With sung-mumbled lyrics about a drag race with Satan alongside lightning rockabilly guitar licks and bent notes from Cliff Gallup, Gene Vincent's "Race with the Devil" was chosen as the follow-up single to his smash "Be-Bop-A-Lula," but it barely charted. Producer Ken Nelson arranged to have Nashville session musicians on hand if Vincent's band couldn't play well. But as Vincent's manager Sheriff Davis (credited with Gene as co-writer of the song) remembered, "When they heard Cliff go off on all those runs, they turned to each other and went, 'Whaaat! Whaaat!'"