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From: andrew@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Mickey Spillane=Harlem Nocturne - (nf)
Message-ID: <1023@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Mar-84 06:23:53 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.1023
Posted: Thu Mar  8 06:23:53 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Mar-84 07:18:15 EST
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#R:ihnss:-194400:inmet:6600093:000:704
inmet!andrew    Mar  7 19:13:00 1984

Re: "Harlem Nocturne"

I don't know when it was *first* composed, but it was a hit single when
recorded by the Viscounts (in 1960, on Madison, and again in 1965 on Amy).
My copy of the single credits the song to "Rodgers-Hagen".  According to
Norm N. Nite's "Rock On", nobody in the band was named that... so it's
probably a cover of something composed earlier.

The "eerie but sleazy" sound comes from a) the heavily-tremoloed guitar
playing minor chords (cf. Link Wray's "Rumble"); b) the "heartbeat" bass;
and (especially) c) the melody, which sustains the major seventh over the
minor chords (D# over E minor, G# over A minor).
 
Andrew W. Rogers, Intermetrics    ...{harpo|ima|esquire}!inmet!andrew