Album: The Everly Brothers
1957
Not so different than “Bye Bye Love” in a lot of respects — written by Felice and Bordeaux Bryant; opening with a super cool acoustic riff — “Wake Up Little Susie” zips right past those surface similarities almost instantly.
The timeless tale of a couple of high school students who fell asleep during a drive-in movie and now are in deep shit because of it, “Wake Up Little Susie” just drips with fear and worry from the very start.
We’ve both been sound asleep
Wake up little Susie and weep
The movie’s over, it’s four o’clock
And we’re in trouble deep
What I love about “Wake Up Little Susie,” — I mean besides the utterly ace harmonies and equally ace acoustic guitar that underpins most of it — is their realization of just how fucked they are. Even if they didn’t.
Well, what are we gonna tell your Mama
What are we gonna tell your Pa?
What are we gonna tell our friends
When they say, “Ooh la la!”
That chorus features some great quick guitar leads after the first couple of lines and a full stop to make “Ooh la la!” as menacing as it possibly could be. Hell, for Susie, that might even be worse than her parents. Especially since this isn’t the first time it’s happened.
“Wake Up Little Susie”