they had some difficulty in acquiring the instruments. Darling is quoted as saying that prior to the making of this record, "you couldn't buy a

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in ...

... I ordered one from the Gibson Company, but in order to record

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

with two 12-strings, we had to wait for the company to build a second one for Bill!" (a left-handed model). The success of the song was a boon to Cannon, who was in his late 70s and had been forced to pawn his banjo the previous winter to pay his heating bill; he received royalties as a songwriter and saw renewed interest in his music, which led to a recording contract of his own. When released as a single, it spent two weeks at No.1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in early 1963. Bronson, Fred (2003). "Walk Right In", in ''The Billboard Book of #1 Hits'', 5th Edition. New York: Billboard Publications. It spent five weeks atop the

Easy Listening chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary music, adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on ...

, which later became known as the Adult Contemporary chart.Hyatt, Wesley (1999). "Walk Right In", in ''The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits''. New York: Billboard Publications. In addition, "Walk Right In" reached both the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

(peaking at No.4) as well as the country music chart, peaking at No.23. The song reached No.10 on the UK Singles Chart in the United Kingdom.Official Charts Company info at Official Charts Company
/ref> It was included on the album ''Walk Right In'', and was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

in the category Best Folk Recording.

Chart history

Rooftop Singers

Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show

In 1977, a version by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show reached No.46 on ''Billboard''s Hot 100, and No.77 in Canada. For year-end charts, it was ranked No.249 on

Joel Whitburn Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings. Early life Joel Carver Whitburn was born in W ...

's Pop Annual and No.1 in Australia selling well over 50,000 units in just four weeks of release.

Certifications

References