![]() But 'Hot Rod Lincoln' was the first car song to become a major hit and make the Billboard top ten list. ![]() Other car songs were written before Charlie's, everything from 'My Merry Oldsmobile' ( 1903) to Jackie Brentson's 'Rocket 88' ( 1951 - and, with Ike Turner on keyboard, it's considered by many to be the very first rock n' roll song). ![]() While traveling to perform, Charlie and his wife Ruthie often took the Hot Rod Lincoln on tour. It became a major hit in many regions of the United States. Charlie Ryan recorded 'Hot Rod Lincoln' in 1955 it was released as a single by Souvenir Records in 1957. By the early 1950s, he had the lyrics worked out and began performing it. While he was working on the car, Charlie was thinking about the song. It was repainted again in 1986 in " Datsun Z-car red." Charlie told me, " The paint's the only Japanese thing on it." The interior has a narrowed '41 Zephyr dashboard. The car has a lot of Lincoln touches on it, including cut-down Zephyr bumpers, a Lincoln emblem on the radiator and the Lincoln greyhound radiator ornament. Charlie installed a '48 V-12 engine in it along with the 3-speed with overdrive '48 transmission. At first, the car was painted black with red wheels. He removed the Zephyr body, cut two feet off the frame to shorten the wheelbase and dropped a 1930 Ford Model A coupe body on it. After a couple of years, he decided to make a hot rod out of it. In the late 1940s, he purchased a used 1941 Lincoln Zephyr four-door sedan. He fashioned both the car and the song.Ĭharlie Ryan is a musician, songwriter and a car guy. Nevertheless, the creator of 'Hot Rod Lincoln' is Charlie Ryan. I never heard his version until I bought - you guessed it - a car songs compilation album in the mid-1960s. It was a far bigger hit in the NY-NJ-Philly universe than the lame Williams rendition.Ĭharlie Ryan recorded 'Hot Rod Lincoln' in 1955 it became a hit for him during the 1957-60 period, depending on what area of the country you lived in. 'Butterfly', a 1957 hit for Andy Williams, can't hold a candle to the 1956 Charlie Gracie version released on Philadelphia's Cameo Records label. In those days, there were 'regional hits' - that's why many of those reissued compilation albums have songs or artists you don't recognize. His version was the one that caught on in the Philadelphia area. The first time I ever heard the song 'Hot Rod Lincoln' was in 1960.
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