"Walking in Memphis" is a song written and originally recorded by American singer-songwriter
Marc Cohn
Marc Craig Cohn (; born July 5, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1992. Cohn is best known for the song " Walking in Memphis", from his 1991 album '' Marc Cohn'', which was a To ...
, for whom it remains his signature song. It received a
Song of the Year nomination at the
34th Annual Grammy Awards
The 34th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1992, recognizing accomplishments by musicians from the previous year (1991). Natalie Cole won the most awards (three), including Album of the Year. Paul Simon opened the show.
Performers ...
in 1992, the same year that the 32-year-old Cohn won the
Grammy Award for Best New Artist
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960 (except in 1967) "for a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that art ...
.
The song's lyrics are autobiographical, chronicling a 1985 trip that Cohn, then a struggling songwriter and singer, took to
Memphis to overcome a bout of
writer's block
Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.
Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...
. After visiting the church where former soul singer
Al Green
Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), known professionally as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer. He is best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Tired of ...
was preaching,
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
's former home of
Graceland
Graceland is a mansion on a estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, once owned by American singer Elvis Presley. Presley is buried there, as are his parents Vernon and Gladys, paternal grandmother Minnie Mae, grandson Benjamin, and daugh ...
, and a small nightclub in nearby
Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
, as well as wandering various streets of downtown Memphis, he returned to New York and began composing the song. While writing and recording sessions continued through the late 1980s, his
debut album, on which the song was the
lead single
A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date.
A similar term, "debut ...
, was not released until 1991.
"Walking in Memphis" reached number 13 on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1991, becoming Cohn's highest-charting single to date. The song reached number three in Canada, number seven in Ireland, and number 11 in Australia. "Walking in Memphis" has since been covered several times, notably in 1995 by
Cher
Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...
and in 2003 by
Lonestar
Lonestar (formerly known as Texassee) is an American country music band from Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Drew Womack (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Michael Britt (lead guitar, background vocals), Dean Sams (key ...
.
Inspiration
Cohn has said that "Walking in Memphis" is "100 percent autobiographical". He has described it as a song about "a Jewish gospel-music-lover",
and added that "the song is about more than just a place; it's about a kind of spiritual awakening, one of those trips where you're different when you leave."
He was inspired to write "Walking in Memphis" by a 1985 visit to the
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...
, area. At the time, he was working as a
session singer
A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a record ...
in New York City while pursuing a recording contract.
In 2014, he recalled:
One night while listening to all of my demos, I came to the realization that I shouldn't be signed, because I didn't have any great songs yet. ... I was 28 years old and not in love with my songs. James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...
had written ' Fire and Rain' when he was 18, and Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 30 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his ...
wrote ' These Days' when he was only 17. I thought: 'I'm already ten years older than these geniuses. It's never going to happen for me.' So it was a pretty desperate time, and I went to Memphis with that struggle at the forefront of my mind.
After reading that James Taylor overcame
writer's block
Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.
Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...
by going to a place he had never been, Cohn visited Memphis.
A friend had told him "there were two things in particular that I had to do
n Memphis things that would forever change me. They later became the centerpieces of 'Walking in Memphis'."
Cohn added:
The first thing was go to the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church on a Sunday morning to hear the Reverend Al Green
Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), known professionally as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer. He is best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Tired of ...
preach. ... I oonhad chills running up and down my spine. The service was so deeply moving that I found myself with sweat running down my face and tears in my eyes, totally enveloped by everything I was seeing and hearing. There was something incredibly powerful about Al Green's voice in that context. Even after three hours of continuous singing, his voice only got stronger and his band only got better. I sat there crying in the church, aware of the irony of how I used to cry in synagogue in Cleveland as a kid—but because I wanted to get the heck out of there! Al Green's service was one of the great experiences of my life."
The second piece of advice was that Cohn visit the Hollywood Café in Robinsonville, Mississippi (present-day
Tunica Resorts, 35 miles south of Memphis), to see Muriel Davis Wilkins, a retired schoolteacher who performed at the cafe on Friday nights.
