There’s a very interesting song from 1957, most famously performed by the Everly Brothers, called Wake Up, Little Susie.
The premise of the song is adquately described in the lyrics:
Wake up, little Susie, wake up
Wake up, little Susie, wake upWe’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 deepWake up, little Susie
Wake up, little SusieWell, what are we gonna tell your mama?
What are we gonna tell your pa’?
What are we gonna tell our friends when they say
“Ou la la”?Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little SusieWell, I told your mama that we’d be in by ten
Well, Susie, baby, looks like we goofed againWake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie
We gotta go homeWake up, little Susie, wake up
Wake up, little Susie, wake upThe movie wasn’t so hot
It didn’t have much of a plot
We fell asleep, our goose is cooked
Our reputation is shotWake up, little Susie
Wake up, little SusieWell, what are we gonna tell your mama?
What are we gonna tell your pa?
What are we gonna tell our friends when they say
“Ou la la”?Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie
Wake up, little Susie
Rare, for Rock-n-roll, the song is about people who are actually innocent. The song even acknowledges that this is rare in the reaction of the friends. “Ou la la,” when spoken by an American, conveys something positive. It’s not precisely approbation, but it’s pretty far from disapprobation. This is in contrast to little Susie’s parents, who will very much disapprove. Her parents are, by far, the singer’s major concern, but it’s curiously virtuous that the singer is wondering how to convince their friends that they didn’t do anything wrong.
As one of those amusing twisting paths of history, I only discovered this song because I had bought a DVD of Simon & Garfunkel’s concert in central park in 1982, where they played this song. I’m not sure why they did; I believe that all of the other songs that they played were their own. Still, they played it, and I was quite confident that they didn’t write it as it didn’t sound at all like them (though they did a great job singing it).
I prefer the Everly Brothers version, but only a little.
Chris Lansdown 