Green Door

"The Green Door" (or "Green Door") is a 1956 popular song with music composed by Bob "Hutch" Davie and lyrics written by Marvin J. Moore

This article is about the song. For the community, see Greendoor, Missouri. For the tavern in Illinois, USA, see Green Door Tavern.
"The Green Door"
Single by Jim Lowe with the High Fives
from the album Songs They Sing Behind the Green Door
B-side"(The Story of) the Little Man in Chinatown"
ReleasedAugust 1956
Genre
Length2:11
LabelDot
Songwriter(s)Bob Davie, Marvin J. Moore
Jim Lowe singles chronology
"Blue Suede Shoes"
(1956)		 "The Green Door" "Prince Of Peace"
(1956)

Jim Lowe version

The song was first recorded by Jim Lowe, whose version reached number one on the US pop chart. The lyrics describe the allure of a mysterious private club with a green door, behind which "a happy crowd" play piano, smoke and "laugh a lot", and inside which the singer is not allowed. "Green Door" was backed by the orchestra of songwriter Davie, with Davie also playing piano, and by the vocal group the High Fives. The track was arranged by Davie, who added thumbtacks to the hammers of his piano and sped up the tape to give a honky-tonk sound.[1] Released by Dot Records, the single reached #1 on the Billboard charts for one week on November 17, 1956, replacing "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley.[2] Outside the US, Lowe's version reached #8 on the charts, in the United Kingdom.[3]

Charts
Chart (1956) Peak
position
UK Singles (OCC)[3] 8
US Best Sellers in Stores (Billboard)[2] 1
US Rhythm & Blues Records (Billboard)[2] 5
US Cash Box Best Selling Singles[4] 2
US Cash Box Rhythm & Blues Top 20[5] 12

Lyrics

The singer cannot get any sleep each evening, due to the sound of the music coming from the club. He tries to go there by knocking once on the green door, trying to tell the person behind the door that he had been there before, only to have the door slammed immediately ("hospitality's thin there"). Then, through the keyhole, he tries to say the possible secret password "Joe sent me" (the password for Hernando's Hideaway), which only results in laughter as he is again rejected admittance into the private club.

Possible inspirations

This song was written by Marvin Moore describing a place in Dallas, Texas, where he and Charlie Boland, a sports announcer, climbed a stairway to a green door where a piano played in the background and a man with a huge cigar kept people out unless they had a card of membership in one of the performing arts or unions. In a copy of the original lyrics he actually began using Dallas in the lyric. A copy of said original lyrics, along with an original letter in 1966 from Marvin Moore to Charlie Boland's daughter explains this to her after she sang the song to Marvin Moore one night over the phone at the age of 9.

After the Great Chicago Fire, a tavern opened in Chicago, the Green Door Tavern. During prohibition, this was a popular place to get secret libations. As the door of the tavern is green, the color became a symbol of a speakeasy. During the Prohibition Era many restaurants would paint their doors green to indicate the presence of a speakeasy.[6]

One suggestion of the song's origins is that it was inspired by an afterhours club in Dallas, Texas, to which lyricist Moore had been refused entry because he did not know the correct password.[1]

At the time of the song's initial popularity in the 1950s, many believed it was inspired by a green-doored restaurant and bar called "The Shack" in Columbia, Missouri, where singer Jim Lowe had attended the University of Missouri. However long-time Shack owner Joe Franke doubts this theory.[7]

An oft-repeated urban legend has developed saying the song refers to London's first lesbian club, Gateways (1930–1985), which was in Bramerton Street in Chelsea. It had a green door and was featured in the film The Killing of Sister George.[8][9] But aside from that there is no substantive connection between the 1950s American song and the British club.[10]

In "The Green Door", a short story by O. Henry from his 1906 book The Four Million,[11] a man named Rudolf Steiner is handed a mysterious card reading, "The Green Door." On entering the door he meets a starving young woman. He quickly rushes out and returns laden with food, and they become friends over supper; finally Steiner promises to visit her again the next day and there is romance in the offing. Eventually it turns out that the card was an advertisement for an entirely different "Green Door", a theatre play. O. Henry uses the eponymous green door as a symbol for everyday adventures which he encourages us to seek out.

It is also possible that the song is a reference to an H. G. Wells short story, "The Door in the Wall."[12][13]

Behind the Green Door (1940)[14] is a Penny Parker mystery novel by Mildred Wirt Benson. In the novel, the secret door hides some illegal activity at a ski-resort hotel; no music or vice is involved in this book aimed at adolescent girls. It was reprinted in 1951, a few years before the song appeared.

Fitz-James O'Brien's short story, "The Lost Room", details a man being locked out of his own room by a group of demons and bears some similarity to the themes of the song.[15]

Shakin' Stevens version
"Green Door"
Single by Shakin' Stevens
from the album Shaky
B-side"Don't Turn Your Back"
Released17 July 1981 (1981-07-17)
Recorded1981
StudioEden Studios, London
GenreRock and roll
Length3:09
LabelEpic
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Stuart Colman
Shakin' Stevens singles chronology
"You Drive Me Crazy"
(1981)		 "Green Door"
(1981)		 "It's Raining"
(1981)

Welsh singer Shakin' Stevens covered the song in 1981 for his album Shaky. It became his second UK number 1, topping the charts for four weeks in August 1981.[16]

Charts

Other recordings

Cultural impact

It is also the name of a letter written by David Berg, the former leader of the cult once called the Children of God and later renamed "The Family"—he used it as a metaphorical door to hell.[39]

Behind the Green Door is a 1972 pornographic film starring Marilyn Chambers. In 1986 Behind the Green Door: the Sequel was released and in 2012 New Behind the Green Door.

