Since last November, I've been slowly reading Mark Lewisohn's
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions. A couple weeks ago, I read the entry for 6 October 1964 (p. 49) in which Lewisohn claims that "Eight Days a Week" was "the first pop song to feature a faded-up introduction."
Yester-day was Chuck Berry's birthday, so I listened to some of his music and rediscovered that the introduction in "Down Bound Train" also fades in. "Eight Days a Week" is from 1964, but "Down Bound Train" is from 1956.
Here are screen clippings of the wave forms:
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| "Down Bound Train" |
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| "Eight Days a Week" |
I'm not sure if "Down Bound Train" could be classified as a "pop song," but it's certainly a song with a faded-in introduction that predates "Eight Days a Week." Likewise, I'm not sure if the Beatles were familiar with this particular song (although they certainly were familiar with other Chuck Berry songs) or if the faded-in introduction of "Down Bound Train" had anything to do with the faded-in introduction of "Eight Days a Week."
