The Vacant Lot - Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long (1967)

Rev Gary Davis - Tryin’ To Get To Heaven In Due Time (1964)

(Traditional)
 USA

A version of Wake Me, Shake Me, Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long on the 1962 album Say No To The Devil.

Rev Gary Davis (1896-1972) was an influential self-taught ragtime guitarist, preacher, street singer and teacher who played in a variety of genres including blues and gospel.

References: 1. Bruce Eder’s Rev. Gary Davis biography at All Music. 2. RevGaryDavis.com [archived version].

The Coasters - Wake Me, Shake Me (1960)

(Billy Guy)
 USA

Single on Atco, produced by Jerry Leiber &  Mike Stoller.

Composer is Coasters baritone Billy Guy (1936-2002).

This amounts to a secularised parody of The Staple Singers' Let Me Ride, with the chariots from Swing Low, Sweet Chariot becoming garbage trucks. The familiar Wake me, shake me refrain is transformed into the words of a garbage man worried about losing his job if he sleeps late.

See below for possible indirect influence of Ersel Hickey.

For more on The Coasters, see Poison Ivy.

Reference: Bill Millar, The Coasters, (1974).

Ersel Hickey - Due Time (1958)

(Traditional)
 USA

Incomplete, unreleased track for Epic label, a rock’n’roll version of the gospel song Wake Me, Shake Me (the title is from its line Got to get to heaven in due time). According to Bear Family liner notes, it may have led to The Coasters’ Wake Me, Shake Me after Ersel Hickey played his recording to their producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

Rockabilly singer and composer Ersel Hickey (born O’Hickey, 1934-2004) had sung in a gospel group before turning to rock’n’roll. His best known recording is of his own song Bluebirds Over The Mountain (1958), later recorded by The Beach Boys. He also co-wrote The Serendipity Singers’ 1964 hit Don’t Let The Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man).

Biographies of Ersel Hickey usually mention his 1958 publicity photo by Gene LaVerne which has become an iconic image of studied 50s rock’n’roll attitude.

References: 1. Jason Ankeny’s biography of Ersel Hickey at All Music. 2. Johnny Vallis, Ersel Hickey: The Most Famous Pose Of Rock and Roll at Rockabilly Hall Of Fame. 3. Ersel Hickey by Spencer Lee, reprinted at Spectropop from The Independent. 4. Rockin’ Country Style has a song list with some audio clips and label shots.

The Staple Singers - Let Me Ride (1957)

(Roebuck Staples)
 USA

This reworking of Swing Low Sweet Chariot includes the refrain Wake me, shake me/ Don't let me sleep too late/ Tryin' to get to Heaven in due time/ Before the Heaven's doors close.

The Original Five Blind Boys Of Alabama - Swingin’ On The Golden Gate

(Traditional)
 USA

One of a number of tracks unreleased until the 1990s but recorded 1953-1957 by gospel group first formed in the 1930s and continuing in one form or another to this day.

This swinging gospel recording includes several lyrical elements found in other variations: Tryin’ to get to heaven in due time/ Just before that heaven door closed… (I heard her say) Wake me, shake me/ Don’t you let me sleep too late… Wake me in the morning/ Let me swing on the golden gate…

Further reading: Richard Skelly’s biography of The Blind Boys of Alabama at All Music.

The Wright Brothers Gospel Singers - Wake Me, Shake Me, Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long (1941)

(Traditional)
 USA

78 rpm disc on Bluebird B-8755. This seems to be a well-known version, possibly influential in its structure, lyrics and melody.

The lyrics include Wake me, shake me/ Don’t let me sleep too late (cf. Fiddlin’ John Carson’s 1927 recording) as well as Tryin’ to get to Heaven in due time/ Before the Heaven’s doors close (as in the Pace Jubilee Singers’ recording, also 1927). In future versions, with variations, these lines are standard.

Further reading: Detailed listing of the record at Discography of American Historical Records.

The Pace Jubilee Singers - Heaven’s Door’s Gonna Be Closed (1927)

(Traditional)
 USA

78 rpm disc on Gennett #12630, recorded March 1927.

Although this is a close relation of Wake Me, Shake Me, it has a more stately traditional hymn tune, without the gospel rhythm of Wake Me Shake Me. The familiar lines Tryin’ to get to Heaven in due time/ Before the Heaven’s doors close are here, but not the Wake me, shake me refrain.

The Pace Jubilee Singers were formed in 1925 by composer and publisher Charles Henry Pace (1886-1963).

References: Gennett label discography at Online Discographical Project  (78discography.com). Charles Henry Pace’s biography from Center for American Music [archived page].
Thanks to Joop Jansen.

Fiddlin’ John Carson & His Virginia Reelers - Gonna Swing on the Golden Gate (1927)

(Traditional)
 USA

This is the earliest recording I know of that has both the familiar Wake me/ shake me refrain (albeit reversed as Shake me, wake me) as well as Don’t let me sleep too late. (It continues I’m goin’ away in the morning/ Gonna swing on the golden gate.)

There is a direct line from this energetic, rhythmic recording to the rock versions of the 60s, more so than in the hymn-like Pace Jubilee Singers variation, also from 1927. This isn’t yet Wake Me Shake Me/Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long, the song we know from Blues Project/Myddle Class/Vacant Lot, but there is clearly a family resemblance.

No doubt there are other – even earlier – variations to be found. Certainly, the theme of Heaven’s golden gates is common in gospel music: take, for example, Ernest Hare’s 1928 recording on Champion, Keep Dem Golden Gates Wide Open For Me.

55-year-old Georgian cotton mill worker Fiddlin’ John Carson (1868-1949) released Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane/The Old Hen Cackled on Okeh in 1923. John Bush at All Music notes that this was the first recording by a strictly country artist and arguably the beginning of the country music recording industry.

Reference: John Bush’s biography of Fiddlin’ John Carson at All Music.
Further reading: Wikipedia aricle on Fiddlin’ John Carson.
Thanks to Phil X. Milstein for version alert.