Bobby Troup wrote his first hit song before he was even out of college. The fifth most popular song of 1941, in fact, the Billboard chart topper “Daddy,” performed by Sammy Kaye. He joined the Marines after he graduated that year, but even as he was assigned to base camp in Jacksonville, North Carolina, he continued to write. He had another hit, a tune penned for Frank Sinatra, “Snootie Little Cutie,” in 1942. He composed what would go on to be a Marine anthem, “Take Me Away from Jacksonville,” in 1943. Also, while assigned to the camp, he organized the first-ever all black Marine band.
A year after the war, he cemented his legacy with “(Get Your Kicks) on Route 66”, a swinging tribute to the interstate highway that Springfield gave its name. Troup had wanted to see if he could make it as a songwriter in Hollywood, so he and his wife Cynthia jumped in their Buick and headed west on the Mother Road. Notably, their journey first started out on US-40, and he almost made that highway the star of the song. It was Cynthia who suggested the (arguably) far catchier subject and title.
Originally a huge hit in 1946 for The (Nat) King Cole Trio, “Get Your Kicks” went on to be recorded by hundreds of artists, perhaps most famously The Rolling Stones, who featured it on their 1964 debut and made it a staple of their early live shows. Notably, the Stones themselves learned it from a recording by Missouri’s own rock ‘n’ roll legend, Mr. Chuck Berry.
Now here’s an even more fun twist: while Troup would never have another hit as big as “Get Your Kicks,” he continued to write for years to come. In 1956, he wrote the title track for a rock ‘n’ roll film starring Little Richard called “The Girl Can’t Help It”. When that movie made its way to Britain in early 1957, it was a smash hit among the youth of the time, including an impressionable John Lennon, who claimed the film was the inspiration for his rock ‘n’ roll dreams. Shortly thereafter, when a young Lennon met an even younger McCartney, Paul established his bonafides to John by playing a song from the film. The rest is history.
So, in 1946, a man writes a song inspired by a road trip (in part) through Springfield that (in turn) becomes one of the first big hits for the Stones, who themselves learned it (in total) from a recording by a Missouri legend.
And also, this songwriter would pen a hit that just happens to be the title track to the movie that got the Beatles together.
And his biggest hit was named after Route 66 because his wife was a smart lady.
And she only had that suggestion to give him because 20 years earlier two businessmen in Springfield were at loggerheads with the government of Kentucky over the name of a highway, and their eventual compromise, made at the Continental Hotel in Springfield, MO on April 30th, 1926 was “Route 66.”
And thanks to all of that (broadly speaking) we have “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Hey Jude.”
History is neat. We’ll see you next week.
