Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa

"Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa"
"Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa"
Single by Gene Pitney
from the album Blue Gene
B-side	"Lonely Night Dreams (Of Far Away Arms)"
Released	October 1963
Genre	Pop
Length	2:52
Label	Musicor
Songwriter(s)	Burt Bacharach ; Hal David ;
Producer(s)	Aaron Schroeder ; Wally Gold ;
Gene Pitney singles chronology

Last updated September 09, 2023

"Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and was originally a hit in 1963 for Gene Pitney.^[2]^[3]

Production

The song's lyrics tell of a traveling man who detours to a romance in a motel and ends up never returning home.^[4] The twists of the song's lyrics (the protagonist, just 24 hours from reaching home, falls in love with a woman when he stops driving for the night, leaving his current partner twisting in the wind) are echoed in the music's tonal ambiguity, a common feature of Bacharach's constructivist style. The verse is in G major, with a lydian implication in the melody supported by the supertonic major. At the start of the chorus, an interruption of the expected cadence by the subdominant chord (C major) establishes this as the new tonic, with the remainder of the chorus centered around the submediant, dominant and subdominant chords of this key. A similar interruption at the end of the chorus converts an expected perfect cadence in the new key to a modal cadence back into G major. At the end of the song, a dominant seventh on the tonic resolves as a perfect cadence into a new key to finish the song on the subdominant chord of the principal key (C major as viewed from the perspective of a G major tonality).

Chart performance

Its success in the UK, peaking at #5,^[5] enabled Pitney to become an international star. In the US, Pitney's hit peaked at #17 on the 7 December 1963 Hot 100 ^[6]^[7] and #2 on the 6 December 1963 WLS Silver Dollar Survey.^[8]

Cover versions

Jay and the Americans covered the song on their 1963 album, At the Cafe Wha?
Dusty Springfield covered it on her 1964 debut album A Girl Called Dusty .^[9]
Canadian duo Ian & Sylvia covered this song on their 1965 album, Play One More.
Peacehaven & Telscombe F.C. Supporters covered it as Twenty Four Hours From Telscombe in 2016
The O'Kaysions released a version of the song on their 1968 debut album, Girl Watcher^[10] and as a single in 1969.
It was covered by Yachts in 1980.
It was covered by MEO 245 in 1981.^[11]
Claire Hamill released a version of the song in 1983.
Swedish singer Östen Warnerbring has made a Swedish version called "15 minuter från Eslöv" ("15 minutes from Eslöv").
French singer and composer Claude François made the French version (tells a somewhat different story, though the spirit remains the same) Maman chérie (Lit. "my dear Mum"). In it, instead of telling his 'future ex-girlfriend' that he met someone else, he impersonates a man who's lived a life full of parties, fun, and met a girl, made mistakes, and is too ashamed to have not listened to his parents' advice, and just like in the original, he concludes that he'll "never, never, go home again" (je ne pourrai jamais, jamais, rentrer chez nous). The song is somewhat bleaker in its tone than the original, which is the inverse of what happened when Francois's own song "My Way" was translated; Paul Anka's English lyric for this has deeper meaning than the original French version.
American singer and songwriter Timi Yuro covered the song, appearing on a 1995 compilation album.
Mari Wilson covered the song on her 2016 album Pop Deluxe^[12] and features it in her live shows.
Randy Barlow also covered the song with a country version in 1976-77.
The comic radio drama Twenty Four Hours from Tulse Hill aired in 2018 on the BBC. The title is a pun on the close pronunciation of Tulsa with Tulse Hill ( a South London suburb). ^[13]

References in popular culture

Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine wrote a song that appeared on their album 101 Damnations (1990), entitled "24 Minutes from Tulse Hill" as a reference to the song. The song refers to the journey time by train to Tulse Hill, from central London.
The song is featured early in the film The Commitments (1991). It serves as an exhibition piece for how terrible the band And And And is, as they are playing this song at the wedding.
The lyrics were discussed in depth on Karl Pilkington's feature 'Song with a Story' on the XFM Ricky Gervais Radio Show .
In 2018, the song is used three times during the television series Castle Rock , including the first song heard in the series premiere (Gene Pitney's 1963 version) and the last song heard over the closing credits of the season one finale (Dusty Springfield's 1964 version). The underlying story of season one is captured in the lyrics: “Dearest darling, I had to write to say that I won’t be home anymore / ’Cause something happened to me while I was driving home / And I’m not the same anymore .”.^[14]
In 1993, a UK Television commercial won awards for its use of the track, retitled and re-written as 'Twenty-four toasters to Scunthorpe'. The new lyrics were written by Advertising writer Malcolm Green, with the approval and permission of Bacharach and David. On a subsequent tour, Gene Pitney paid tribute to the commercial by being photographed at Scunthorpe United Football Club.

