WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Story Behind the Song: A Songwriter and His Use of Onomatopoeia

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Join Lilly Faye Kraemer as she interviews Layng Martine Jr., a Nashville songwriter, and the story behind the song he wrote,  "Way Down," the last song Elvis recorded, as well as other fun songs he wrote. 

Back to Story Behind the song on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Lily Fay Kramer, and today I am joined by Lang Martine Jr. He's a songwriter, originally from Connecticut, and now he resides in Nashville. And he's written a bunch of phenomenal songs, but today, I'm going to talk to him about a song he wrote. It was actually the last song that Elvis recorded, and it's called Way Down. So welcome Mr. Martine to Story Behind the Song. Well, thank you, Lily Fay. This is great. All righty. So how did you begin? What was your inspiration for Way Down? Really and truly, I wrote Way Down during a period when I was basically writing a song every day.

My publisher had a little cubicle that literally, literally had been in a broom closet. It was about four feet by four feet. I had a little old-fashioned recording. tape recorder in there. And every single day, I would go in there and just pound out a new song. And way down just happened to be one of those songs. But when I finished it, I just said, God, I love this. This is exciting. And I went into the publisher and I knocked on his door and I said, hey, listen to this. See what you think. He said, man, I love that. He said, this is a rainy cruddy day. Let's get the band in here and we'll record it. Let's make a demo. It's fabulous. So Ray Stevens, who was my publisher, he was a very,

famous guy. He wrote songs like everything is beautiful. Ahab the Arab, which is not politically correct anymore, but it was at the time. And the streak, I don't know if you remember that, but it sold four or five million records when the streaking craze was wild. Anyway, we went into the studio and he had his band that he used to travel with and stuff, and he called him up, and we made this demo. And Ray sang the bass part that J.D. Sumner sings on the record and it just felt so exciting and I sang the demo and we made it and I played that demo for literally every single person that it was even vaguely a contender in Nashville and nobody even held it overnight and then one day I was out pitching my songs to people that's that I mean

that was what my job was write songs and then I would take them out into the marketplace and basically big people to record them But one day I was sitting in the lobby of a record company, and this very famous publisher came in. And everybody knew that he was the only person in Nashville or in America who had a direct line to Elvis because he knew the guy who was his record producer, man named Felton Jarvis. And I didn't know him and no one else knew him.

And I had sent him tons of songs, maybe 15 or 20 songs, to this address that we all had. but never heard a word back. But anyway, this one day, I was pitching my song, and this famous guy came in and he said, hey, Lang, you work your ass off. God, he said, do you have anything for Elvis? And I said, yeah, I really do.

And he said, bring it to me today. Bring it to me by 3 o'clock. So you had to get a disc cut. You know, a disc looks like what an old-fashioned record used to look like. You could have them cut. There was a guy who had a lathe, and you bring it in, and you give him your tape, and he'd make a disc for you.

So I went over there. I had to ask Ray Stevens' permission, the publisher's permission, because they cost $20, which at that time was like $100. And he said, yeah, you can have one. You can do one. One on each side. That's the same price.

So I was going out the door with my little disc, and I had way down on one side and some other song on the other side. And I had another song, that I was thinking of doing him. Anyway, I asked the secretary, which she think I thought I ought to play. And she was a really good friend of mine,

and she had heard me write all my songs because my little cubicle was about three feet from her desk. But she loved it when I left because it was quiet. But anyway, she said, I play him way down. I like that. I always like it when I hear it. And I said, OK, I'm going to do it. So way down was actually the one of the three

that I had decided I would not have have a disc made of. It was just so weird because I played it for some people and hadn't gotten anywhere. Anyway, I put it on there. And I heard absolutely nothing for months. And I'd say, well, in January of the next year, so I guess I took it over to the guy in around October or something.

So one day, I was at another record company. And one of the things that I would do would be to help somebody who recorded one of my songs, call radio stations and try to get them to play our record. And it happened that this one guy that I was working with that day was unbelievably good at it. I would just give him a little information. I'd say, okay, this guy is in Kansas City. He programs the biggest country station there.

And he's a scout leader, and he raises chickens. And he'd get on the phone and he'd say, how them scouts doing? How the them scouts doing out there? Starting your bed, fires, you know. Well, how about your chickens? All your chickens lived through that weather last weekend? You know, all this guy, he was just so good. But anyway, right in the middle of this coaching this guy in the radio stations, I get a phone call.

