Songfacts®:

• In "Twenty Flight Rock," a young man has a girlfriend with a radio. The two of them like to dance in the privacy in her apartment, but her building's elevator has broken down so he has to climb 20 flights of steps to get to her. The climb wipes him out too much to dance once he gets to the top, but he can't resist the invitation, so he keeps giving it a try, yearning for the day when the elevator is fixed and the dancing resumed.
  
  Throughout the song there's a subtle innuendo that by "dance," the young man might actually mean "have sex."
  
  Hope they hurry up before it's too late
  Want my baby too much to wait
• Ned Fairchild wrote the lyrics and Eddie Cochran wrote the music. Fairchild also wrote songs for Gene Autry, the DeJohn Sisters, Hank Thompson, and Sunny Bingo, but "Twenty Flight Rock" is his most enduring work.
  
  Cochran, who was an early rock trailblazer best remembered for "Summertime Blues," might be a household name today if not for his sudden death in a 1960 car wreck. He was just 21 when his UK taxi hit a lamppost. He died shielding his girlfriend, Sharon Sheeley, with his own body.
• Cochran recorded the song in July 1956 at Gold Star Studios. Jerry Capehart slapped a soup carton for percussion while Connie Smith played bull fiddle. Sometime between May and August 1957, Cochran recorded the song again, this time with the Johnny Mann Chorus doing backing vocals, Perry Botkin, Sr. on rhythm guitar, and Connie Smith on double bass. Liberty Records released the recording as a single in 1957 with "Cradle Baby" as the B-side. The single sold better in Europe than in the US. It never crashed any charts, but it sold solidly for a long time and was considered a success.
• The song was included in the 1956 film The Girl Can't Help It, which was one of the more impactful music films ever produced. The movie contributed to the rock-and-roll explosion of the late '50s and 1960s and inspired John Lennon to be a rock star. Its references to rock were meant to be satirical, showing that rock music was a lesser form of music that required no real talent. The film made the opposite impression on youngsters, feeding a rock frenzy. Cochran plays "Twenty Flight Rock" in a scene in the film (with his guitar solo edited out).
• Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" also appears in the 1989 film The Delinquents, the film debut of Kylie Minogue.
• The first time that 16-year-old Lennon met Paul McCartney (who had just turned 15), they were waiting to perform at a St. Peter's Church Hall show. Lennon asked McCartney to play "Twenty Flight Rock" on guitar. Lennon was impressed and invited McCartney to join the Quarrymen. George Harrison eventually joined the outfit as it morphed into The Beatles.
  
  In The Beatles Anthology, McCartney says what impressed Lennon most was that he (McCartney) knew all the words to the song. Talking to Paul Gambaccini for Rolling Stone in 1974, McCartney explained that Lennon rarely knew the words to songs and that McCartney's memory for them gave him early value to the band.
  
  Talking to Norman Jopling of the Record Mirror in 1962, McCartney is quoted saying, "I remember when we decided to play 'Twenty Flight Rock.' I learned the chords and everything perfectly. I used to long to play it - it was my song, you know."
• In 1988 McCartney recorded the song on the 1988 album CHOBA B CCCP (pronounced "snova v SSSR" and meaning "Back in the USSR"), a collection of live, in-studio recordings released exclusively in Russia. In 1991, it became available internationally.
• The song resembles "Rock Around The Clock" because they both use a similar novelty based around the 12-bar blues format. "Twenty Flight Rock" counts flights upwards with the beat ("one flight, two flight, three flight," etc.) similar to the fashion that "Rock Around The Clock" counts the hours upwards ("One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock, rock").
• The Rolling Stones recorded the song during their American Dream Tour 1981 and released it on their 1982 live album Still Life.
• During his 2010 Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, Conan O'Brien covered the song with Jack White. They did it again at the conclusion of the first episode of the Conan late-night talk show, which was one of the most popular programs of its time.
• Robert Gordon and Link Wray cover the song on their 1978 collaboration Fresh Fish Special.
  
  In 1961 Vince Taylor covered the song on Le Rock C'est Ca!.
  
  In 1971, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen covered the song on Lost in the Ozone.
  
  Tiger Army coves the song on their 1999 self-titled debut album.
  
  Cliff Richard backed by The Shadows covered the song on his debut studio album, Cliff Sings.
  
  Dickie Rock released a version as a single with the Miami Showband in 1964.
  
  On their 1975 album Warner Bros. Presents Montrose, Montrose included a version of "Twenty Flight Rock."