Guest post by Nathan Arizona
If songwriter Bobby Troup hadn’t changed his plan on a cross-country drive to California, his famous tune might have been called “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 40.” Instead of colorful Flagstaff, Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico, it might have been Bear, Delaware, and Elkton, Maryland.
Driving on U.S. 40, one of the original “national highways,” he thought about writing a Route 40 song. He had already written a few tunes. But after he got to the end of that road at Chicago and headed west on Route 66 he had a better idea.
Troup and his wife started noting the names of towns and when they got to L.A. they used a map to remind them where they’d been. Troup wrote “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and took it to Nat King Cole, who turned it into one of his biggest hits. It’s been covered by about a thousand other artists and even inspired a popular ’60s TV show named after it.
Troup had started his trip from home in Harrisburg, Pa., intending to drive as much possible on U.S.40. The highway started in Atlantic City, ran through Delaware in lower New Castle County (still does), went on across the top of Maryland and entered Pennsylvania at its western end. If he wanted to maximize his Route 40 experience he might have picked it up by first driving the short distance south to Delaware.
He had more than songwriting skill to draw on after he got to L.A. He was also a singer and piano player, and he recorded his own jazzy version of “Route 66.” He developed a hipster image while he was at it — “get your kicks” was something hipsters said back then. “Won’t you get hip to this timely tip . . . Get your kicks on Route 66.” He wrote and recorded a swinging version of the three bears tale. “. . . Goldilocks woke up/Broke up the party and beat it out of there/ . . . . Hey Ba-ba Re-bear said the little wee bear.”
He became an actor, too. He was in “Bop Girl Goes Calypso” and other quality films. He appeared on TV in three “Perry Mason” episodes, especially good for playing beatnik types. He also made appearances on his friend Jack Webb’s TV show “Dragnet,” as well as “Mannix,” “Rawhide” and other shows. From 1972 to 1977 he played against type as a gray-haired doctor on another Webb show, “Emergency” (weeknights at 5 on MeTV).
His second wife, Julie London, played a nurse on “Emergency.” She had been generally considered the sexiest of the female jazz and pop-standard singers of the ‘50s and ‘60s. A hipster singer-songwriter/jazz piano player/actor could do pretty well for himself.
“Route 66” entered the rock world when Chuck Berry recorded it in 1961. The Rolling Stones took it up in 1964 and it became an important part of their early act. The Replacements had a whack at it too.
Other folks who covered it include Glen Frey, Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters, Asleep at the Wheel, Perry Como, the Long Ryders, Dr. Feelgood, Sammy Davis, Jr., John Mayer, Louis Jordan, Depeche Mode (!), the Cramps (!!) and Anita Bryant (!!!).
Here’s Bobby Troup playing his song with a jazz combo in 1964 on a Julie London TV special filmed in Japan. That’s London in the very brief shot at the beginning.
Nat King Cole had the first recording of “Route 66” in 1946.
Depeche Mode didn’t sound like a band from the American heartland, but they brought along some nice Route 66 footage. The model probably didn’t live in Amarillo, though.
Asleep at the Wheel brought a Western swing vibe to it.
