The Birth of Rock

Rock music had an unprecedented impact on culture and lifestyle starting in the mid-sixties, and its major parent is rock and roll music.  The following traces the beginnings of this music.  Information for this page was found in Wikipedia, and other related web sites.

The Music

Wikipedia notes that "the immediate origins of rock and roll lie in the late 1940s and early 1950s through a mixing together of various popular musical genres of the time.  These included gospel, folk music, and the blues - particularly the electric forms being developed in Memphis, Chicago, New Orleans, Texas, California, and elsewhere - piano-based boogie woogie, and jump blues, which were collectively becoming known as rhythm and blues.

Also in the melting pot, creating a new musical form, were country and western music (including Western swing and influences from traditional Appalachian folk music), jazz, and gospel music.

However, elements of rock and roll can be heard in country records of the 1930s, and in blues records from the 1920s.  During that period many white Americans enjoyed African-American jazz and blues performed by white musicians.  Often, "black" music was  relegated to "race music" outlets (music industry code for rhythm and blues stations) and was rarely heard by mainstream white audiences.

Who Called It That?  [ top ]

In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience. Freed is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. However, the term had already been introduced to US audiences, particularly in the lyrics of many rhythm and blues records.

Wikipedia notes that "three different songs with the title "Rock And Roll" were recorded in the late 1940s; one by Paul Bascomb in 1947, another by Wild Bill Moore in 1948, and yet another by Doles Dickens in 1949, and the phrase was in constant use in the lyrics of R&B songs of the time.

One such record where the phrase was repeated throughout the song was Rock And Roll Blues, recorded in 1949 by Erline "Rock And Roll" Harris. The phrase was also included in advertisements for the film Wabash Avenue, starring Betty Grable and Victor Mature.

An ad for the movie that ran April 12, 1950 billed Betty Grable as "...the first lady of rock and roll" and Wabash Avenue as "...the roaring street she rocked to fame".

The First Rock & Roll Record  [ top ]

There is much debate as to what should be considered the first rock & roll record.  One leading contender is "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band The Kings of Rhythm), recorded by Sam Phillips for Sun Records in 1951.

Three years later, Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture.

In July 1954, Elvis Presley recorded the regional hit That's All Right (Mama) at Sam Phillips' Sun studios in Memphis. Two months earlier in May 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock.  Although only a minor hit when first released, when used in the opening sequence of the movie, Blackboard Jungle, it really set the rock and roll boom in motion. The song became one of the biggest hits in history, and frenzied teens flocked to see Haley and the Comets perform it, causing riots in some cities.

Rock Around the Clock was a breakthrough for both the group and for all of rock and roll music. If everything that came before laid the groundwork, "Clock" set the mold for everything else that came after.

Elements of Rock and Roll

Both rock and roll and boogie woogie have four beats  to a bar, and are twelve-bar blues. Rock and roll however has a greater emphasis on the backbeat than boogie woogie.

Little Richard (right) combined boogie-woogie piano with a heavy backbeat and, over-the-top, shouted gospel-influenced vocals that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame says "blew the lid off the '50s."

However, others before Little Richard were combining these elements, including Esquerita, Cecil Gant, Amos Milburn, Piano Red, and Harry Gibson. Little Richard's wild style, with shouts and "wooo wooos," had itself been used by female gospel singers, including the 1940s' Marion Williams.  Roy Brown did a Little Richard style "yaaaaaaww" long before Richard in Ain't No Rockin No More.

Bo Diddley's 1955 hit Bo Diddley backed with I'm A Man introduced a new, pounding beat, and unique guitar playing that inspired many artists. Other artists with early rock and roll hits were Chuck Berry and Little Richard, as well as many vocal doo-wop groups.

Within the decade crooners such as Eddie Fisher, Perry Como, and Patti Page, who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed.

Rockabilly  [ top ]

From left to right, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash.

Rockabilly usually  refers to the type of rock and roll music which was played and recorded in the mid 1950s by white singers such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, who openly drew on both the country and R&B roots of the music.

It appears to be a catch-all term applied to almost anyone who had a rock and roll recording in the mid to late '50s, including Johnny Cash, Bill Haley and His Comets, Roy Orbison, and Buddy Holly.  Even Ricky Nelson's first hit Believe What You Say, released in March, 1958, was classified as Rockabilly.

Many other popular rock and roll singers of the time, such as Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, came out of the black rhythm and  blues tradition, making the music attractive to white audiences, but are not usually referred to as rockabilly.

Doing 'Covers'

Many of the earliest white rock and roll hits were covers or partial re-writes of earlier rhythm and blues or blues songs. Through the late 1940s and early 1950s, R&B music had been gaining a stronger beat and a wilder style, with artists such as Fats Domino and Johnny Otis speeding up the tempos and increasing the backbeat to great popularity on the juke joint circuit.

