It’s impossible to predict what the public wants. Otherwise, we’d all be record executives.

Jody Reynolds grew up in Denver, CO listening to the Western Swing records which would soon help to influence the early rock & roll and rockabilly of the mid-1950s. It certainly influenced Reynolds, who picked up a guitar as a teen and eventually started writing his own songs and playing live.

In 1956, Reynolds heard Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” on a jukebox. He was so struck by the haunting sound and spare production that he played the record four more times in a row. Returning home, he immediately picked up his guitar and wrote his own tale of despair and loneliness about a teenage couple who have a fight. The girl then runs into the sea and drowns.

Kids. So dramatic.

While touring Southern California, Reynolds met a club owner who gave him the name of a music publisher in Hollywood. He sent a few demos to the publisher who wasn’t interested in any of the songs — except for the dark tale titled “Endless Sleep.” That song had a certain something.

Using his connections, the publisher (soon to be manager) took the demo of “Endless Sleep” to everyone, and everyone said, “Ummm, no.” Who wants to hear a downer of a song about a teenage girl that drowns? But he persevered, and eventually convinced a little indie label in Los Angeles called Demon Records (not to be confused with the label of the same name in England that started in the 70s) to release the single. But there was a catch.

Two catches, actually.

Demon wanted the song to appear like it was written by a professional songwriting team, so they added the fictitious name Dolores Nance to the credits. Not that big of a deal.

But they also wanted Reynolds to change the ending of the song. It was the 1950s and Demon wanted a happy ending — teenage death didn’t seem like it would be a fun jukebox record. This was a bigger deal, but Reynolds didn’t want to lose his big break so he caved to the pressure and allowed the girl in the song to live.

Released as a single in March of 1958, “Endless Sleep” woke up at #5 on the US Hot 100 in July and sold over a million copies. Reynolds himself never had another hit but his influence was immediate. The next few years saw a spate of “teenage tragedy” songs, many of which became huge hits. Despite record company assumptions about what the public wouldn’t buy, these records sold millions. They became so prevalent that in 1960 Bob Luman scored a hit with a novelty song called “Let’s Think About Living,” asking singers to quit it with all the death and depression songs. And it all started with a death that was reversed.

So keep an eye on the sea… with Jody Reynolds.

In the UK, Marty Wilde had the hit, reaching #4 on the chart with a very faithful cover.