Throwing back to the week of Oct. 3, 1956, Elvis Presley claimed #1 on the Billboard singles chart with ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’ the song’s fifth of seven straight weeks in the top spot.

Just behind it was the jazz instrumental ‘Honky Tonk’ by organist Bill Doggett. And if (like me) you think you don’t know it, press play below and you’ll realize you know it quite well. In addition to spending three weeks at #2 on the Top 100, ‘Honky Tonk’ topped the R&B chart for 13 weeks.

Because the song was too long to fit on one 45, it was split into two parts and released as a two-part single. The band recorded the two parts separately, though they form a single composition.

Doggett gave co-writing credits to his musicians (Billy Butler, Clifford Scott, and Shep Shepherd), acknowledging their improvisation on the track. That’s standard practice now, but not so much then.

In the 90s, drummer Shepherd joked that 40 years after this song came out, he still received enough monthly royalties to pay his phone bill.

Old songs. Great memories.
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