Before the efforts of Freed and others, black music was taboo on many white-owned radio outlets. However, savvy artists and producers quickly recognized the potential of rock, and raced to cash in with white versions of this black music. White musicians also fell in love with the music and played it everywhere they could.

Many of Presley's early hits were covers, like That's All Right, Baby, Let's Play House, Lawdy Miss Clawdy, and Hound Dog.

Covering was customary in the music industry at the time.  It was made particularly easy by the compulsory license provision of United States copyright law (still in effect).  One of the first successful rock and roll covers was Wynonie Harris's transformation of Roy Brown's Good Rocking Tonight from a jump blues to a showy rocker. The most notable trend, however, was white pop covers of black R&B numbers.

Black performers saw their songs being recorded by white performers, an important step in the dissemination of the music, but often at the cost of feeling and authenticity (not to mention revenue).  Most famously, Pat Boone recorded sanitized versions of Little Richard songs, though Boone found Long Tall Sally so intense that he couldn't cover it.

Later, as those songs became popular, the original artists' recordings received radio play as well. Little Richard once called Pat Boone from the audience and introduced him as "the man who made me a millionaire."

The cover versions were not necessarily straightforward imitations. For example, Bill Haley's incompletely bowdlerized cover of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" transformed Big Joe Turner's (right) humorous and racy tale of adult love into an energetic teen dance number.

Blues would continue to inspire rock performers for decades.  Delta blues artists such as Robert Johnson and Skip James also proved to be important inspirations for British blues-rockers such as The Yardbirds, Cream, and Led Zeppelin.

The reverse, black artists making hits with covers of songs by white songwriters, although less common, did occur. Amos Milburn got a hit with Don Raye's Down the Road a Piece, Maurice Rocco covered Raye's Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar, and Wynonie Harris covered Don't Roll Your Bloodshot Eyes At Me by Hank Penny and Oh, Babe by Louis Prima for the R&B market.

The Impact on Culture  [ top ]

Alan Freed is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe rhythm and blues music played for a multi-racial audience. While working as a disc jockey at radio station WJW in Cleveland, he also organized the first rock and roll concert, called "The Moondog Coronation Ball" on March 21, 1952.

The event proved a huge drawing card — the first event had to be ended early due to overcrowding. Thereafter, Freed organized many rock and roll shows attended by both whites and blacks, further helping to introduce African-American musical styles to a wider audience.

Rock and roll appeared at a time when racial tensions in the United States were coming to the surface.  African Americans were protesting segregation of schools and public facilities. The "separate but equal" doctrine was nominally overturned by the Supreme Court in 1954, and the difficult task of enforcing this new doctrine lay ahead. This new musical form combining elements of white and black music inevitably provoked strong reactions.

After "The Moondog Coronation Ball", the record industry soon understood that there was a white market for black music that was beyond the stylistic boundaries of rhythm and blues. Even the considerable prejudice and racial barriers could do nothing against market forces. Rock and roll was an overnight success in the U.S., making ripples across the Atlantic, and perhaps culminating in 1964 with the British Invasion.

The social effects of rock and roll were worldwide and massive. Far beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language.  In addition, rock and roll may have helped the cause of the civil rights movement because both African American teens and white American teens enjoyed the music.

It also birthed many other rock influenced styles.  Hard rock, progressive,  punk, and heavy metal are just a few of the genres that sprang forth in the wake of Rock and Roll.

The Elvis Era  [ top ]

A teen idol was a recording artist who, because of their good looks and sex appeal as much as their musical abilities, attracted a very large following of (mostly) female teenagers.  A good example is Frank Sinatra in the 1940s, although a case can be made for Rudy Vallee even earlier.  With the birth of rock and roll, Elvis Presley became one of the greatest teen idols of them all.

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935, Presley's life was strongly influenced by gospel music.  He was also  passionate about blues music, and frequented the blues clubs on Beale St. in Memphis.  B.B. King remembered the young Elvis Presley used to "come around, and be around us a lot" before Presley's fame as a rock and roll performer.

Sam Phillips, president of Sun Records Memphis Recording Service, was looking for a singer who could perform black blues and boogie woogie music to a white audience.  He  invited Presley to a recording session in July, 1954.  The track, That's All Right (Mama), was the result of this session, and was soon given air play, with the flip side, Blue Moon of Kentucky, across the southern states. 

Presley had ten more cuts released by Sun Records, and was becoming a major curiosity in the south with his "black" music and energetic stage presentations.  This brought him to the attention of "Colonel" Tom Parker, who became his manager on August 15, 1955.

Parker and Sam Phillips orchestrated a record contract for the young singer with RCA records, and RCA re-released all Presley's Sun recordings, as well as heavily promoting him,  on a national scale.  Presley recorded Heartbreak Hotel for RCA in Nashville on January 10, 1956.  The song was #1 on the national hit parade charts by April of that year.

With Parker's guidance, Elvis Presley went on to become the hottest rock and roll performer of his time, and parlayed this into a successful acting career as well.  He was later known as "The King" of rock and roll by the media and his fans.

His success led promoters to the deliberate creation of new "rock and roll" idols, such as Frankie Avalon and Ricky Nelson.  Other musicians of the time also achieved mass popularity.

Presley's ability to perform was severely hampered by deteriorating health in the last years of his life.  He died on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42 at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee.  He was found lying on his bathroom floor by his fiancée, long-time acquaintance, Ginger Alden.

The Day the Music Died  [ top ]

Just after midnight on February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly (left), Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) were killed when a plane Holly had chartered from Mason City, Iowa to Fargo, North Dakota crashed in a corn field after a performance at the Winter Dance Party.

Buddy Holly, born in Lubbock, Texas on September 7, 1936, has been called the most influential performer of the early rock and roll era.  Holly's music transcended the racial "color barrier" at a time when equal rights and racial equality were major issues in the United States.  Buddy Holly was extremely popular with audiences regardless of race.  He has influenced many major rock performers including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

He was innovative, creative, and far ahead of his time in the studio.  He used advanced studio resources, such as echo, dynamic mixing techniques, and was one of the first, if not the first, to double-track his vocal and guitar parts.  He often played chord guitar solos, rather than conventional single-string picking, used unconventional instruments (he had his drummer slap his knees rather than play drums on one track), and recorded instruments outside the studio (washroom, for acoustic effects) to give his records their unique flavor.

Holly's one and a half year career as a rock and roll star began with the 1956 release of his #1 hit That'll Be the Day.  He followed this with a string of hits in 1957 including Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Not Face Away, and Maybe Baby.  It's So Easy and It Doesn't Matter Anymore were released in 1958.

His recording career was so prolific that his record label (Coral Records, a division of Decca Records) were able to release brand new Buddy Holly albums and singles up to ten years after his death. 

Many of Holly's songs were registered with his former manager, recording engineer/producer, Norman Petty, as the co-author, an issue that Holly legally contested up to the time of his death.

Teen Idols  [ top ]

Teen idols of the rock and roll years were followed by many other artists with massive appeal to a teenaged audience, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.  Teen idols were not only known for their catchy pop music, but good looks and sex appeal. 

It was because of this that certain fan magazines, exclusively geared to the fans of teen idols (16 Magazine, Tiger Beat, etc.), were created.  These monthly magazines typically featured a popular teen idol on the cover, as well as pin-up photographs, a Q&A, and a list of each idol's "faves" (i.e. favorite color, favorite vegetable, favorite hair color, etc.).

Teen idols also influenced toys, Saturday morning cartoons and other products. At the height of each teen idol's popularity, it was not uncommon to see Beatle wigs, Davy Jones' "love beads", or Herman's Hermits lunchboxes for sale.

The trad jazz movement brought blues artists to Britain, and in 1955 Lonnie Donegan's version of "Rock Island Line" began skiffle music which inspired many young people to have a go. These included John Lennon and Paul McCartney, whose group The Quarrymen, formed in March 1957, would gradually change and develop into The Beatles. These developments primed the United Kingdom to respond creatively to American rock and roll, which had an impact across the globe.

Rock in Britain  [ top ]

In Britain, skiffle groups, record collecting and trend-watching were in full bloom among the youth culture prior to the rock era, and colour barriers were less of an issue with the idea of separate "race records" seeming almost unimaginable. Countless British youths listened to R&B and rock pioneers and began forming their own bands. Britain quickly became a new center of rock and roll.

In 1958 three British teenagers became Cliff Richard and the Drifters (later renamed Cliff Richard and the Shadows). The group (right)  recorded a hit, "Move It", marking not only what is held to be the very first true British rock and roll single, but also the beginning of a different sound — British rock. Richard and his band introduced many important changes, such as using a "lead guitarist" (Hank Marvin) and an electric bass.

The British scene developed, with others including Tommy Steele, Adam Faith and Billy Fury vying to emulate the stars from the U.S. Some touring acts attracted particular popularity in Britain, an example being Gene Vincent. This inspired many British teens to begin buying records and follow the music scene, thus laying the groundwork for Beatlemania.

At the start of the 1960s, instrumental dance music was very popular in the UK. Hits such as "Apache" by The Shadows and "Telstar" by The Tornados (produced by Joe Meek), form a British branch of instrumental music.

At the same time, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, R&B fans such as Alexis Korner (left) promoted authentic American blues music directly in London clubs, and elsewhere, at a time when this music was declining in popularity back in the USA. This led directly to the formation of such groups as The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds in London, The Animals in Newcastle, and Them in Belfast. In the USA, such groups became known as part of the "British Invasion".     

The mid-sixties marked a turning point in rock music as it became a way-of-life for many, and influenced society as no music had before.  The following sections highlight the performers who shaped the direction of the "golden age" of rock.  See The Stars section for in-depth bios of the major players.

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