Cohn remembered:
When I arrived, Muriel, who ... was in her 60s, was onstage playing a beat-up old upright piano and singing gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
standards ... I felt an immediate connection to her voice, her spirit, her face, and her smile. I was totally transfixed by her music. While many of the patrons were busy eating and not paying close attention to Muriel, I couldn't take my eyes off her. During her breaks, the two of us would talk. Muriel asked me why I was there, and I told her I was a songwriter trying to find inspiration. I also told her a little bit about my childhood—how when I was two and a half years old, my mom had passed away very unexpectedly, and about ten years later, my dad had passed away and I'd been raised by a stepmother. My mother's death was a central event in my life, and I'd been writing a lot about it over the years, both in songs and in journals. I think a part of me felt stuck in time, like I'd never quite been able to work through that loss. ... By midnight, the Hollywood was still packed, and Muriel asked me to join her onstage. We soon realized that there wasn't a song in the universe that both of us knew in common. A quick thinker, Muriel started feeding me lyrics to gospel songs so that I could catch up in time to sing somewhat in rhythm with her and make up my own version of the melody. Some songs I was vaguely familiar with, and some I didn't know at all. The very last song we sang together that night was 'Amazing Grace
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn written in 1772 and published in 1779 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is possibly the most sung and most recorded hymn in the world, and especially popular in the Unit ...
'. After we finished and people were applauding, Muriel leaned over and whispered in my ear: 'Child, you can let go now.' It was an incredibly maternal thing for her to say to me. Just like sitting in Reverend Al Green's church, I was again transformed. It was almost as if my mother was whispering in my ear. From the time I left Memphis and went back home to New York City, I knew I had a song in me about my experience there.
Composition
Soon after returning to New York City, Cohn began constructing the melody for "Walking in Memphis" on his guitar:
The music for 'Walking in Memphis', except for the bridge
A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
, is really just the same thing over and over again. It's an attempt to keep things simple so that the narrative is what the listener focuses on. The story keeps changing; it goes from one scenario to another, all following the thread of my elation, described in the lyric 'Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale'. What's being expressed is my love of music and the spiritual transformation I've always felt through it.
Cohn didn't think the song worked on the guitar and so switched to his piano, at which point the process started to flow. In an interview with Songwriting Magazine, he said:
Me and the piano, that’s all I cared about. I knew that I had turned a corner as a songwriter when I wrote that song because it worked so well without any adornment. It begins with me alone. Slowly it builds, the rhythm comes and goes, and towards the end of the song there’s no band again.
Cohn mentions Muriel Wilkins:
:Now Muriel plays piano every Friday at the Hollywood
:And they brought me down to see her and they asked me if I would
:Do a little number, and I sang with all my might
:She said "Tell me are you a Christian child?" I said "Ma’am I am tonight."
In 2014, Cohn noted:
The line: 'Tell me are you a Christian child, and I said 'Ma'am I am tonight' – even in the moment I wrote it down, I knew I was getting closer to finding my songwriting voice. To this day, people still ask me if I am a Christian. While I have to admit that I enjoy the confusion the lyric brings, the thing that makes that line work is the fact that I'm a Jew. So many great artists over the years needed to hide the fact that they were Jewish to protect themselves and their families from anti-Semitism, so I'm proud of the fact that I could come right out and practically announce my religion on the first song I ever released.
In 1986, Cohn returned to the Hollywood Café to play "Walking in Memphis" and the other songs from his new album for Wilkins. After he finished, Wilkins said, "'You know the one where you mention me at the end? That's the best one you got!'"
She died in October 1990, just before Cohn released "Walking in Memphis".
Critical reception
Pan-European magazine ''
Music & Media
''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...
