![]() That Model A Vitimix makes it look like a pup. It’s got a Lincoln motor and it’s really souped up. And the lyrics are different in one key word: The Hot Rod Lincoln song was originally written and released in 1955 by singer-songwriter Charley Ryan as a response Shibley’s Hot Rod Race, and tells the story from the vantage point of the Model A driver. When it flew by us, I turned the other way.įor it was a kid, in a hopped-up Model A. Arkie went on to make four follow-up songs. It was a response to Arkie Shibley’s 1951 hit, “Hot Rod Race”, which tells about an impromptu race between the singer’s Mercury and a Ford. The song was originally written and released way back in 1955 by singer-songwriter Charley Ryan. The song really was about a hot rod Lincoln, but it wasn’t a V8, as Commander Cody asserts. Who ever used a Lincoln V8 engine in a Model A hot rod? I had never heard of such a thing. ![]() There’s a slew of video mixes to that song, but the one above was the best of the ones I perused on Youtube, as it at least shows some creativity in its selection of old footage.īut I was frankly a bit confused by the title name and lyrics back in ’71. Jim Varney, on The Beverly Hillbillies soundtrack (1993)Ĭhris Casello, on Chris Casello Trio (2013)īill Kirchen (Lead guitar in Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen) on “Hot Rod Lincoln Live.Needless to say, I fell hard for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen’s “Hot Rod Lincoln” when it was released in 1971. In addition to Johnny Bond and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, many other artists have recorded cover versions of “Hot Rod Lincoln” in the decades since its original release, including:Īsleep at the Wheel, on Western Standard Time (1988) this version reached no. 69 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972. Bond released a sequel in the same year called “X-15”, set in 1997, about an air race in an X-15 plane.Īnother cover version, by country rock band Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen on their 1971 album Lost in the Ozone, became the most successful version of “Hot Rod Lincoln,” reaching No. Route 95 in Idaho) to the top of Lewiston Hill he incorporated elements from this race in his lyrics to “Hot Rod Lincoln”, but changed the setting to Grapevine Hill (a long, nearly straight grade up Grapevine Canyon to Tejon Pass, near the town of Gorman, California) to fit it within the narrative of “Hot Rod Race”.Ī cover version of “Hot Rod Lincoln” was recorded by country musician Johnny Bond and released in 1960 through Republic Records, with Bond’s lyrics changing the hot rod’s engine from a V12 to a V8. Ryan raced his hot rod against a Cadillac sedan driven by a friend in Lewiston, Idaho, driving up the Spiral Highway (former U.S. Ryan based the description of the eponymous car on his own hot rod, built from a 1948 12-cylinder Lincoln chassis shortened two feet, with a 1930 Ford Model A body fitted to it. A second version was released in 1959 through Four Star Records, credited to Charlie Ryan and the Timberline Riders. Ryan’s original rockabilly version of the song was released in 1955 through Souvenir Records under the artist name Charley Ryan and the Livingston Bros. “Hot Rod Lincoln” is sung from the perspective of this third driver, whose own hot rod is a Ford Model A body with a Lincoln-Zephyr V12 engine, overdrive, a four-barrel carburetor, 4:11 gear ratio, and safety tubes. It was written as an answer song to Arkie Shibley’s 1951 hit “Hot Rod Race” which describes a race in San Pedro, Los Angeles between two hot rod cars, a Ford and a Mercury, which stay neck-and-neck until both are overtaken by “a kid in a hopped-up Model A”. ![]() ![]() “Hot Rod Lincoln” is a song by American singer-songwriter Charlie Ryan, first released in 1955.
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