"Movie Magg" is a 1955 rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

 song written by Carl Perkins

Carl Perkins

Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...

 and released on Flip Records, a subsidiary of Sun Records. Perkins had written the song at the age of thirteen. It was based on the true story of Perkins' girlfriend Maggie and their occasional trips to the movies at the weekends. Being the son of a poor sharecropper, Perkins did not have a car to drive Maggie to the picture show, so the pair rode on the back of his mule, Becky.

The song was released as a single on March 15, 1955 b/w "Turn Around" on the Sun Records subsidiary label Flip as a 78 and 45, 501. Flip releases were directed towards a country and western market. The song was recorded at Sun studios in Memphis, Tennessee but was not released on Sun because Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips

Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...

 did not want to have two Sun artists, Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 and Carl Perkins, targeting the same market. The next release by Perkins, "Gone, Gone, Gone"/"Let The Jukebox Keep On Playing

Let The Jukebox Keep On Playing

Let The Jukebox Keep On Playing is a 1955 rockabilly song written by Carl Perkins. It was released on October 22, 1955 by Sun Records as a 78 and 45 single, 224, b/w "Gone, Gone, Gone". The song was a follow-up to "Turn Around", released on Flip....

", 224, would be on the Sun label. Once Elvis Presley left Sun, Phillips focused on Carl Perkins as the major rock and roll and pop artist on the label.

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

 recorded a version of the song on his 1999 album Run Devil Run

Run Devil Run

Run Devil Run is the eleventh solo studio album by Paul McCartney, released in 1999. It features covers of both familiar and obscure 1950s rock and roll songs, along with three new McCartney songs written in the same style...

. Paul McCartney administers the Carl Perkins song catalogue through his publishing company MPL Communications

MPL Communications

MPL Communications is the holding company for the business interests of Sir Paul McCartney. In addition to handling McCartney's post-Beatles work, MPL is also one of the world's largest privately owned music publishers through its acquisition of numerous other publishing companies...

. "Movie Magg" was originally published by Hi-Lo Music, Inc., BMI. Charlie Thompson, Hank C. Burnette, The Rimshots, Yu (desaf1nad0), The Versatiles in 2001, Nicky Peck & The Folsom Prison Trio in 2002, Skinny McGee & His Mayhem Makers, Ghost Highway, Stephen Hardy, and Jesse Garon & The Greyhounds have also performed the song.

Sources

• Perkins, Carl, and David McGee. Go, Cat, Go!: The Life and Times of Carl Perkins, The King of Rockabilly. Hyperion Press, 1996, pages 253-254. ISBN 0-7868-6073-1
• Morrison, Craig. Go Cat Go!: Rockabilly Music and Its Makers. University of Illinois Press, 1998.