"Stagger Lee", also known as "Stagolee", "Stackerlee", "Stack O'Lee", "Stack-a-Lee" and several other variants, is a popular folk song based on the murder of William "Billy" Lyons by Stagger Lee Shelton. Herb Wiedoeft and his band recorded the song in 1924.
A cover with different lyrics was a chart hit for Lloyd Price in 1959. Dick Clark felt that the original tale of murder was too morbid for his American Bandstand audience and insisted that they be changed to eliminate the murder; in this version, the subject was changed from gambling to fighting over a woman, and instead of a murder, the two yelled at each other and made up the next day. However, it was the original, unbowdlerized, version of Price's performance that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was ranked #
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.