Influences

Less than two years later, Billy Joe Royal's "Down in the Boondocks" copied part of the arrangement of the tune.^[15]

Related Research Articles

In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone that is commonly used in the final cadence in tonal classical music, popular music, and traditional music. In the movable do solfège system, the tonic note is sung as do. More generally, the tonic is the note upon which all other notes of a piece are hierarchically referenced. Scales are named after their tonics: for instance, the tonic of the C major scale is the note C.

Gene Francis Alan Pitney was an American singer-songwriter and musician.

In music, the submediant is the sixth degree of a diatonic scale. The submediant is named thus because it is halfway between the tonic and the subdominant or because its position below the tonic is symmetrical to that of the mediant above.

In Classical music theory, a Neapolitan chord is a major chord built on the lowered (flatted) second (supertonic) scale degree. In Schenkerian analysis, it is known as a Phrygian II, since in minor scales the chord is built on the notes of the corresponding Phrygian mode.

The Andalusian cadence is a term adopted from flamenco music for a chord progression comprising four chords descending stepwise – a iv–III–II–I progression with respect to the Phrygian mode or i–VII–VI–V progression with respect to the Aeolian mode (minor). It is otherwise known as the minor descending tetrachord. Traceable back to the Renaissance, its effective sonorities made it one of the most popular progressions in classical music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Not a Second Time</span> 1963 song by the Beatles

"Not a Second Time" is a song by English rock band the Beatles. It was written by John Lennon, though credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It was first released on the Beatles second British album, With the Beatles, and their second American album Meet the Beatles!. Lennon said he was "trying to write a Smokey Robinson or something at the time." The song was recorded in nine takes on 11 September 1963 at EMI Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart</span> 1967 single by Gene Pitney

"Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" is a song written by Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook.

"The Look of Love" is a popular song composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and originally popularized by English pop singer Dusty Springfield. The song is notable for its sensuality and its relaxed bossa nova rhythm. The song was featured in the 1967 spoof James Bond film Casino Royale. In 2008, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It also received a Best Song nomination at the 1968 Academy Awards. The song partially inspired the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997).

"Wishin' and Hopin'" is a song, written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, which was a US Top 10 hit for Dusty Springfield in 1964.

"Down in the Boondocks" is a song written by Joe South, and first recorded by American artist Billy Joe Royal as his debut single. It was a hit in 1965, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the UK, it hit No. 38 on the Record Retailer chart. In Canada, it reached No. 1 on the RPM chart, on August 9, 1965. The song is the title track of Royal's second album, Down in the Boondocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercy, Mercy, Mercy</span> 1966 song by Joe Zawinul, Cannonball Adderley

"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" is a jazz song written by Joe Zawinul in 1966 for Cannonball Adderley and which appears on his album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at "The Club". The song is the title track of the album and became a surprise hit in February 1967. "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" went to #2 on the Soul chart and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">My Little Red Book</span> 1965 song

"My Little Red Book" (occasionally subtitled "(All I Do Is Talk About You)") is a song composed by American songwriter Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David. The duo were enlisted by Charles K. Feldman to compose the music to Woody Allen's film What's New Pussycat? following a chance meeting between Feldman and Bacharach's fiancé Angie Dickinson in London. "My Little Red Book" was composed in three weeks together with several other songs intended for the movie. Musically, the song was initially composed in the key of C major, largely based on a re-iterating piano riff performed. David's lyrics tells the tale of a distraught lover, who after getting dumped by his girlfriend browses through his "little red book" and taking out several girls to dance in a vain effort to get over her.

Town Without Pity is a song written by composer Dimitri Tiomkin and lyricist Ned Washington. The track, produced by Aaron Schroeder, was originally recorded by Gene Pitney for the 1961 film of the same title. In the US, the Gene Pitney recording went to #13 on the Hot 100.