'' described "Walking in Memphis" as "an inspiring song about the capitol of
rock & roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
, by this promising American singer/songwriter who is backed by an impressive
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
choir." Bobby Surf from ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
'' said the song is "the Tennessee Tourist Board's wettest dream come true". He added, "To conclude that 'Walking in Memphis' is a mite similar to fellow pop hagioraphers
Danny Wilson's '
Mary's Prayer' is to do Cohn a serious disservice. Firstly, he has a fine, grown up voice and a manner at the piano that mercifully skirts the morbid pomposity composing at that instrument so often engenders."
Commercial performance
Released as the first single from Cohn's
self-titled debut album in March 1991, "Walking in Memphis" debuted at number 87 on the US
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...
in ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' magazine dated March 30, 1991, with a subsequent two-month gradual chart ascent to the top 40. The single's number 38 ranking on the Hot 100 dated May 25, 1991, inaugurated a ten-week top 40 tenure with a peak of number 13 for two weeks in July 1991.
Overall, "Walking in Memphis" spent 23 weeks on the Hot 100. "Walking in Memphis" was also a hit on ''Billboards
Adult Contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
chart (number 12) and crossed-over to the magazine's
Hot Country Singles & Tracks
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...
chart (number 74).
In Canada, the song peaked at number three on the week dated July 13, 1991.
During its original release, "Walking in Memphis" reached number seven in Ireland but stalled at number 66 in the United Kingdom;
its September 1991 re-release returned "Walking in Memphis" to the Irish top 20 at number 16 and introduced the single to the UK top 30 with a peak of number 22.
(The re-release of "Walking in Memphis" replaced the original
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
, "Dig Down Deep", with a live version of "Silver Thunderbird" recorded July 17, 1991.) "Walking in Memphis" was also a top-twenty hit in both Australia and New Zealand, with chart peaks of number 11 and 18.
In Europe, the single charted in France (number 45), Germany (number 25), the Netherlands (number 54), and Sweden (number 36).
At the
34th Grammy Awards in February 1992, "Walking in Memphis" was nominated for Song of the Year. Also, Cohn was nominated for the Best Pop Male Vocalist award for his vocals in "Walking in Memphis".
Cohn did not win either award, although he did win the Grammy for Best New Artist.
Track listings and formats
* 7-inch single (first UK release)
# "Walking in Memphis" – 4:18
# "Dig Down Deep" – 5:08
* 7-inch single (second UK release)
# "Walking in Memphis" – 4:18
# "Silver Thunderbird" (live) – 5:26
* CD maxi
# "Walking in Memphis" – 4:18
# "Dig Down Deep" – 5:08
# "Saving the Best for Last" – 5:31
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Cher version
Background
"Walking in Memphis" was remade by American singer and actress
Cher
Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...
for her 21st studio album, ''
It's a Man's World'' (1995). It was released as the album's lead single in the United Kingdom on October 16, 1995. Her version debuted at number 11 on the
UK Singles chart for the week ending October 28, 1995, with this ultimately proving its peak position.
Although largely faithful to the original, Cher's version replaces the female piano player referenced, Muriel, with a male player, Gabriel, with the line "Ma'am, I am
Christiantonight" amended to "Man, I am tonight" accordingly. Additionally, Cohn's repetition of the first verse is largely omitted, being replaced with a repetition of the first line, "Put on my blue suede shoes", only.
Despite its lack of success in her native US, "Walking in Memphis" was included in the set list for Cher's 1999–2000
Do You Believe? Tour, the first Cher tour subsequent to her recording of the song. In introducing the number, Cher would overstate how low the impact of her take on "Walking in Memphis" was, first citing Marc Cohn's original as "a huge hit", then her own version as "a huge bomb". Her cover was used on ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...
'' in the final scene of the fifth-season episode "
The Post-Modern Prometheus".
Critical reception
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
described Cher's cover version of "Walking in Memphis" as "rousing". Jim Farber from ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' stated that it "must be heard to be believed." Pan-European magazine ''
Music & Media
''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...
'' wrote, "The regular version of
Marc Cohn
Marc Craig Cohn (; born July 5, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1992. Cohn is best known for the song " Walking in Memphis", from his 1991 album '' Marc Cohn'', which was a To ...
