IFLTS: 'Sleep Walk,' Santo and Johnny

Posted on Apr 23rd 2007 2:00PM by Melissa Olund
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'Sleep Walk,' Santo and Johnny
From 1959

Those who know me would be hard-pressed to describe me as the sentimental sort. I cringe at the very notion of chick flicks and flowers just make me sneeze. But the sappy side of me comes out when I hear this 1959 instrumental.

The song was inspired by the music that Santo and Johnny Farina's father heard on the radio while stationed in Oklahoma during World War II. Farina Sr. was so moved by the sound of the steel guitar that he wanted his young boys to learn it when he arrived home. The boys were recording by the time they hit their teens.

The swell of Santo and Johnny's steel guitar in 'Sleep Walk' forms the mental soundtrack to the stories I've inherited from my grandparents: Struggling through a Depression-era childhood, striving for a better life as first-generation Americans, and even their sweet, World War II romance.

Though the song post-dates most of their tales, every time I hear it, I picture my grandfather in all of his pompadoured, zoot-suited glory, with my gorgeous, red-lipped grandmother at his side. I can't experience firsthand the simpler times they enjoyed, but for a brief two and one-half minutes, I can live vicariously through this song.

Melissa is an editor at Spinner. She swears she doesn't own a poodle skirt.

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