Dave Edmunds' I Hear You Knocking

When Dave Edmunds topped the UK charts in November 1970 with I HEAR YOU KNOCKING, many believed he wrote the song because it was new to the UK chart.

Across the sea, in America, many were remembering Fats Domino's version that became a hit in 1961. The single was written by New Orleans trumpeter and musical mastermind Dave Bartholomew and was first recorded by Smiley Lewis. (And if you are of a certain age, you remember that it was Smiley Lewis who also recorded the original versions of Fats Domino’s BLUE MONDAY and Elvis Presley’s ONE NIGHT.

Smiley’s version from 1955, featuring keyboard master-blaster Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and Earl Palmer on drums, reached number two on the Billboard R&B chart. That same year, Gale Storm (TV’s My Little Margie) took the song to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Bartholomew believed her version “killed Smiley’s record.” English singer Jill Day also recorded the song in 1956, Little Richard in 1957, and Connie Francis in 1959.

The song tells a story of heartbreak, resignation, and eventually resilience: One of the lovers refuses to commit to the relationship and sneaks around. The other lover is willing to overlook this and still doesn't want them to leave. The cheater leaves anyway. Soon, that same cheater wants to come back, but, alas, the scorned lover wants to be left alone, singing some of our favorite song lyrics, “Go back where you been.”

Domino’s version includes just a couple of verses, but Dave Edmunds’ version has two additional short verses. For Dave, verse three goes, ‘You better get back to your used-to-be, ’cause your kind of love ain’t good for me,’ and verse four reveals, ‘I told you way back in ’52 that I would never go with you.” All of this is quite possibly a sign that couples therapy was becaming more popular in the 70s.

While Domino offers a laid-back NOLA groove, Edmunds, supported by a heavier backing, is more forceful. Where a simple guitar break might be, Edmunds is heavier and he even credits many of the previous artists involved as he sings, ‘Child, rave it up, Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Chuck Berry, Huey Smith, oh let’s do it’ over the top.”

At this point, Franks thinks we should ask ourselves why Dave chose a song from the rock and roll pantheon that was over 15 years old. In an interview, he explained, “I’d heard LET’S WORK TOGETHER by Wilbert Harrison while I was in America, but Canned Heat beat me to it. Instead, I heard I HEAR YOU KNOCKING on my radio whilst I was driving in Britain because the song was getting airplay due to a Smiley Lewis compilation album that had recently been released. I thought, ‘hang on,’ the two songs have an identical structure. You could use the same backing track for both songs. It's just a simple 12-bar thing. So I thought, I'll do that.”

And at this point, Frank thinks we should head back further in pop music and find a song with lyrics similar to Smiley and Dave’s, Actually, quite a few songs. James Wiggins recorded an upbeat piano blues in 1928 titled KEEP A KNOCKIN’ AN YOU CAN’T GET IN, which repeats the title in the lyrics. This was followed by YOU CAN’T COME IN by Bert M. Mays (1928); KEEP ON KNOCKING by Lil Johnson (1935); KEEP A KNOCKING by Milton Brown & His Brownies (1936); KEEP KNOCKING (BUT YOU CAN’T COME IN) by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (1938); and Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five’s KEEP A-KNOCKIN’ in 1939. All of these point to a strange moment when Dave Bartholemew claims to a journalist that he wrote I HEARD YOU KNOCKING “in the backseat of a car coming out of San Francisco.”

So let’s get back to the ‘70s. In Dave Edmunds’ version, he plays all the instruments (except possibly bass guitar) and adds fills and a solo on slide guitar, all while recording himself singing through the studio’s telephone line. And the modern rockabilly era is born.

Dave’s cover was the first single released on MAM Records (a subsidiary of Decca, owned by crooner Tom Jones). In November 1970, I HEAR YOU KNOCKING reached number one in the UK, where it stayed for six weeks, becoming a Christmas number one. In an interview with Rolling Stone, John Lennon even mentioned it, saying, "Well, I always liked simple rock. There's a great one in England now, I HEAR YOU KNOCKING.”

Years later, Lennon would again mention the song, this time in his final interview on December 8, 1980, calling it "One of the great records of all time.” It eventually sold over three million copies and was awarded a gold disc. The single also reached the top 10 in several other countries, including number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.

Dave went in to record more hits like I KNEW THE BRIDE and GIRLS TALK, written by his friends Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, respectively.

But he spent even more time behind the mixing board, becoming a rockabilly producer of some renown with the first three hits (RUNAWAY BOYS, ROCK THIS TOWN, and STRAY CAT STRUT) for The Stray Cats, as well as The Polecats’ cover of David Bowie’s JOHN I’M ONLY DANCING. (The Polecats’ guitarist was Boz Boorer, who would lead Morrissey’s band for over 20 years.) In 1984, he produced the Everly Brothers’ comeback single ON THE WINGS OF A NIGHTINGALE, but his biggest success as a producer came with Shakin’ Stevens on his 1985 festive chart-topper MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.

In 2017, Dave retired from the music industry.

Choose from all of our Dave Edmunds 45s