Hi-Heel Sneakers

Song facts

“Hi-Heel Sneakers” is a blues song recorded by Tommy Tucker in 1963, recorded and released by Paul McCartney in 1991, on his Unplugged album.

‘Can I Get A Witness’, ‘Hi-Heel Sneakers’, ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ – I think of all of those early Motown-type songs in one great rush. There was no particular reason to do it on Unplugged other than that I just thought of it one day. What I like about it now is that sneakers are so in vogue – Reebok, Nike, Air and the others – so I think the idea of ‘Hi-Heel Sneakers’ is a very funny one, this year particularly. They should bring one out, a sneaker with a built-in heel! And I love all those black lyrics, ‘A wig-hat on your head’! Like in ‘Crackin’ Up’ – ‘I spoiled you woman a long time ago!’. Very chauvinist stuff.

Paul McCartney, from Club Sandwich 58, Summer 1991

From Wikipedia:

“Hi-Heel Sneakers” (often also spelled “High Heel Sneakers”) is a blues song recorded by Tommy Tucker in 1963. The song, an uptempo twelve-bar blues, “has a spare, lilting musical framework” with a strong vocal. Tommy Tucker’s original recording hit number one on the Cash Box R&B Locations chart and number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100.

Over 1000 artists have recorded “Hi-Heel Sneakers“. These include the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Ronnie Milsap, the Faces (with Rod Stewart), Sting, Led Zeppelin, Carl Perkins (featured on Johnny Cash’s 35th Anniversary album), Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, the Searchers (It’s The Searchers album), Sammy Davis Jr., Janis Joplin, Jose Feliciano, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, Tom Jones, John Lee Hooker, Cleo Laine, Pharoah Sanders, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, Phish, Ramsey Lewis, Laura Nyro and George Thorogood. Tucker’s version also features on the John Lennon’s Jukebox LP. […]

Written by Robert Higgenbotham, “Hi-Heel Sneakers” has attracted plenty of interest since Tommy Tucker took the first version into the charts in early 1964. (It was still in the US top twenty the week that April when all top five places were occupied by The Beatles). Its success prompted Sugar Pie De Santo’s “answering” song “Slip-In Mules” and charting covers by Jerry Lee Lewis, Stevie Wonder, Ramsey Lewis and Jose Feliciano. Again, never before recorded by Paul McCartney.

From Unplugged liner notes

Last updated on July 8, 2019

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