“Up on the Roof” (The Drifters)

Today’s classic summer-themed song of the day is “Up on the Roof” by the Drifters. This true classic was released in September of 1962 and hit #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and #4 on the R&B chart) early the next year. Rudy Lewis sang lead on the record, accompanied by fellow Drifters Tommy Evans, Gene Pearson, and Charlie Thomas. Among the New York session musicians providing instrumental accompaniment were the legendary Gary Chester on drums and composer Carole King herself on piano.

“Up on the Roof” was written by the songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Gerry wrote the lyrics, as usual, and Carole supplied the music. Carole came up with the tune while out driving and turned it over to Gerry to add words; she suggested calling it “My Secret Place.” Gerry kept that basic idea, added in his enthusiasm for the musical West Side Story (with lots of scenes set on tenement rooftops), and the rest is history.

Gerry often said this was his favorite lyric for any song the duo wrote, and it’s easy to understand why. “Up on the Roof” captures the feel of summer in the big city and the need to get away from “the rat race noise down on the street.” As the lyrics put it:

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space

On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be
And there the world below can’t bother me

It may be set in the big city, but the sentiments are universal. And Gerry is at his most poetic here; I particularly like the line, “At night the stars put on a show for free.” It’s great stuff.

Carole’s music for this one is timeless. The chords are just I-vi-IV-V in the verse (and IV-I-iii-IV-V in the chorus), but man, the melody is perfect. The chords themselves set up the tension and release that define Ms. King’s music, with the V chord hanging for two bars at the end of each verse (“right into space”) until the tension is relieved by sliding down to the IV chord at the start of the chorus. It’s simple yet gorgeous.

Critics agree. The Drifters’ version of “Up on the Roof” was named number 114 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. (It should have been a lot higher.) In addition, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it as one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

You can tell how good a song is by how often it gets covered, and “Up on the Roof” has been covered by a lot of great musicians. You can find terrific versions of this song by Little Eva, the Lettermen, the Grass Roots, the Jackson 5, Neil Diamond, the Persuasions, Ike & Tina Turner, Kathy Troccoli, Boyz II Men, and by Carole King herself on her 1970 album, Writer. Many of you remember the version from Carole’s friend, James Taylor, that hit #28 on the charts in 1979. The song’s a hit for everybody who sings it.

My favorite cover, however, is by fellow songwriter Laura Nyro, on her 1970 album Christmas and the Beads of Sweat. It’s a slower, more sensitive, personal reading and I love the way she does a dead stop on the words “right smack dab… in the middle of town.” It always gives me goosebumps.

I will go out on a limb here and say “Up on the Roof” may be the best song written by the Goffin/King team. (Although “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” comes very, very close.) I’d put this in my personal top ten tunes of the ’60s, and maybe even of all time. It’s that good. It’s not that the song is earthshattering in any way, it’s just that it’s simply perfect and perfectly simple. It’s songwriting at its best, as good as anything from Bacharach/David, Mann/Weil, Lennon/McCartney, or Jimmy Webb. It’s just a great tune and I love it.