Maurice Williams wrote this song in 1953 when he was 15 after failing to persuade his date not to go home at 10pm as she was supposed to. When it was recorded by Al Silver of Herald Records in 1960 he insisted that the line ‘Let’s have another smoke’ was changed to ‘dance’. It reached No 1 in the States in November that year, still the shortest single to do so at 1 minute 36 seconds. It got to 14 in Britain.
The Hollies covered it in 1963 and reached No 8 in Britain. They managed to make it last 2 minutes 12 seconds.
Jackson Browne recorded it for his 1977 album Running on Empty. Thanks to extended guitar work by David Lindley, it stretched to 3 minutes 30 seconds.