If you don’t know the history of Deep Purple’s first big hit, “Hush,” it might surprise you to learn that the classic rock anthem is actually a cover of a country song. Even more surprising: That country song was inspired by a traditional hymn. So how did a bunch of English hard rockers end up turning “Hush” into a timeless Top 5 sensation?
In 1968, Deep Purple consisted of keyboard player Jon Lord, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, bassist Nick Simper, singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice (Evans and Simper would later be replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover). As Blackmore explained later, he was introduced to the original “Hush,” performed by country singer Billy Joe Royal and based on a time-honored African American spiritual, while spending time in Hamburg.
“I heard ‘Hush,’ by Billy Joe Royal, when I was living in Germany, and I thought it was a great song,” Blackmore told Vintage Guitar. “I also thought it would be a good song to add to our act, if we could come up with a different arrangement.”
As Lord recalled in a 2009 interview with Mojo, per Far Out, “Initially we thought it’s a bit too disco, or whatever the word was then. But Ritchie said it would work if we toughened it up a bit.”
At the time, Deep Purple was getting ready to record their debut album, Shades of Deep Purple, and they were inspired by a recent successful cover by another band.
“Vanilla Fudge had covered a Supremes hit [‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’] and turned it into something else,” Glover told Classic Rock. “And that was such an inspiration. That’s what the band tried to do with ‘Hush,’ put their own spin on it.”
Along with the rest of the songs for Shades of Deep Purple, “Hush” was recorded at London’s Pye studio in the spring of 1968.
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“We did the whole song in two takes, and we did the whole album in 48 hours,” Blackmore said. “We had a total of two tries at everything. Sometimes I like working under pressure like that, because I can really ‘flow,’ whereas a lot of times I get into a studio situation where I have to go over something too many times, and I get bored stiff, and I lose the spontaneity.”
Even after recording “Hush,” the band wasn’t sure about its potential to be a hit. They wanted to release their cover of The Beatles’ “Help” as a debut single, but the record label insisted on “Hush.” Of course, this ended up being the right decision: The song was a big success, peaking at #4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and establishing Deep Purple as a major rock and roll presence.
Over 50 years later, Deep Purple’s first hit remains one of their most beloved songs — and though the cover has inspired many other covers, including versions by Thin Lizzy and Kula Shaker, Deep Purple’s “Hush” is still the most famous.
Related: 1971 Rock Ballad, Inspired by a Mysterious Vision, Was Rejected by Lead Singer Before Becoming a Timeless Classic
