the song reached the no. 5 position on the u.s. "billboard" hot 100 chart on july 7, 1958, sold over one million copies, and inspired a trend of "teen tragedy" songs. reynolds performed on "american bandstand" and other tv shows, and was featured on concert tours organized by the legendary disc jockey/promoter alan freed. "endless sleep" would later be covered by the judds, john fogerty, nick lowe and billy idol; marty wilde had a major hit with it in the uk, and hank williams, jr.'s version was a modest country music chart success.