2120 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVENUE
“2120 South Michigan Avenue” is an original instrumental by the Rolling Stones recorded for their second EP Five by Five. It was also released on their second US album 12 X 5 in 1964. Composer credit goes to Nanker Phelge, a title giving credit equally to all members of the band. In the book Rolling with the Stones, Bill Wyman recalls that the composition process started with him playing a bass riff and that the others followed on jamming. The title refers to the address of the offices and recording studios of Chess Records and Checker Records in Chicago where the five songs for the EP were recorded in June 1964. (More from Wikipedia)
Regarding the title of the EP 5 x 4 by the Crawdaddys, I was thinking of the 1964 Rolling Stones album 12 x 5 myself, but the Stones had previously released a British-only EP called 5 x 5 in August 1964. One of the cuts on the Stones EP is a group-penned instrumental called “2120 South Michigan Avenue” – the street address of Chess Records in Chicago – and the Chicano garage rock band Thee Midniters used it as the basis for their popular track “Whittier Boulevard”.
(January 2015/2)
