The songs 'I Hear You Knocking' and 'Blue Monday' were composed by the New Orleans jazz polymath Dave Bartholomew in the early 1950s. Smiley Lewis was the first to publicly sing and record both, but his reputation has long languished in the shadows of his younger contemporary Fats Domino, whose recordings and performances of the two songs are venerable classics.

The Welshman Dave Edmunds (born 1944) became a third level of creative connection after Lewis/Bartholomew and Domino in covering their dual classics. He infused two southern American 'rockabilly' classics with his very discernible British accent and more rhythmic punch rather than the languid pace of his 2 predecessors.

Edmunds' version of 'Blue Monday' is something of a latecomer. It only became known as a bonus track in the 2001 reissue of his 1972 debut album 'Rockpile', which contains his cover of 'I Hear You Knocking', possibly his signature song, and his first single. Edmunds first wanted to to record a version of "Let's Work Together" by Wilbert Harrison, but Canned Heat covered that song before he could. Searching for an alternative he heard "I Hear You Knocking" on his car radio while driving; a Smiley Lewis compilation album recently became available in the UK. Edmunds found the two songs comparably appealing and moved on to cover 'I Hear You Knocking', predating the 'Rockpile' album by 2 years in 1970; that year it reached #4 in American Billboard and #1 in UK.

More Info: www.songfacts.com