And it's the secretary of the guy who had asked me if I had any songs for Elvis. And she says, oh, I know. Back up two seconds, Lily Fay. I hadn't heard anything. And then I heard a rumor that Elvis was looking for songs again. This is after I'd taken him the first one. So I went and had another disc mate, and I took it over there. And she was calling me to say, Lang, Elvis already recorded this song.

Why did you bring it back? And I said, how could he record it? No, I would know. And she said, no, he recorded it. And then she said he recorded it on October 30th of him, blah. And I said, well, that's impossible. Can you double it to check? So she left the phone, came back, double checked.

She said, yeah, he recorded it. So that was it. The light's going to death. The sound of your breathing has made the mood I'm in distance. So that was it. And then the crazy, double crazy part started happening with this thing. some guy had done something completely illegal. He had paid off the people who printed RCA records to print a song that he owned with the RCA label and everything.

And he got a whole bunch of them and sent them out to radio stations, not RCA records. not RCA records, but it said RCA records on them. And so they were going to put out way down, and they couldn't do it because this guy had interfered, and all the radio stations thought that this was the current release from RCA records. And so some of the people were playing it. And so it was a big pain in the ass hassle. And finally, by June of that year,

they had cleared up the problem and they put out way down. Well, I was in Rhode Island in August when it was climbing up the charts. And this friend of mine who was a record promotion guy and his job was to get records played on the radio. But he wasn't working for me. He was just a friend. He called me up on a Tuesday and he said, Lang, I have the advanced numbers from Billboard magazine next week. And your record is going to be number one. And I said, well, that's the most amazing thing that ever happened.

And two days later, I'm at the same place at a tennis court playing tennis. The woman from the tennis thing comes out and says, Lange, there's a phone call for you. And I go in and pick up the phone. And it's my lawyer from Nashville. And she said, we've been watching TV. And I said, no. And she said, Elvis just die. And I said, well, that's just too unbelievable.

And so it had already reached number one. and he had recorded it, and it was just one of the most amazing days of my whole life. So, anyway, that's the story. My back pocket in my blue jeans had a piece of paper, and I just would write song titles on it. And when I'd go in the morning, if I didn't have a bright idea, I'd just pull out this paper and look at my list and one day, it just said, way down. I said, well, that's good. I was just way down, you know. Oh, that was another thing, Lily Fay, it was pretty interesting. I had three songs.

You know what Anamatapeia is? Mm-hmm. It's a word that sounds like what it means for anybody who doesn't know. And I realized later I had three songs that were based on Ata Matapeia without me really realizing it. It goes way down, way down. And I had another song called Wiggle, Wiggle, and the whole melody Wiggled. Dance floor, you said you wouldn't do it in public. anymore Sunday through variety war you kept it all in now it's Saturday night and you're at it again

we're gonna shake in and then I had one called rub it in the chest sounded like rub it in rub it in it sounded like rub it in lie beside me on the sand motion in your hand and I thought well that's pretty good but they were never intentional and I've never really been able to do that again anyway it was interesting But that's how way down got written. It was just another song that I, but it stood out because I loved it. It was exciting. And I loved the rhythm and then Ray Stevens doing that bass voice was such a hook to it also because my voice is so not bass.

And it would have sounded like, why is, you know, Audrey Smith singing your bass part? So. Did you intend for it to be more of like a, a bluesy feel? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The demo is almost exactly like Elvis's record. Even though he's a great singer and I'm not, you can see why it's so important to have a good demo

because sometimes, not always, sometimes, more often than not, they do it just like the demo. Okay, so you were the one that you led the entire creative process behind it. If you go on Spotify and you look up the credits, it says that you're the writer, but then it says Elvis is the producer. and the executive director and everything. But it's interesting to know, like, the song sounds just like the demo. Yeah.

Well, I say just like it. You'll see what I mean. You'll see it. Babe, you're getting closer. The lights are going down. You're taking me to places that I've never been before. Yeah, I mean, if you've got a great demo, you very often go. got a great record. Once in a blue moon, you'd have a great demo and you'd give it to someone

and then they would change the rhythm or something and you could say, God, no one living could sing over that beat. Why'd you change the rhythm or, you know, no one could dance to that. They killed himself. You know, it's just, you know, you don't know, but you're very grateful for anybody recording anything, but it is odd when you have a fabulous demo and they change it, but that doesn't happen very much. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Martine. This will fun. Thank you.

And I'm your host, Lily Fay Kramer, of Story Behind the Song, on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.1.7 FM.