The story begins on a military base in Oklahoma at the start of World War II.
When brothers Santo and Johnny Farina were just toddlers, their father was drafted into the Army. While stationed in Oklahoma for basic training, the elder Farina kept hearing Country & Western steel guitar music on the radio. The lonesome, cowpoke twang was unlike anything he'd heard growing up in his native Italy or back in Brooklyn, where the family lived. He quickly fell in love with the sound and wrote home to his wife, urging her to get steel guitar lessons for their boys.
It probably goes without saying that it wasn't easy finding a steel guitar teacher in New York in those days. After a few less-than-successful guitar lessons at a music shop in Brooklyn Heights, the Farinas discovered Eddie Bell, a musician and teacher who had a gig playing Hawaiian steel guitar at a kitschy tiki bar in Midtown Manhattan. Under Bell's tutelage, the brothers began to master their instruments (Santo on steel and Johnny on electric guitar). By the late 50s, the brothers had gained a decent following in Brooklyn, playing covers of rock & roll/pop songs at school sock-hops, church dances, and small Brooklyn clubs.
One evening after a show, the brothers were too revved up from performing to go right to bed, so they started jamming to wind down. The result was an ethereal instrumental that they initially called "Deep Sleep," which after some fine tuning developed into the international hit song "Sleep Walk."
Personally, knowing the backstory sheds so much light on this track, which otherwise seems a bit alien in the landscape of rock & roll in 1959. Breaking the song down, you can hear a dab of the Country twang their father loved so much, a touch of Brooklyn doo-wop, a bit of their mentor's Hawaiian steel technique, and even a little Italian folk music.
It's that gorgeous melting pot of influences and haunting, note-perfect performance that make the tune a timeless classic.
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