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Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa

"Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and was originally a hit in 1963 for Gene Pitney.[2][3]

Production

The song's lyrics tell of a traveling man who detours to a romance in a motel and ends up never returning home.[4] The twists of the song's lyrics (the protagonist, just 24 hours from reaching home, falls in love with a woman when he stops driving for the night, leaving his current partner twisting in the wind) are echoed in the music's tonal ambiguity, a common feature of Bacharach's constructivist style. The verse is in G major, with a lydian implication in the melody supported by the supertonic major. At the start of the chorus, an interruption of the expected cadence by the subdominant chord (C major) establishes this as the new tonic, with the remainder of the chorus centered around the submediant, dominant and subdominant chords of this key. A similar interruption at the end of the chorus converts an expected perfect cadence in the new key to a modal cadence back into G major. At the end of the song, a dominant seventh on the tonic resolves as a perfect cadence into a new key to finish the song on the subdominant chord of the principal key (C major as viewed from the perspective of a G major tonality).

Chart performance

Its success in the UK, peaking at #5,[5] enabled Pitney to become an international star. In the US, Pitney's hit peaked at #17 on the 7 December 1963 Hot 100[6][7] and #2 on the 6 December 1963 WLS Silver Dollar Survey.[8]

Cover versions

References in popular culture

Influences

Less than two years later, Billy Joe Royal's "Down in the Boondocks" copied part of the arrangement of the tune.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Gene Pitney: Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". 45.cat. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  2. ^ a b Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 24 - The Music Men. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
  3. ^ Dave Austin; Jim Peterik; Cathy Austin (2010), Songwriting For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 9780470890417
  4. ^ Ian McMillan (2012-11-05). "Where exactly is 24 hours from Tulsa?". Leeds, West Yorkshire, England: The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  5. ^ "officialcharts.com". Official Charts. Retrieved March 19, 2021.
  6. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 493.
  7. ^ "Hot 100". Billboard. 1963-12-07. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  8. ^ "WLS Silver Dollar Survey". 1963-12-06. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  9. ^ Serene Dominic (2003), Burt Bacharach,song by song, Schirmer Trade Books, ISBN 9780825672804
  10. ^ "The O'Kaysions, Girl Watcher". Discogs. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  11. ^ "RPM Country 50 - March 13, 1971" (PDF).
  12. ^ "Meo 245 – Marching Feet (1981, Vinyl)". Discogs.
  13. ^ "Pop Deluxe - Mari Wilson | Album | AllMusic". AllMusic.
  14. ^ "Twenty Four Hours From Tulse Hill, BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama". www.wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk. 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  15. ^ Stephens, Emily L. (2018-09-12). "In the end, Castle Rock unlocks its potential and throws away the key". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  16. ^ "Sample: Billy Joe Royal 'Down in the Boondocks' Gene Pitney 'Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa'". Who Sampled: Exploring the DNA of Music. Retrieved May 11, 2018.