It’s a staple of Purple’s live sets, but the uber-catchy Hush was first sung by an American country artist.
Aracing pulse, shrieking organ fills, impossibly catchy chorus… blasted out of speakers in the summer of 1968, taking the newly formed Deep Purple into the upper reaches of the US chart. First recorded by American country-soul singer Billy Joe Royal, who’d been gifted the song by his friend Joe South, came to define early Purple in its mercurial fusion of psychedelic R&B and hard-nosed rock.
