Saturday morning tunes: We're in trouble deep

“Wake Up, Little Susie” was the first single by the Everly Brothers to hit #1, and it did it 54 years ago yesterday.

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Everly Brothers Story #1 (apocryphal): Billy Joel, at some point after his career took off in the 1970s, met Paul McCartney. Feeling a little sheepish, Joel thanked McCartney, saying, If the Beatles hadn't done the things they did, I couldn't have done the things I've been able to do.

McCartney, as the story goes, shrugged politely. Don't worry -- I said the same thing to Phil Everly.

Everly Brothers Story #2 (I was there): Sometime in the late 1980s -- roughly 30 years after this song topped the charts -- I saw the Everly Brothers perform in the campus auditorium at Ball State. (Long story. Don't ask.) About halfway through the first set, a couple who'd been sitting near me -- I'd have guessed them to be younger than me, but certainly no older -- got up and left, their irritation evident. I didn't think this was going to be rock and roll, one of them huffed as they threaded their way out to the aisle.