Sleep Walk - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

"Sleep Walk" is an instrumental steel guitar

Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...

-based song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

written, recorded, and released in 1959 by brothers Santo & Johnny

Santo & Johnny

Santo & Johnny were an Italian-American rock and roll duo from Brooklyn, New York, comprising brothers Santo and Johnny Farina.They are best known for their instrumental "Sleep Walk", which became a regional hit and eventually reached the top of the Billboard pop chart when it was released...

(The BMI Repertoire database and the original release credits three Farinas as composers including sister Ann).
It was recorded at Trinity Music in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

. "Sleep Walk" entered Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

's Top 40 on August 17, 1959. It rose to the number-one position for two weeks in September (the 21st and the 28th)
and remained in the Top 40 until November 9. "Sleep Walk" also reached number four on the R&B chart. It was the last instrumental to hit number one in the 1950s and earned Santo & Johnny a gold record.

Cover versions

One of the first covers was by Betsy Brye
(stage name of Bette Anne Steele) in 1959. While Santo & Johnny wrote lyrics for "Sleep Walk", they never recorded a lyrical version, but Betsy Brye's version included these lyrics.

It has been also covered by Brian Setzer Orchestra, Al Kooper

Al Kooper

Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...

(playing the guitar part on synthesizer), Paul Mauriat

Paul Mauriat

Paul Mauriat was a French orchestra leader, specializing in light music. He is best known in the United States for his million selling remake of André Popp's "Love is Blue", which was #1 for 5 weeks in 1968...

, The Shadows

The Shadows

The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...

, The Ventures

The Ventures

The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...

, Jake Shimabukuro

Jake Shimabukuro

Jake Shimabukuro is an ukulele virtuoso known for his complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz and rock.- History :...

, Danny Gatton

Danny Gatton

Danny Gatton was an American guitarist who fused rockabilly, jazz, and country styles to create his own distinctive style of playing. A biography, Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny Gatton by Ralph Heibutzki, was published in 2003. It has a voluminous discography...

, Larry Carlton

Larry Carlton

Larry Carlton is an American jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, pop, and rock guitarist and singer. He has divided his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with various well-known bands...

, Deftones

Deftones

Deftones are an American alternative metal band from Sacramento, California, founded in 1988. The band consists of Chino Moreno , Stephen Carpenter , Chi Cheng , Frank Delgado , and Abe Cunningham . Currently Sergio Vega is standing in on bass while Cheng recovers from a car accident...

, Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...

, Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins

Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

, B. J. Cole

B. J. Cole

Brian John Cole is an English pedal steel guitarist. Coming to prominence in the early 1970s with the band Cochise, Cole has played in many styles of music, ranging from mainstream pop and rock, to jazz and eclectic experimental music.He played and is heavily featured with Deke Leonard's Help...

, Micah P. Hinson

Micah P. Hinson

Micah Paul Hinson is an American americana singer and guitarist and recording artist for Sketchbook Records in the United Kingdom and Jade Tree Records in the United States. His debut album Micah P. Hinson and the Gospel of Progress was released in 2004 to much critical praise...

, Amos Garrett

Amos Garrett

Amos Garrett is a Juno Award-winning American-Canadian musician, performer, and author. He holds dual citizenship and was raised in Toronto and Montreal...

, Henri Rene

Henri René

Henri René was an American-born German producer, conductor and arranger. René mother's was German and his father French; while young, his family moved to Germany, and René studied at the Royal Berlin Academy of Music. Returning to the U.S. in the mid 1920s, he began appearing with several...

, Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970 he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key, generally acoustic backing...

, Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

, Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani

Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...

, Modest Mouse

Modest Mouse

Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. They are based in Portland, Oregon. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think...

, The Chantays

The Chantays

The Chantays are an American surf rock band from the early 1960s, known for the hit instrumental, "Pipeline" . Their music combined electronic keyboards and surf guitar, creating a unique ghostly sound.-History:...

, Tommy Crook

Tommy Crook

Tommy Crook is an American guitarist who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2007.-Professional career:...

, and Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana

Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...

recorded a cover version for the Musical Score to the 1987 film La Bamba
La Bamba
La Bamba may refer to:*La Bamba , a 1987 film based on the life and death of Ritchie Valens*"La Bamba" , a folk song best known from a 1958 adaptation by Ritchie Valens*"La Bomba" , a 2000 Latin pop song by King Africa...

but this version was not released in the soundtrack.

Brian Setzer

Brian Setzer

Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...

's recording received a Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

for Best Pop Instrumental Performance of 1998.

In America, Country Music Hall of Famer Jimmy Russell recorded his version of Sleep Walk in 2001.

In Europe, French award-winning guitarist Jean-Pierre Danel

Jean-Pierre Danel

Jean-Pierre Danel is a French guitarist, record producer and composer.-Biography:Danel started his career as a professional guitarist in July 1982, at the age of 14....

had a Top 20 hit with his instrumental version of the song recorded in 2006.

Modest Mouse

Modest Mouse

, Deftones

Deftones

, My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket is an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky.The band consists of Jim James , Tom 'Two-Tone Tommy' Blankenship , Patrick Hallahan , Carl Broemel , and Bo Koster .-History:My Morning Jacket was...

, and The Raveonettes

The Raveonettes

The Raveonettes are a Danish indie rock duo, consisting of Sune Rose Wagner on guitar, instruments, and vocals, and Sharin Foo on bass, guitar and vocals...

have all recorded adaptions of the song with lyrics.

In popular culture

"Sleep Walk" has remained popular and continues to be used in commercials, television shows, and films.

The song is featured prominently at the opening and the end of the 1987 film, La Bamba
La Bamba (film)
La Bamba is a 1987 American biographical film written and directed by Luis Valdez. The picture features Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Rosanna DeSoto, Elizabeth Peña, Danielle von Zerneck, and Joe Pantoliano...

, during Ritchie Valens

Ritchie Valens

Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....

' funeral and the subsequent scene of his brother, Bob, screaming Ritchie's name into the skies in anguish.

The song was featured in the 1992 Stephen King film, Sleepwalkers
Sleepwalkers (film)
Sleepwalkers is a 1992 American horror film based on an original screenplay by Stephen King and directed by Mick Garris.-Plot summary:...

as well as the 1995 film, Twelve Monkeys
Twelve Monkeys
12 Monkeys is a 1995 science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam, inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 short film La jetée, and starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Plummer....

and also the 1990 film Mermaids
Mermaids (film)
Mermaids is a 1990 comedy-drama film directed by Richard Benjamin and starring Cher, Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder , and Christina Ricci in her first film role...

. The song also appears in the 2004 surf documentary, Riding Giants
Riding Giants
Riding Giants is a 2004 documentary film directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer who helped define modern skateboarding. The movie traces the origins of surfing and specifically focuses on the art of big wave riding...

.

Cover versions

In popular culture

See also