<i>Blue Gene</i> (Gene Pitney album) 1964 studio album by Gene Pitney

Blue Gene is American singer Gene Pitney's fifth album, released on the Musicor label in 1964. The album contained the Burt Bacharach and Hal David hit "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa", a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia and a top 20 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 (#17), as well as the minor hit "Yesterday's Hero" (#64).

<i>Gene Pitneys Big Sixteen</i> 1964 compilation album by Gene Pitney

Gene Pitney's Big Sixteen is American singer Gene Pitney's seventh album, released on the Musicor label in 1964. The album contains a mix of hit singles and album cuts from Pitney's early records.

<i>Gene Italiano</i> 1964 studio album by Gene Pitney

Gene Italiano is American singer Gene Pitney's eighth album, and first foreign language album, released on the Musicor label in 1964. The album features a number of Pitney's biggest early hits recorded in Italian, including "Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa", "Town Without Pity" and "Only Love Can Break a Heart".

"Trains and Boats and Planes" is a song written by composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David. Hit versions were recorded by Bacharach in 1965, by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas in the same year, and by Dionne Warwick in 1966.

"(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, which was released by Gene Pitney in 1962. It spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 4, while reaching No. 2 on Canada's CHUM Hit Parade, and No. 4 on New Zealand's "Lever Hit Parade".

References

↑ "Gene Pitney: Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". 45.cat. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
1 2 Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 24 - The Music Men. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles . University of North Texas Libraries.
↑ Dave Austin; Jim Peterik; Cathy Austin (2010), Songwriting For Dummies, ISBN 9780470890417
↑ Ian McMillan (2012-11-05). "Where exactly is 24 hours from Tulsa?". Leeds, West Yorkshire, England: The Yorkshire Post . Retrieved 2018-06-22.
↑ "officialcharts.com". Official Charts . Retrieved March 19, 2021.
↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 493.
↑ "Hot 100". Billboard. 1963-12-07. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
↑ "WLS Silver Dollar Survey". 1963-12-06. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
↑ Serene Dominic (2003), Burt Bacharach,song by song, ISBN 9780825672804
↑ "The O'Kaysions, Girl Watcher". Discogs . Retrieved November 20, 2016.
↑ "Meo 245 – Marching Feet (1981, Vinyl)". Discogs .
↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/pop-deluxe-mw0002921227
↑ "Twenty Four Hours From Tulse Hill, BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama". www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk. 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
↑ Stephens, Emily L. (2018-09-12). "In the end, Castle Rock unlocks its potential and throws away the key". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 2018-09-13.
↑ "Sample: Billy Joe Royal 'Down in the Boondocks' Gene Pitney 'Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa'". Who Sampled: Exploring the DNA of Music. Retrieved May 11, 2018.

This 1960s single-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Gene Pitney: Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". 45.cat. Retrieved 2018-06-22.

[pc24-2] 1 2 Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 24 - The Music Men. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles . University of North Texas Libraries.

[3] Dave Austin; Jim Peterik; Cathy Austin (2010), Songwriting For Dummies, ISBN 9780470890417

[4] Ian McMillan (2012-11-05). "Where exactly is 24 hours from Tulsa?". Leeds, West Yorkshire, England: The Yorkshire Post . Retrieved 2018-06-22.

[5] "officialcharts.com". Official Charts . Retrieved March 19, 2021.

[6] Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 493.

[7] "Hot 100". Billboard. 1963-12-07. Retrieved 2018-06-27.

[8] "WLS Silver Dollar Survey". 1963-12-06. Retrieved 2018-06-27.

[9] Serene Dominic (2003), Burt Bacharach,song by song, ISBN 9780825672804

[10] "The O'Kaysions, Girl Watcher". Discogs . Retrieved November 20, 2016.

[11] "Meo 245 – Marching Feet (1981, Vinyl)". Discogs .

[12] ttps://www.allmusic.com/album/pop-deluxe-mw0002921227

[13] "Twenty Four Hours From Tulse Hill, BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama". www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk. 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2023-02-26.

[14] Stephens, Emily L. (2018-09-12). "In the end, Castle Rock unlocks its potential and throws away the key". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 2018-09-13.

[15] "Sample: Billy Joe Royal 'Down in the Boondocks' Gene Pitney 'Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa'". Who Sampled: Exploring the DNA of Music. Retrieved May 11, 2018.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]