Who remembers the Everly Brothers’ first #1 hit song?

The Everly Brothers were among the first groups to bring harmony singing into the charts, paving the way for The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel and countless other multi-singer acts of the 1960s.

Brothers Phil and Don Everly were respectively just six and eight years old when they began performing on their family’s live radio show.

When Don turned 18 (and Phil 16), they started working together in earnest as songwriters — but it wasn’t an easy start. After a change of record company, and work with Chet Atkins and a songwriting team, they eventually found themselves on the path to success.

While Bye Bye Love was their first big song, the honour of the Everly Brothers’ first chart-topping hit goes to Wake Up Little Susie, which hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts on 14 October, 1957.

The song sparked a little controversy at the time when the lyrics — ostensibly about a young couple who fall asleep at a drive-in movie and miss curfew — were accused of being too suggestive. The song was briefly banned from Boston radio stations at the request of the Catholic archbishop.

We’ll let you be the judge on just how scandalous they are:

Wake up little Susie, wake up. wake up little Susie, wake up.
The movie wasn’t so hot, it didn’t have much of a plot
We fell asleep, out goose is cooked, our reputation is shot
Wake up little Susie, wake up little Susie

What are you gonna tell your mama, what you gonna tell your pa
What are you gonna tell your friend when they say oh la la
Wake up little Susie, wake up little Susie

Well I told your mama that you’d be back by ten
Now Susie, baby looks like we goofed again
Wake up little Susie, wake up little Susie, we gotta go home.

Wake up little Susie, wake up. wake up little Susie, wake up.
The bullfrog’s sound asleep, wake up little Susie and weep
It’s four o’clock and we’re in trouble deep
Wake up little Susie, wake up little Susie

The song enjoyed a renaissance in 1981 when Simon and Garfunkel (two musicians the Everly Brothers inspired enormously) performed it at their legendary New York Central Park concert. The live recording reached #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the duo’s final Top 40 hit.

The song came full circle in 2003 during Simon and Garfunkel’s Old Friends tour. Rather than covering the song again, they welcomed the Everly Brothers themselves on stage to perform their first #1 hit to a rapturous audience.

Watch their high-energy live version here: