A disabling motorcycle accident ended his career in the navy. Five years later, he was in a car wreck that killed Eddie Cochran, “his mentor and best friend at a point when his career and personal life had begun to look up again” (American National Biography).
Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps “Be-Bop-A-Lula”
April 29, 2016
234 The Teen Queens “Eddie, My Love” 1956
According to Ebony magazine in 1956, the Teen Queens (Betty and Rosie Collins) were one of “over two hundred teen rock ‘n’ roll groups.” “Every rock ‘n’ roll concert was an occasion for affirming and celebrating teenage collective identity and solidarity” (Glenn Altschuler, All Shook Up, 2003).
The Teen Queens “Eddie, My Love”
The Teen Queens “Eddie, My Love”
233 The Staple Singers “Uncloudy Day” 1956
“The song was known to almost anyone who had attended a Christian church service. It was written in 1879 by Josiah K. Alwood, an itinerant preacher from the Midwest, after riding through a midnight rainstorm and catching a glimpse of what he said was a rainbow…the Staples found themselves transformed from a novelty to hometown stars who still carried themselves like everybody’s next-door neighbor” (Greg Kot, I’ll Take You There).
The Staple Singers “Uncloudy Day”
The Staple Singers “Uncloudy Day”
232 Otis Rush (1935- ) “I Can’t Quit You Baby” 1956
“In capturing the Chicago sound, Otis Rush’s severely under-recorded career…moved blues from its country origins and discovered an almost painful intensity, which was firmly of the city” (Music Week 3/27/04).
Otis Rush “I Can’t Quit You Baby”
Otis Rush “I Can’t Quit You Baby”
231 Elvis Presley (1935-1977) “Love Me Tender” 1956
The song was arranged by noted songwriter and conductor, Ken Darby, for the movie originally titled The Reno Brothers. The title song “was based on the old American folk song ‘Aura Lee,’ which had been written in the days just before the Civil War” (Collins, Untold Gold).
Elvis Presley “Love Me Tender”
Elvis Presley “Love Me Tender”
April 22, 2016
230 Elvis Presley (1935-1977) “Hound Dog” 1956
Music executive Steve Sholes “loved” Presley’s recording of “Hound Dog.” “But what impress him more than the perfect final take was the focus and determination that Elvis had exhibited as he toiled to get the number just right…it was obvious that the singer would settle for nothing less than perfection.” The song “probably had more to do with making Elvis the ‘King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ than anything he recorded before or after” (Collins, Untold Gold).
Elvis Presley “Hound Dog”
Elvis Presley “Hound Dog”
229 Elvis Presley (1935-1977) “Don’t Be Cruel” 1956
Otis Blackwell was an impoverished, starving song writer when he was rescued by the Shalimar music company. He wrote and cut a demo designed for Presley about “teenage psychology and the way that teens maximized each of life’s small emotional dramas” (Collins, Untold Gold).
Elvis Presley “Don’t Be Cruel”
Elvis Presley “Don’t Be Cruel”
228 Elvis Presley (1935-1977) “Blue Suede Shoes” 1956
It was the first number of Presley’s first TV appearance, on a struggling variety show called Stage Show. The producer, Jack Philbin, invited Presley because he looked like “a guitar-playing Marlon Brando.” The audience’s reaction was lukewarm (Goldman, Elvis).
Elvis Presley “Blue Suede Shoes”
Elvis Presley “Blue Suede Shoes”
227 Elvis Presley (1935-1977) “Heartbreak Hotel” 1956
“The song, inspired by a hopeless man’s suicide note and penned by a schoolteacher and a forgotten country music wannabe, launched Elvis Presley as a mainstream force in American entertainment” (Collins, Untold Gold).
Elvis Presley “Heartbreak Hotel”
Elvis Presley “Heartbreak Hotel”
226 Carl Perkins (1932-1998) “Blue Suede Shoes” 1956
“Johnny Cash…suggested that Perkins ‘write … a song about blue suede shoes.’ Some time later, while playing a show at a supper club, he heard a young man admonish his date not to ‘step on my suedes!’ Later that evening, in the small apartment he shared with Valda [Crider] in the Jackson housing project, Perkins scrawled on a potato sack the lyrics that would secure his place in rock-and-roll history.…’Blue Suede Shoes’ became Sun Records' first million-selling record” (American National Biography). Listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.
Carl Perkins “Blue Suede Shoes”
Carl Perkins “Blue Suede Shoes”
April 15, 2016
225 Roy Orbison (1936-1988) “Ooby Dooby” and “(Cat Called) Domino” 1956
“Envying the success of his fellow
Odessa student Pat Boone and that of Elvis Presley, both at that time riding
the crest of early rock ’n’ roll popularity, Orbison transformed his group into
the Teen Kings, a rockabilly-oriented rock ’n’ roll band. With the assistance
of Norman Petty, a frequent collaborator of fellow Texan Buddy Holly who later
also composed with Orbison, he recorded “Ooby Dooby,” a song composed by two
upperclassmen at North Texas State” (American
National Biography).
224 Moon Mullican (1909-1967) with Boyd Bennett and his Rockets “Seven Nights to Rock” 1956
“Though in the wake of Presley’s success, some country singers made
attempts to try to play rock and had trouble making the adjustment, Moon had no
such problems. After all, his earlier music helped lay the groundwork for rock”
(Rich Kienzle on cover of Moon Mullican
Seven Nights to Rock album). He
has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of
Fame (The Handbook of Texas Music).
Moon Mullican “Seven Nights to Rock”
Moon Mullican “Seven Nights to Rock”
223 Mickey (1925-2012) and Sylvia (1936-2011) “Love is Strange” 1956
“Mickey
Baker might have remained comparatively unknown as a backroom session man but
for his partnership with Sylvia Vanderpool. To make ends meet, Baker had
started offering guitar tuition, and when she went to him for a course of
lessons, the pair formed an act called Mickey and Sylvia…their second recording
for Groove, ‘Love is Strange,’ … became a smash hit and propelled them to
national stardom” (The Daily Telegraph (London), 12/5/12).
222 Skeets McDonald (1915-1968) "Heart Breakin' Mama" 1956
Enos William McDonald “got his nickname as a youngster after he
was attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes…After active service in World War II he
returned to Detroit and made his first recordings for Fortune Records in 1950”
(The Encyclopedia of Country Music).
221 Janis Martin (1940-2007) “Will You Willyum” 1956
“when Elvis is really
coming into his own…she had already been honing her craft since she was about
6, so she was already being kind of a hillbilly-bop, rockabilly girl before the
term was actually even there. And when she came along and she had this jump,
bop, wiggle and shake stage presence...and a great voice - she was already doing
it before she ever met [Presley]” (Weekend Edition Sunday NPR, 9/30/12).
April 8, 2016
220 Janis Martin (1940-2007) “Drugstore Rock ‘n Roll” 1956
“The singer was a teenager
from Virginia who had been christened by RCA music producers
as a female Elvis. Her name was Janis Martin and she went on to
appear at the Grand Ole Opry, American Bandstand and the Tonight Show. But Martin's fame was short lived.
The teenager got married and had a baby, which didn't sit so well with the
people managing her career” (Weekend Edition Sunday NPR, 9/30/12).
Janis Martin “Drugstore Rock ‘n Roll”
Janis Martin “Drugstore Rock ‘n Roll”
219 Frankie Lymon (1942-1968) and the Teenagers “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” 1956
“Before Michael Jackson could
walk--much less moonwalk--there was Frankie Lymon, rock's original pint-size
sensation. Backed by his fellow doo-woppers, the Teenagers, Lymon was barely a teen
himself (14, to be exact) when his first record, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall
in Love?," catapulted him from Manhattan street corners to global fame…
"'He was the first black teenage star,’ recalls his cousin Phil Harris”
(Karlin Campbell, People, 1998).
218 Little Richard (1932- ) “Long Tall Sally” 1956
His hit “Tutti Frutti” was recorded by Pat Boone, “the exact
opposite of the homo/ambi-sexual twilight world from which the song
orginated….Richard raised his tempo for his next release, Long Tall Sally.
‘Let’s see Pat Boone get his mouth together to do this song,’ he quipped and
developed the ‘Ooooooh’ vocalizing which became his trademark” (Clayton
Goodwin, New African, 2005).
217 Brenda Lee (1944- ) “Bigelow 6-200” 1956
“This musical prodigy was singing
professionally at 7, recording for Decca at 11. Unlike most child performers,
Lee relied neither on cuteness nor a wispy, little-girl voice. Listeners were
amazed to hear a tiny child (who hit only four nine an adult) belt out a song
with a full-throated, booming tone. According to one writer, Lee was blessed
with the power of Mahalia Jackson and the hillbilly heart of Hank Williams” (Kirkus Reviews, 2002).
216 Little Willie John (1937-1968) “Fever” 1956
Born William Edward John, “His muscular, full-throated tenor
belied his short stature.” He performed with jazz greats, and his “signature
number,” “Fever,” “became a pop-soul standard.” He died of a heart attack while
in prison on a manslaughter charge (“Little Willie John Biography,”
rockhall.com).
April 1, 2016
215 Wanda Jackson (1937- ) “I Gotta Know” 1956
“I began working with Elvis in '55 after I graduated from high school.
We were boyfriend and girlfriend… He thought I should start doing this new
music because he was just starting to really get big. I said, ‘I don't think I
can do that because I'm just a country singer.’ He said, ‘Well, I am too
basically, but I think … it's going to be the next really big music.’ Well, how
right he was… It was through his encouragement that I got into rock ‘n’ roll
music and daddy agreed with him thoroughly” (Brutarian Quarterly, 2002).
214 Wanda Jackson (1937- ) “Hot Dog, That Made Him Mad” 1956
“A groundbreaking performer in two genres, Wanda Jackson's early rockabilly style burned with
hot-tempered sexuality…When the market for southern-fried rock and roll dried
up during the twist era, she forged a substantial career in country music long
before rock contemporaries Conway Twitty or Jerry Lee Lewis made a similar
switch” (Contemporary Musicians).
213 Ivory Joe Hunter (1914-1974) “Since I Met You Baby” 1956
“both of Hunter's parents died when he was
eleven years old. Subsequently, he quit school and helped support his family
with his music…pop stars such as Eddie Fisher and Pat Boone scrambled to
record cover versions of his songs. R&B's smoothest innovator, Hunter could
pound bawdy boogie like Fats Waller, create intimate swing like Duke Ellington,
and bring out the best in simple, tender ballads Nat King Cole-style” (Contemporary Musicians).
212 Howlin’ Wolf (1910-1976) “Smokestack Lightning” 1956
“Saying ‘Smokestack Lightning’ is about a train is like saying
Citizen Kane is about a sled. It was Wolf’s single greatest recording,
distilling into one unforgettable performance everything that made him unique”
(Moanin’ at Midnight). Listed on the National Recording Registry
of the Library of Congress.
211 Eddie Heywood (1915-1989) with Hugo Winterhalter (1909-1973) and his Orchestra “Canadian Sunset” 1956
Heywood was a jazz pianist and composer who recorded with “Bing
Crosby, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Andrews Sisters.” Winterhalter
also composed and directed bands for celebrity singers (such as Dinah Shore) as
well as for film and Broadway. Their R & B collaboration became a major hit
(Baker’s
Biographical Dictionary of Musicians).