Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps had an enduring classic with this rockabilly slowburner, and I don't mean maybe. Vincent met Donald Graves while recuperating at the US Navy hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, where the two men composed 'Be-Bop-A-Lula'. Vincent recalls: "It’s quite a funny story. I was in the Naval Hospital, actually I was crippled up; I just had a hit in Korea. My mother said to me: 'Son, why don’t you enter this contest?' I said, what bloody contest, what are you talking about? She said, why don’t you record something. So I recorded a thing that I wrote. I come in dead drunk and stumbled over the bed. And me and Don Graves were looking at this bloody book; it was called 'Little Lulu'. And I said, 'Hell, man, it’s bebopalulu.' And he said, 'Yeah, man, swinging.' And we wrote this song. And some man came to hear it … named Sheriff Tex Davis, and he bought the song from Donald Graves for $25, $25 dollars! So I recorded the song and told all my friends that I was going to get a Cadillac; cause all rock and roll singers had Cadillacs. So 'Be Bop-A-Lula' came out and for three weeks nothing happened. Then some man in Baltimore started playing it and that bloody thing hit. It went to number one in every bloody place you went. But I didn’t know how to handle a hit. I was only a child … a boy."
Capitol Records approached Vincent after hearing a demo of his performance of the song on a Norfolk radio station. They were excited to find a singer to rival the success of Elvis Presley. 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' was recorded on May 4, 1956 in Nashville, Tennessee at Owen Bradley's studio with Cliff Gallup on lead guitar, "Wee" Willie Williams on rhythm guitar, "Jumpin'" Jack Neal on string bass, and Dickie "Be Bop" Harrell on drums. Harrell screamed in the background so his family could hear him. The single came out a month later and was an instant hit. It went to number sixteen on the UK pop chart, number seven on the US pop music chart, number eight on the R&B chart, and number five on the C&W chart. Capitol announced that it had sold two million copies in April of 1957.
Well
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby
Be-bop a lula
I don't mean maybe
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby
Be-bop a lula
I don't mean maybe
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby doll my baby doll my baby doll
Well she's the gal in the red blue jeans
She's the queen of all the teens
She's the one that I know
She's the one that loves me so
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby
Be-bop a lula
I don't mean maybe
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby doll my baby doll my baby doll
Let's rock!
Well now she's the one that's got that beat
She's the one with the flyin' feet
She's the one that bops around the store
She's the one that gets more more more
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby
Be-bop a lula
I don't mean maybe
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby doll my baby doll my baby doll
Let's rock again now!
Well
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby
Be-bop a lula
I don't mean maybe
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby
Be-bop a lula
I don't mean maybe
Be-bop a lula
She's my baby doll my baby doll my baby doll
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