NEW * Hush - Deep Purple {Stereo} 1968

1968......#4 U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #3 U.S. Cash Box Top 100, #2 Canada Original video edited and AI remastered with HQ stereo sound. “Hush“ is a song written by American composer and musician Joe South, for recording artist Billy Joe Royal. The song was later covered by Somebody’s Image (an Australian band fronted by Russell Morris) in 1967. It reached #15. It was also covered by Deep Purple in 1968 and by Kula Shaker in 1997. Each artist had a Top 5 hit with their version. The song was subsequently recorded by English hard rock band Deep Purple for their 1968 debut album Shades of Deep Purple, group member Ritchie Blackmore having heard the Billy Joe Royal original while living in Hamburg: (Ritchie Blackmore quote:) “It was a great song [which] would be a good song [for] our act, if we could come up with a different [recorded] the whole song in two takes.“ The track became the group’s first hit single peaking at number 4 on the Hot 100 on 21–28 September 1968, number 16 in Italy in late 1968, and number 2 in Canada while going largely unnoticed in the United Kingdom. Cash Box called it a “psychedelicized reversion of the time-back Billy Joe Royal song,“ saying that the instrumental work and tailoring of the rock song all point to sheer force“. Record World described it as “a rollicking, contemporary ditty.“ In 1968, Deep Purple performed live on Hugh Hefner’s Playboy After Dark TV series. The band opened the episode playing the instrumental “And the Address“. After Hefner heard a ghost story from Jon Lord and had a guitar lesson from Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple performed “Hush“. In celebration of the band’s 20th anniversary, Deep Purple re-recorded the song in 1988 for their album Nobody’s Perfect. The track was released as a single and reached number 62 on the UK singles chart and number 44 on the US Hot Mainstream Rock chart. “Hush“ is one of four songs originally recorded with the band’s original vocalist Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper that Deep Purple have performed with their replacements Ian Gillan and Roger Glover later on. Others are “Mandrake Root“, also from Shades of Deep Purple, “Kentucky Woman“, from the album The Book of Taliesyn from 1968 and “Bird Has Flown“, from the album Deep Purple from 1969. The instrumental “Wring That Neck“ from The Book of Taliesyn was also a regular part of the band’s setlist into the early 1970s.