Walking After Midnight/Hidin' Out By "Calvin Coolidge" (1957)

Walking After Midnight/Hidin' Out
(4-Star Records, No. CC-15-A-C)

Tracks
Side 1: Walking After Midnight Side 2: Hidin' Out	(3:11) (3:03)

After Patsy's Huge Success With "Walkin' After Midnight," There Were A Number of Cover Versions Released By Other Artists. The Most Unusual Came From "Calvin Coolidge." His Recording Raised The Eyebrows of Those Who Heard It. Far Different From Patsy's. Or, Was It?

As It Turned Out, "Calvin Coolidge" Was None Other Than Patsy Cline, and the Record Was A Practical Joke Cooked Up By Bill McCall:

Suddenly, with the incredible sales of "Walkin' After Midnight," there was a cover recording, as often happened with a major hit. Disc jockeys everywhere were inundated with Calvin Coolidge's rendition and received calls from the label's irate promotion director wanting to know why they weren't programming it.

"This is a hot record," he'd say, "the first male version." The deejays responded that the record was terrible. "Oh, you think so, huh?" he replied. A typical answer was, "It's nothing like Patsy Cline's record." The promotion man would counter, "That goes to show how much you know. Take that record and speed it up and we'll see about that!"

The prankster was none other than Bill McCall, who slowed Patsy's version to 33 1/3 rpm, then pressed a 45 rpm single.

From Honky Tonk Angel By Ellis Nassour, © 1993. Used With Permission.

McCall, President of 4-Star Music Sales (Which Held Patsy's Recording Contract), Is Reported To Have Had Approximately 250 Copies of This Single Pressed and Distributed To Radio Stations Around The Country. It Was Never Available For Commercial Sale. For the Songs To Sound As They Were Recorded, the Record Must Be Played At An Unusual Speed of About 60¾ rpm.