Matchbox (song)
| "Matchbox" | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Carl Perkins | |
| from the album Dance Album of Carl Perkins | |
| A-side | "Your True Love" |
| Released | 1957 |
| Format | Ten-inch and seven-inch 45 rpm records |
| Recorded | Memphis Recording Service, Memphis, Tennessee, December 4, 1956 |
| Genre | Rockabilly |
| Length | 2:10 |
| Label | Sun (no. 261) |
| Writer(s) | Carl Perkins |
| Producer(s) | Sam Phillips |
| "Matchbox" | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by the Beatles from the album Long Tall Sally (EP) | |||||||||||
| Released | June 19, 1964 | ||||||||||
| Recorded | June 1, 1964 | ||||||||||
| Genre | Rock and roll, rockabilly | ||||||||||
| Length | 1:57 (misprinted as 1:37 on both singles and albums) | ||||||||||
| Label | Parlophone | ||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Carl Perkins | ||||||||||
| Producer(s) | George Martin | ||||||||||
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"Matchbox" is a rockabilly song recorded by Carl Perkins in December 1956. It shares some lyrics with 1920s blues songs by Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Sam Phillips and Sun Records released the song as the B-side to "Your True Love". Although only the A-side became a record chart hit in 1957, "Matchbox" is one of Perkins' best-known recordings. A variety of musicians have recorded the song, including the Beatles.
Ma Rainey recorded "Lost Wandering Blues" in Chicago in March 1924. Paramount Records issued it on the standard ten-inch 78 rpm single (no. 12098). Her lyrics include the matchbox as a suitcase reference:
I'm leaving this morning, with my clothes in my hand
I won't stop to wandering, till I find my man
I'm sitting here wondering', will a matchbox hold my clothes
I've got a sun to beat, I'll be farther down the road
Three years later, Blind Lemon Jefferson used it for the title of his recording as "Match Box Blues" on March 14, 1927, for Okeh Records in Atlanta, Georgia. Blues author Paul Oliver stated that both Rainey and Jefferson "may have absorbed [the line] from traditional usage."
Jefferson recorded the song twice more in April 1927 for Paramount Records. Although they contain some differences, they include
I'm sittin' here wonderin', will a matchbox hold my clothes (2×)
I ain't got no matches but I still got a long way to go.
Subsequently, the song was recorded by several blues and country swing musicians, such as Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, the Shelton Brothers, and Roy Newman and His Boys.
After recording "Your True Love" at Sun Records studio, Carl Perkins's father Buck suggested that he write a song based on snatches of lyrics that he remembered. Buck knew only a few lines from the song from the recordings by Jefferson or the Shelton Brothers. As Perkins sang the few words his father had suggested, Jerry Lee Lewis, who was at that time a session piano player at Sun Studios, began a restrained boogie-woogie riff. Carl began picking out a melody on the guitar and improvised lyrics. The Sun recording on December 4, 1956 was produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis.
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Wikipedia