There are bars, taverns and saloons named "The Green Door" in many American locations, including Cheyenne, Wyoming, New York City, Park Hall, Maryland, Chicago, Illinois and Lansing, Michigan.

Within the American intelligence community, "green door" is a slang verb and adjective, relating to the restriction of an individual's or organization's access to information and/or locations: "We green doored them," or "The situation has been highlighted by the 'Green Door' compartmentation and exclusion".[40] This meaning was alluded to in episode 4 of Ashes to Ashes, set in 1981, when Shakin' Stevens' cover played whilst the protagonist police detectives sneaked out of a top-secret MOD research centre.

It was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, sung by Leonardo DiCaprio (playing the character of fictional actor Rick Dalton) during a segment on Hullaballoo.

The lyrics "Green door, what's that secret you're keepin'" get a full-page quote (with a smaller attribution text: "Marvin Moore - Lyrics to 'The Green Door'") in the first internal page of The Immortal Hulk #10, a comic book published by Marvel Comics.[41] In that issue (and other issues of the same comic book), a particular green door is an integral part of the story.

References
  1. Michael Jack Kirby, "Jim Lowe: The Green Door", Way Back Attack. Retrieved 13 December 2016
  2. "The Green Door (song by Jim Lowe) ••• Music VF, US & UK hits charts". Musicvf.com. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  3. "Jim Lowe: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
  4. "Cash Box Best Selling Singles – Week ending November 3, 1956". Cash Box magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  5. "Cash Box Rhythm & Blues Top 20 – Week ending December 1, 1956". Cash Box magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  6. "History Of The Green Door Tavern In Chicago". Greendoorchicago.com. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  7. Adam Daniels, "The Shack comes back" Archived 2012-05-27 at Archive.today, The Columbia Missourian, 9 August 2007."
  8. "Great lesbian songs? Here's our top five". The Guardian. 6 March 2007.
  9. "The truth behind The Green Door". The Guardian. 8 September 2006.
  10. Mitch Mitchell (29 September 2006). "Doors of Perception" Film & Music letters: September 2006". The Guardian.
  11. "The Green Door by O. Henry". Literaturecollection.com. Archived from the original on 2014-03-02. Retrieved 2014-03-29.
  12. H.G. Wells (1911) The Door in the Wall and Other Stories
  13. "The Door in the Wall by H.G. Wells". Online-literature.com. Retrieved 2014-03-29.
  14. "The Mildred A. Wirt Benson Website". Nancydrewsleuth.com. Retrieved 2014-03-29.
  15. "The Lost Room by Fitz-James O'Brien". Manybooks.net. 2008-01-14. Retrieved 2014-03-29.
  16. "Shakin Stevens: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
  17. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  18. "Austriancharts.at – Shakin' Stevens – Green Door" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  19. "Ultratop.be – Shakin' Stevens – Green Door" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  20. "Danish Chart Archive - Singles 1979 - ____ (B.T./IFPI DK)". Ukmix.org. 17 November 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  21. "Sisältää hitin: Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1960: Artistit STEP - SUE". Sisältää hitin. 13 August 2015. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  22. "Offiziellecharts.de – Shakin' Stevens – Green Door". GfK Entertainment Charts.
  23. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Green Door". Irish Singles Chart.
  24. "Israel Singles Charts 1987-1995". Ukmix.org. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  25. "Nederlandse Top 40 – Shakin' Stevens" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  26. "Dutchcharts.nl – Shakin' Stevens – Green Door" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  27. "Charts.nz – Shakin' Stevens – Green Door". Top 40 Singles.
  28. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  29. "Swisscharts.com – Shakin' Stevens – Green Door". Swiss Singles Chart.
  30. "World singles charts and sales TOP 50 in 58 countries: FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOODSHAKIN' STEVENS". World singles charts and sales TOP 50 in 58 countries. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  31. "Jaaroverzichten 1981". Ultratop.be. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  32. "Top 100 Single-Jahrescharts". Offiziellecharts.de (in German). Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  33. "Top 100-Jaaroverzicht van 1981". Top40.nl. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  34. "Jaaroverzichten - Single 1981". Dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  35. "Top Selling Singles of 1981". Official NZ Music Charts.com. Recorded Music New Zealand Limited. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  36. "Chartfile Top 100". Record Mirror: 27. 26 December 1981. Retrieved 2 November 2020 – via flickr.com.
  37. "FRANKIE VAUGHAN | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  38. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/37813723/the-magnificent-malochi-blues-rhythm-magazine
  39. David Berg, "The Green Door" Archived 2008-05-22 at the Wayback Machine, The Family, August 1973. Accessed 18 July 2008.
  40. Faurer, Lincoln D. (16 September 1999), Intelligence Support to the Warfighter, in Guideposts for the United States Military in the Twenty-first Century (PDF), Air Force History and Museums Program, archived from the original (PDF) on 9 June 2011
  41. The Immortal Hulk #10 (December 5, 2018). Marvel Comics.
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