's low key
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
doesn't do much justice to Cher's throaty voice, which needs more drama."
Live performances
*
Do You Believe? Tour
*
The Farewell Tour (sung on the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and the ninth leg of the tour)
*
Cher at the Colosseum
*
Dressed to Kill Tour
*
Classic Cher
*
Here We Go Again Tour
Track listings
* European cassette and 7-inch single
# "Walking in Memphis" – 3:55
# "Angels Running" – 4:35
* European CD single
# "Walking in Memphis" – 3:55
# "Angels Running" – 4:35
# "Walking in Memphis" (
Shut Up & Dance Instrumental) – 5:16
* European remix CD and 12-inch single
# "Walking in Memphis" (Shut Up & Dance Vocal) – 5:04
# "Walking in Memphis" (Shut Up & Dance Instrumental) – 5:10
# "Walking in Memphis" (Rated P.G. Mix) – 7:25
# "Walking in Memphis" (Baby Doc Mix) – 7:11
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Lonestar version
Background
American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
band
Lonestar
Lonestar (formerly known as Texassee) is an American country music band from Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Drew Womack (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Michael Britt (lead guitar, background vocals), Dean Sams (key ...
reached number eight on the
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...
chart and number 61 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 2003 with a remake of "Walking in Memphis" released as a single off the album ''
From There to Here: Greatest Hits''. This version was featured on ''
Smallville
''Smallville'' is an American superhero fiction, superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produce ...
'' Season 3, Episode 5 "Perry" when
Perry White
Perry White is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the editor-in-chief of the Metropolis newspaper the '' Daily Planet''. The character maintains very high ethical and journalistic standards and i ...
returns to Metropolis.
Lonestar's lead vocalist
Richie McDonald recalled that, during the two years of the band's inaugural phase as a bar band, "Walking in Memphis" was a staple of their set list from the beginning: "After we got our record deal, we stopped doing
nycover songs but ... a few years later,
e werein Memphis, Tennessee getting ready to do a benefit for St. Jude's down on Beale Street" – i.e.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – "
ndwe thought this would be a good time to do 'Walking in Memphis,' because we were right there on Beale ... One of the label guys was there
ndsaid, "Y'all should record that." We started doing it in our live shows and it just became something we wanted to put out."
Charts
Other versions
In the summer of 2005, Wouter (
nl), the runner-up in ''
Idool 2004'', spent eleven weeks in the top 20 of the Flemish chart with his version of "Walking in Memphis", with the track spending three weeks at No. 3. The track was included on ''Rock On'', Wouter's only album release to-date.
"Walking in Memphis" became a No. 5 hit in Sweden in December 2009 via a remake by
Calle Kristiansson, the runner-up finalist in ''
Idol 2009''. Kristiansson's version of "Walking in Memphis" was included on his self-titled album issued in January 2010.
A concert performance of "Walking in Memphis" by
Eric Church
Kenneth Eric Church (born May 3, 1977) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He has released seven studio albums through Capitol Nashville since 2005. His debut album, 2006's '' Sinners Like Me'', produced three singles on the ''Billb ...
was featured in the first installment of the 15-
LP (vinyl) box set of Church recordings titled ''61 Days in Church''.
English heavyweight boxer
Tyson Fury
Tyson Luke Fury (born 12 August 1988) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2008 to 2024. He held multiple world heavyweight championships, including unified titles from 2015 to 2016, the '' Ring'' magazine title twice bet ...
covered the song
a capella
Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...
adopted into "Walking in Las Vegas", during the post-fight interview to celebrate the victory against
Deontay Wilder
Deontay Leshun Wilder (; born October 22, 1985) is an American professional boxer. He held the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title from 2015 to 2020. By winning the title, Wilder became the first American world heavyweight champion si ...
in their
third fight, which ended in an 11th–round knockout.
