Santo & Johnny: Sleepwalk (180g, 6 bonus tracks) [WAX TIME]

Why you'll love it

This Wax Time edition presses the album on 180g vinyl in stereo and adds six bonus tracks. "Sleep Walk" went to the top of the Billboard pop chart in 1959 and remains one of the best-loved instrumentals of the rock and roll era.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• 6 bonus tracks
• Stereo
• Limited edition

About the album

Their father, stationed in Oklahoma during the war, heard a steel guitar on the radio and wrote home that he'd like the boys to learn it. Brothers Santo and Johnny Farina of Brooklyn took the advice rather seriously: Santo mastered a triple-neck Fender steel guitar, Johnny backed him on electric guitar, and one sleepless night after a gig they wrote "Sleep Walk."

That shimmering, slow-dance melody is the heart of the album, and the rest follows its moonlit mood. The brothers glide through standards like "Summertime," "Over the Rainbow," "Blue Moon," "Harbor Lights" and "Deep Purple," add a touch of exotica with "Caravan" and "Slave Girl," and rock things up with Bill Justis' "Raunchy" and their own "All Night Diner." Canadians will enjoy their dreamy take on "Canadian Sunset," and "Tenderly" and "You Belong to Me" are as smooth as anything from the era.

"Sleep Walk" has since turned up in films, on countless covers and at the end of more school dances than anyone can count. Their father once told them that stars belong in the sky; the chart rather disagreed.

Also at Kops: more Santo & Johnny on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Wax Time (cat# 772342), a reissue of the 1959 album.