THE JOHNSTON BROTHERS - “Hernando’s Hideaway”
(11th November 1955)
“All you see are silhouettes / And all you hear are castanets / And no-one cares how late it gets / Not at Hernando’s Hideaway” - late night Spanish-themed drinking dens are romanticised by the Johnstons. Perhaps some of the staff in certain of London’s current nightspots remembered this song from their boyhoods and let it influence their choice of career? Sordid present-day realities aside this is an evocative, neatly-produced novelty, which only starts to irritate after half a dozen plays. Castanets are all over the place of course, but you also get struck matches, mysterious knocks, vocals conspiratorially down near the mic and flashing string flourishes. 5
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rosie on May 3rd, 2008
It is, of course, a show tune, from The Pajama Game. Any romance involved is ironic (what’s being described is a Prohibition-era speakeasy in Iowa, for heaven’s sake! And during a garment workers’ strike.
Where I remember it best is from a cabaret bar in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1988 (I was staying with the pianist.) The speciality of the house was show tunes and this was an eternal favourite, with lighters lit - Rocky Horror Show style - at the “strikle a match” line.