Sleepwalk - different versions

[Gruntfuttock]

I never place Sleepwalk & Midnight in the same set list as I often get confused between the two intros!
Dave

[Twilight Ranger]

The Spotnicks also played Sleepwalk in their concerts. This live version dates back to 2003. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9YyugiRVcM

[GoldenStreet]

Bob Winberg is playing his favoured Strat, of the later years, with the large headstock and indeterminate custom shade of chocolate, almost the appearance of a hand painted job!

Bill

[Twilight Ranger]

Bob Winberg is playing his favoured Strat,

You mean Bo Winberg, don't you?

[StuartD]

Hi

The follow up, Teardrop, has the Fmaj chord and is more like Midnight

Regards

Stuart

[JimN]

I've sometimes wondered why Sleepwalk is variously credited to "Farina / Farina / Farina" and alternatively to "Farina / Farina / Farina /Wolf".

It turns out that Don Wolf was the one who wrote the (rarely-used) lyric, so would not necessarily be credited on instrumental versions - just as instrumental versions of Lover are usually credited to Rodgers and not Rodgers and Hart.

https://secondhandsongs.com/work/137098

[JimN]

I remember reading (from this invaluable website) that The Shadows wrote Nivram to give themselves an alternative to a similar tune that they had been playing for a time (was it Barney's Blues?).

Presumably, then, Midnight was written as their replacement for Sleepwalk?
Ray

I've read that a couple of times, but Nivram is really nothing like Barney's Blues. The Shadows' radio version of Barney's... (which I'm sure we all have) is a medium tempo blues, as near as it could possibly be to the Barney Kessel version, which has Shelley Manne on drums, Monty Budwig on bass, Claude Williamson on piano and Bob Cooper on... oboe. [No, "Budwig" isn't a spelling error.]

Nivram isn't a blues; it's a standard Tin Pan Alley AABA tune with a middle eight. The only thing they have in common is the tempo and the general "feel" of the approach.

Some years ago, Hank did say (in a magazine interview) that Midnight was written as an alternative to Sleepwalk, though whether they'd ever even played Sleepwalk live at the time of recording their own composition (24th October 1960) is an imponderable.

[GoldenStreet]

Bob Winberg is playing his favoured Strat,

You mean Bo Winberg, don't you?

Indeed, an inexcusable typo... I had just been speaking to my brother, Bob!

Bill

[GoldenStreet]

Some years ago, Hank did say (in a magazine interview) that Midnight was written as an alternative to Sleepwalk, though whether they'd ever even played Sleepwalk live at the time of recording their own composition (24th October 1960) is an imponderable.

It's not inconceivable that Sleepwalk was included in their live act, maybe, from the latter stages of 1959 (or early 1960), following Santo & Johnny's hit recording and, of course, the initial recording was the live one at the Colosseum, Johannesburg, in March 1961, prior to the album version at Abbey Road in the April.

Bill

[KurtFroberg]

Here is our version with The Ryders with some variations from The Shadows version. I even used my DeArmond 610 tone & volume pedal on some parts.

Kurt

https://youtu.be/NFxAea1kIEc