Gary U.S. Bonds: "Quarter to Three"

July 3, 1961 (1 week)

In preparing for this review, I started coming up with fancifully ways in which the artist on this particular number one hit came up with his unique stage name. I figured that it must have come as the Second World War was coming to an end and the young Gary Bonds was given the nickname 'War'. (War Bonds, geddit?) He would have only been five or six which seems too young for his friends to have thought it up so it must have been an uncle who liked palling around with his nephew. War Bonds stuck until a manager or label exec advised him to change it to the much more patriotic 'U.S.'. I don't imagine anyone gave much thought to calling him 'Savings' though. (The name 'U.S. Bonds' is how he was credited on early hits like "Quarter to Three" but I'm going with the altered form that he has used for the bulk of his life)

It is said that Bruce Springsteen has performed "Quarter to Three" at least two hundred and fifteen times over the years. It could well be higher since I'm going by information in an issue of Mojo from 2022 and he's currently in the middle of a tour. Still, it doesn't appear he's been trotting it out on the Canadian leg so the difference is at best negligible. In any case, more than two hundred performances of a song he didn't write and that few of his fans probably know by its original artist is impressive. The Boss famously played it as part of the No Nukes concert film at Madison Square Garden and there's also a good clip from London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1975. Clearly, Springsteen loves singing it. Whatsmore, it always proved to be the perfect spotlight for Clarence Clemons and his powerful sax solos. While no one could blame members of The E Street Band for being a little bored of having to play the otherwise fantastic "Prove It All Night" hundreds of times, there's little to indicate that the likes of Steven Van Zandt and Max Weinberg ever tired of yet another rendition of "Quarter to Three".

And yet, Springsteen has never bettered the original. I'm quite sure he knows this too. In fact, he's not even trying to do so. His band is far too good to replicate the ramshackle magic of Gary U.S. Bonds. Sure, the E Street gang has just as much energy as they kick in the dancefloor grooves but they're professionals in a way that the Church Street Five could never hope to have been. If anything, he gets the spirit of the song better on a song like "Sherry Darling", an irresistible bar band rocker from his superb 1980 album The River, which similarly re-creates the live atmosphere in the studio with a host of chums egging him on.

The startling lack of clarity is the most noticeable aspect of "Quarter to Three" and it is another reason why Springsteen could never quite match it. Recorded in either deliberate or accidental roughhouse fashion, it is, as Tom Breihan notes, remarkable to think that it managed to catch on during the smooth as silk early sixties. It is practically lo-fi. Sounding as rough and chaotic as it does, perhaps listeners were attracted to it because it gave them a hint of what a U.S. Bonds concert must have been like. Breihan also points out in his review that it is a "self-promotion" that will have you dancing until 2:45 in the morning, just as the title promises. While I'm not at all surprised that the twelve-year-old Bruce Springsteen was taken in by Bonds commanding everyone to party well into the evening, it's harder to believe that enough young people were similarly entranced by it that it managed to go all the way to number one on both the Hot 100 and on the CHUM Hit Parade.

It is damn-near impossible to discuss Gary U.S. Bonds without bringing up his most famous fan. Springsteen proved to be such a ardent devotee that he even helped re-ignite his recording career in the early eighties which gave him a much needed hit single, the Springsteen-penned "This Little Girl". Yet, for everything The Boss has done to promote him and cite him as a major influence, I have no doubt that many of his fans have never heard the original "Quarter to Three" before. They probably don't really need to either. No question Clarence Clemons could blow stronger and for longer that the guy playing with Bonds. Same goes for Max Weinberg beating the drums harder and at a more professional pace. Little Steven riffs on the strings and Roy Bittan pounds the keys better too. But that's not the point. Only Bonds and his bandmates could sound so seductively messy: others tried to copy them but they had no hope of even coming close.

Finally, Springsteen himself will eventually be covered in this space. (As opposed to both the US and UK, The Boss did managed to top the charts at least once in Canada) While I can't promise anything, it would be nice to repay the favour and discuss Gary U.S. Bonds in my entry on him just as much as I bring up Springsteen here. I feel a bit bad for having done so but I hope I at least managed to communicate that sometimes a mentor manages to stay a step ahead of their protege. Well done Gary for making The Boss forever your underling.

Score: 8