Songs based on "Walking in Memphis"
Shut Up and Dance version ("Raving I'm Raving")
English electronic duo
Shut Up and Dance released "Raving I'm Raving" on May 18, 1992, based significantly on "Walking in Memphis". Several lyrics were altered, including the line "I'm walking in Memphis" becoming "I'm raving I'm raving". Cohn, who had not given the duo permission to change "Walking in Memphis", filed an
injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...
on the grounds of
moral rights
Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized in civil law jurisdictions and, to a lesser extent, in some common law jurisdictions.
The moral rights include the right of attribution, the right to have a work p ...
to prevent the single's release.
Shut Up and Dance and Cohn's lawyers eventually agreed to release the single on two conditions: all sales had to be donated to charity, and no more copies of the single were to be made. With only 35,000 copies produced, "Raving I'm Raving" became a highly desired product at record stores, and the single debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart in May 1992 despite being forecasted to top the chart during the midweek sales report.
After its debut, "Raving I'm Raving" had nearly exhausted its stock at record shops, causing it to drop to number 15 the following week and exit the UK Singles Chart altogether the week after.
It also peaked at number 18 on the
European Dance Radio Chart
The European Dance Radio Chart (also known as European Dance Radio Top 25) was a weekly chart compiled by pan-European magazine ''Music & Media''. After dance music had played a more dominant role on the magazine's Eurochart Hot 100 in the beginni ...
. Because of the injunction, Shut Up and Dance were not allowed to include the original version of the track on their 1992 album ''Death Is Not the End''; instead, a re-recorded version was included, and the album's release was delayed from June 1992 to July 1992.
Scooter version ("I'm Raving")
In 1996, German
hard dance band
Scooter released a similar cover entitled "
I'm Raving
"I'm Raving" is a song by German group Scooter (band), Scooter. It was released in September 1996 as the lead single from their album ''Wicked! (Scooter album), Wicked!'' The song is based on the 1992 Shut Up and Dance (duo), Shut Up and Dance t ...
"
as a single from their album ''
Wicked!''. The single was certified gold in Germany and peaked at number four on the
German Singles Chart
The GfK Entertainment charts are the official charts for music, home video, and video games in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on be ...
. Pan-European magazine ''
Music & Media
''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later m ...
'' wrote about the song, "Remember Marc Cohn's beautiful piano ballad Walking In Memphis? Change the lyrics in I'm Raving, I'm Raving, add some bagpipe-synths and the semi-live-gimmick patented by Scooter. This makes chart-storming seem effortless."
''Saturday Night Live'' version ("Walking in Staten")
In the November 20, 2021, episode of ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...
'' hosted by
Simu Liu
Simu Liu ( ; ; born 19 April 1989) is a Canadian actor. He rose to prominence by starring as Shang-Chi in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film ''Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'' (2021).
Liu was born in Harbin and raised in Ontario. ...
, cast member
Pete Davidson
Peter Michael Davidson (born November 16, 1993) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He began his career in the early 2010s with minor guest roles on ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'', ''Friends of the People'', ''Guy Code'', and ''Wild 'n O ...
performed "Walking in Staten" along with Cohn, country pop artist Big Wet, and
Method Man
Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), known professionally as Method Man, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. He is a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, and is half of the hip hop duo Method Man & R ...
. The parody's lyrics and visuals were a playful tribute to Davidson's native Staten Island.
See also
*
1991 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1991.
Specific locations
* 1991 in British music
* 1991 in Norwegian music
* 1991 in South Korean music
Specific genres
* 1991 in country music
* 1991 in heavy metal m ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walking In Memphis
1991 singles
1995 singles
2003 singles
Black-and-white music videos
Marc Cohn songs
Cher songs
Lonestar songs
Songs about Memphis, Tennessee
Songs about Elvis Presley
Song recordings produced by Dann Huff
Song recordings produced by Christopher Neil
Pop ballads
1990s ballads
Atlantic Records singles
Warner Music Group singles
BNA Records singles
1991 songs
Articles containing video clips
Songs written by Marc Cohn
hu:I'm Raving