Ned Fairchild

Nelda "Ned" Fairchild (born August 26, 1929 in Burley, Idaho died May 3, 2015) was an American songwriter.^[1] Her best known work is the 1957 rock'n'roll hit "Twenty Flight Rock", on which a co-writing credit was given to rock and roll pioneer Eddie Cochran.^[2] Paul McCartney and John Lennon have in different contexts said that McCartney was invited to join Lennon's band, The Quarrymen, because he knew both the chords and words to "Twenty Flight Rock", a much-admired staple of the bands forming in England at that time.

She was an AMI staff songwriter, who variously wrote and performed as Ned Fairchild and Sunny Bingo. Born Nelda Fairchild, she and her sister Teena (real name Ella) began performing at ages 4 and 5 as a sister act on radio shows. As teenagers living in Southern California, they worked regularly and were cast members on Burt "Foreman" Phillips' musical variety show in Compton, California. By the 1950s, they were appearing as The Southern Belles, appearing on Town Hall Party with Merle Travis and other early TV music stars. Travis introduced Nelda to the AMI president Irv Cross, who made her a staff writer, one of a very few women then on the writing staffs of music publishers. It was at that time common for a star who recorded a song to take a co-writer credit. Originator of this thread, journalist Dean Miller, examined royalty statements at Fairchild's home in 2007 and determined Fairchild was paid an undivided royalty on "Twenty Flight Rock", which supports her statements that Cochran's co-writing credit is not for authorship, but for covering the song. Cochran's nephew, biographer Bobby Cochran, disputes this account in Three Steps to Heaven: The Eddie Cochran Story,^[3] though without supporting documentation.

Her first marriage at age 15 in 1944 was to Jack B. Farnsworth. He fought in the South Pacific during World War II, was disabled by malaria, and came home as a war hero. They divorced, leaving Nelda a single mother of a four-year-old son, Jack D. Farnsworth.

She met and married Richard "Bing" Bingo in 1950. Together they had two children, Jill and Frank, and Sunny's song writing and poetry proliferated. She was often on the road selling her songs and singing in bars and lounges with a small band. Bing died in 2002. Her son, Jack, died in July 2011.^[4]

In 2006, she published the autobiographical book Sing or Cry: My Life in Verse.^[5] After the book was published she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Songs written by Ned Fairchild

• "Twenty Flight Rock" (Ned Fairchild/Eddie Cochran) co-written with and recorded by Eddie Cochran^[6]
• "Freddie the Little Fir Tree" (Ned Fairchild/Merle Travis) performed by Gene Autry
• "I Took Him From You" performed by the DeJohn Sisters
• "Too in Love" (Ned Fairchild/Merle Travis) performed by Hank Thompson
• "Since You Said Goodbye"

References

• Bobby Cochran and Susan Van Hecke (2003). Three Steps to Heaven: The Eddie Cochran Story. Hal Leonard Corporation. Retrieved September 2, 2013.