Road Runner (Bo Diddley song)
Encyclopedia
"Road Runner" is a song written and performed by American
rock and roll
performer Bo Diddley
, originally released as a single
by Checker Records
in January 1960, and later released on the LP record
Bo Diddley in the Spotlight. The song reached #20 on Billboard
magazine's Hot R&B Sides
chart, and #75 on the Hot 100
. The song has since been covered by many artists.
, Illinois
and backing Diddley (vocals
, guitar
) were Jerome Green (maracas, backing vocals
), Clifton James (drum
s), guest pianist
Otis Spann
, Peggy Jones (guitar, backing vocals), and Bobby Baskerville (backing vocals).
released "Road Runner" as a single in 1965 and it made #46 on the Billboard Hot 100
and is their only Billboard charter.
Many British Invasion
artists have covered "Road Runner". "Road Runner", as well as "Diddley Daddy", was recorded by The Rolling Stones
during one of their first recording sessions at IBC Studios
in London
, England
on March 11, 1963. Newcastle R&B
group, The Animals
, released the song on their UK
release of Animal Tracks
. Wayne Fontana
& the Mindbenders
released their version of "Road Runner" as the B-side
of "Hello Josephine". The Pretty Things
released the song on their self-titled debut album
. A medley of "Road Runner", "Join Together", and "My Generation Blues" was released by The Who
on the soundtrack to The Kids Are Alright
. The Zombies
released a version on Begin Here
. The Beatles
played parts of the song during the concerts which were released as Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962
. The Clash
were known to cover the song during their sound checks on the London Calling tour, on which Bo Diddely also headlined.
Several non-British
artists that have covered the song include Aerosmith
on Honkin' on Bobo
, the Hurriganes
on the album Roadrunner, and Microwave Dave & The Nukes on their album Goodnight, Dear.
The song was also covered as a part of the Backbeat soundtrack
by a supergroup
consisting of Dave Grohl
, Dave Pirner
, Thurston Moore
, Mike Mills
, Greg Dulli
and Don Fleming.
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
performer Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, originally released as a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
by Checker Records
Checker Records
Checker Records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded Tape in 1969, shortly before Leonard's death.The label...
in January 1960, and later released on the LP record
LP record
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
Bo Diddley in the Spotlight. The song reached #20 on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine's Hot R&B Sides
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
chart, and #75 on the Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. The song has since been covered by many artists.
Background and recording
The session(s) for "Road Runner" took place late September 1959 in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and backing Diddley (vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
) were Jerome Green (maracas, backing vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
), Clifton James (drum
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
s), guest pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Otis Spann
Otis Spann
Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....
, Peggy Jones (guitar, backing vocals), and Bobby Baskerville (backing vocals).
Cover versions
The American garage band The GantsThe Gants
The Gants were an American garage rock band of the 1960s.- History :One of the few outfits of its kind to emerge from the Deep South, the group was originally known as The Kingsmen when the band got together in 1963 to play R&B covers and the kind of instrumentals popularized by The Ventures...
released "Road Runner" as a single in 1965 and it made #46 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and is their only Billboard charter.
Many British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
artists have covered "Road Runner". "Road Runner", as well as "Diddley Daddy", was recorded by The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
during one of their first recording sessions at IBC Studios
IBC Studios
The IBC Recording Studios were recording studios in 35 Portland Place, London, England. After the Second World War it was the address of the leading independent studio in London and the British Isles...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
on March 11, 1963. Newcastle R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
group, The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
, released the song on their UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
release of Animal Tracks
Animal Tracks (UK album)
Animal Tracks is the second British album by The Animals. This album was released in 1965. The album reached #6 on the UK charts. An identically titled album with a different track listing was released in America the same year.- Track listing :Side 1...
. Wayne Fontana
Wayne Fontana
Wayne Fontana is an English pop singer. In 1962, he formed his backing group, the Mindbenders and got a recording contract.-Biography:...
& the Mindbenders
The Mindbenders
The Mindbenders was a 1960s beat group from Manchester, England. They were part of the mid 1960s British Invasion with their chart-toppers "Game of Love" and "A Groovy Kind of Love"....
released their version of "Road Runner" as the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of "Hello Josephine". The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...
released the song on their self-titled debut album
The Pretty Things (album)
The Pretty Things is the self titled 1965 release by The Pretty Things which features mostly R&B and Rock & Roll covers. A re-issue of the CD released in 2000 features every track from both the American and British versions of the album....
. A medley of "Road Runner", "Join Together", and "My Generation Blues" was released by The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
on the soundtrack to The Kids Are Alright
The Kids Are Alright (soundtrack)
The Kids Are Alright is a soundtrack album by British rock band The Who, as a companion to the band's documentary film of the same name.It was originally released as a double album in June 1979 on Polydor Records in the UK and MCA Records in the US...
. The Zombies
The Zombies
The Zombies are an English rock band, formed in 1961 in St Albans and led by Rod Argent, on piano and keyboards, and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group scored a UK and US hit in 1964 with "She's Not There"...
released a version on Begin Here
Begin Here
Begin Here is the debut album by the British pop rock band The Zombies, released in March 1965. The American version repeated many of the tracks from it, but, as was common in those days, deleted some cuts and substituted some others.The 1999 CD reissue on Big Beat expands the track lineup...
. The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
played parts of the song during the concerts which were released as Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962
Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962
Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962 is a double album featuring live performances by The Beatles, recorded in late December 1962 at the Star-Club during their final Hamburg residency...
. The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
were known to cover the song during their sound checks on the London Calling tour, on which Bo Diddely also headlined.
Several non-British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
artists that have covered the song include Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
on Honkin' on Bobo
Honkin' on Bobo
Honkin' on Bobo is the 14th studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on March 30, 2004 by Columbia Records. The album includes 11 covers and one original track titled "The Grind"...
, the Hurriganes
Hurriganes
Hurriganes is a Finnish rock band that was formed in the early 1970s. They were very popular in Finland in the 1970s and early '80s; they were also a popular live act in Sweden during this time. Their classic line-up consisted of Remu Aaltonen, Albert Järvinen and Cisse Häkkinen. What seems like...
on the album Roadrunner, and Microwave Dave & The Nukes on their album Goodnight, Dear.
The song was also covered as a part of the Backbeat soundtrack
Backbeat (soundtrack)
Backbeat is the original soundtrack of the 1994 film Backbeat starring Stephen Dorff, Sheryl Lee, Gary Bakewell and Ian Hart. The music was produced by Don Was.The album won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music."The Backbeat Band" consists of:...
by a supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
consisting of Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
, Dave Pirner
Dave Pirner
David Anthony "Dave" Pirner is an American songwriter, singer, and producer best known for being the lead vocalist and frontman for the alternative rock/grunge band, Soul Asylum.-Biography:...
, Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
, Mike Mills
Mike Mills
Michael Edward "Mike" Mills is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock group R.E.M.. Though known primarily as a bass guitarist, backing vocalist, and pianist, his musical repertoire includes also keyboards, guitar, and percussion instruments...
, Greg Dulli
Greg Dulli
-Biography:Greg Dulli was born and brought up in the working-class city of Hamilton, Ohio. Although he was raised a Catholic, he is now agnostic. Dulli first came to public attention in the late 1980s with The Afghan Whigs when he joined D.C. transplant bassist John Curley and Louisville, Kentucky,...
and Don Fleming.