![]() ![]() But both David and I felt that 'Rock On' was a career-breaking record, whereas a ballad would give him a shorter-term success, it wouldn't distinguish him." Īccording to Wayne, only three session musicians played on the final backing track, and the most prominently featured was veteran session musician Herbie Flowers, whose double-tracked bass guitar was treated with a prominent "slapback" delay effect, creating a complex polyrhythmic backbeat: It was a gamble and a bit of a fight to get it through. A ballad is a ballad, whereas 'Rock On' allowed us to be a bit more off-the-wall. And so I had this idea that there would nothing on it that played a chord, so that's why there's no keyboards, there's no guitars, there's nothing that plays a chord." "When David wrote 'Rock On', it was the type of song that from my point of view as an arranger and producer gave me much more adventurous ideas, a concept of sound. ![]() I went away and thought about the song and the attractiveness was the hollows, the absences and the mood in the lyrics as well. Because there was no instruments, the engineer put on this sort of repeat echo, and it gave an atmosphere to it, and that's what I then went away to work on. And the way David demoed it for me was he went into the studio, our engineer put on a microphone and David picked up a trashcan and started banging out this little rhythm, so there was no instruments. "'Rock On' was demonstrated to me in the studio after finishing the jingle session. The distinctive stripped-back musical arrangement was devised by producer Jeff Wayne after hearing Essex's original vocal demo: This song makes reference to " Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins, and " Summertime Blues" by Eddie Cochran. The lyric pays homage to early rock-and-roll and its surrounding youth subculture, and notably to 1950s rebel James Dean (although the lyrics refer to him as "Jimmy Dean", which is the name of the country-western singer famous for Big Bad John), but James Dean's name is spoken before the instrumental as well. The song features a slow-tempo vocal performance in C# minor, along with a minimalist, rhythm-driven instrumental accompaniment to Essex's vocal performance. A single release of the updated version reached number 93 on the UK Singles Chart. This version, which was remixed by Shep Pettibone, appeared on Essex's 1989 album Touching the Ghost. The song is still frequently played on classic rock and oldies radio stations.Įssex later re-recorded the song in 1988 with an updated lyric. release) in which he had a starring role. "Rock On" was the title track of Essex's 1973 debut studio album, and was also featured on the soundtrack album of the 1973 film That'll Be the Day (as well as being played over the closing credits of the film's U.S. ![]() It was Essex's only Billboard top 40 song. In March 1974, Essex's version reached number one in Canada on the RPM national Top Singles chart and was a top-ten hit (reaching number 5) on the U.S. The song, written and recorded by David Essex, was released in August 1973 in the UK, and reached its highest position of number 3 in the UK Singles Chart in September that year. The song has been recorded many times, including a 2006 version by the English hard rock group Def Leppard.ĭavid Essex version Background and release ![]() In 1989, American actor and singer Michael Damian recorded a cover version that went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Recorded in 1973 and released as a single by Essex, it became an international hit. " Rock On" is a song written by English singer David Essex. ![]()
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