Dave Edmunds: Rockpile

A YEAR AGO, Englishman Dave Edmunds introduced himself to the rock audience through a scrupulously crafted recording of 'I Hear You Knockin'', once a Fats Domino hit. Edmunds' version featured a primitive, sharply echoed vocal sound that wasn't at all in the New Orleans style, but was rather like Sun Records. Edmunds added another novel touch by replacing the expected piano with a brittle slide guitar track that even out-trebled the vocal. The sound of 'I Hear You Knockin'' seemed to improve in inverse proportion to the quality of the speakers it was played through – it was consciously crude and mangy, and naturally it made a terrific single, enjoying considerable success.