Song #84: "Walk Right In" by The Rooftop Singers

Date: Jan 26, 1963
Weeks: 2

As I write this, this song is the centerpiece of a Supercuts ad campaign. It's a pretty sensible choice for a place that wants you to "Walk right in, set right down" and "let your hair hang down." Presumably then they cut that hair, but despite a good fit, the song doesn't actually go that way.

Outside of being a great fit for Supercuts, the lyrics are a bit of nonsense. "Everybody's talkin' 'bout a new way of walkin'." That's fine, I have no objection to nonsense lyrics, but these lyrics get repetitive really quickly.

Repetition is the song's biggest problem. The lyrics repeat. The vocal style is constant and unchanging. And even the guitar parts repeat themselves. There are two guitar sequences, one for the verses, one for the chorus, and the bridge doesn't even add any new variety; it's just a verse without lyrics.

Everything about this song is straight-laced and unvarying, and gets boring really quickly. It feels like the kind of basic and simple song my music teacher used to play in grade school to teach rhythm. And that's fine, but as an adult, I crave something that builds on basic and becomes something more.

So once again I find myself searching the Internet for covers for ideas to express what's missing. But in this case, the answer lies in the past, in a blues jug band version by Gus Cannon and His Jug Stompers, circa 1929. It's a blues-y banjo, harmonica, and jug-bass treat. This version is filled with little touches of variety in both the vocals and the instruments. It even adds what sounds like a kazoo in the bridge just for variety. It's fun and interesting. (Research note: Kazoos had been mass-produced by the 1920s, so that's probably what it is.)

It's natural for blues lyrics music to be repetitive; that's part of the genre. The variety is supposed to come from the musical performance. Mid-20th century folk music tends to involve interesting lyrics that tell a story set to simple and repetitive music, so the singer can strum a simple tune and focus attention on telling a story. You can't combine repetitive blues lyrics with repetitive folk music and expect to produce something interesting.

My verdict: Don't like it. Blues music and 1960s folk music don't seem like a good fit for each other, and this song doesn't convince me otherwise. It feels like it was made to be the Supercuts commercial jingle that it now is.