Rock Evolution – The History of Rock ’n’ Roll - Pop pre-1960 (pg 38)

[Resurrection Joe...]

Can Paul Anka squeeze in there?..I'm thinking 'Diana'...gotta be pop1

 

[threespires]

Got the Dachau reference - I never knew that. As he is in my 1962 write-up, I'll leave that for somebody else to nominate. Instead, I'll go for something that reminds me of a certain Italian manager.

"Volare" - Domenico Modugno

Yay our first Eurovision entry !! (and if it turns out to be the last then it shows the contest in the best possible light).

 

[threespires]

Can Paul Anka squeeze in there?..I'm thinking 'Diana'...gotta be pop1

Yep easily scoots in with three years to spare. Had an interesting career and still with us.

 

[threespires]

I'm sure in the various music threads there's multiple fans of the later Philly sound, I'll just mention that there's rich pickings in the earlier Philly sound too :-)

 

[stan bowles]

I'd say Johnnie Ray was the bridge between Sinatra and Elvis. He was the teen heart throb early to mid 50s before Elvis broke through. Tommy Steele was Rockin' with the Caveman and the first bona fide English rock n' roller before Cliff came along. Tommy became a family entertainer after his moment in the sun passed just as Cliff did when the Beatles came along.

 

[threespires]

I'd say Johnnie Ray was the bridge between Sinatra and Elvis. He was the teen heart throb early to mid 50s before Elvis broke through. Tommy Steele was Rockin' with the Caveman and the first bona fide English rock n' roller before Cliff came along. Tommy became a family entertainer after his moment in the sun passed just as Cliff did when the Beatles came along.

Good shout on Johnny Ray, do you want to nominate a track for the playlist?

Yes, no doubt that Tommy was before Cliff, I suggested Cliff as the first big pop star because as you say Tommy's music career at the highest level was fairly short lived and Richards did go on to have hits across multiple decades albeit with an increasingly aging audience! Different sources have different views on which of them qualifies as our first big star but Tommy was definitely our first real rock n roller. That said if I'd have been putting a TS track on the playlist I'd have gone for Little White Bull, a song I loved as as a small child !

 

[RobMCFC]

Richards

2nd time you’ve done it. I assumed the first was a typo but now I’m not so sure :)

It’s Cliff Richard - without the s.

 

[threespires]

2nd time you’ve done it. I assumed the first was a typo but now I’m not so sure :)

It’s Cliff Richard - without the s.

Haha, I reckon I've been corrected about this maybe a dozen times over the years and still it doesn't sink in!! Think I need to write it on the board like Bart.

 

[mrbelfry]

Haha, I reckon I've been corrected about this maybe a dozen times over the years and still it doesn't sink in!! Think I need to write it on the board like Bart.

Bart Bacharach?

 

[mancity111]

Btw - there's a very obvious song that qualifies as traditional pop that it will be utter utter madness if nobody nominates it !

Also if anyone needs a nudge on a couple of other giants I didn't include in the original write-up...

• one of them was part of the liberation of one of the Dachau concentration camps
• the other was a man who nearly died on Route 66 and had a permanent reminder for the rest of his life

Ah yes arguably the best entertainer on stage the US has produced IMO but no doubt shared by many others Sammy Davis Jr.

Blind in one eye as a result of the car accident and thank god for music lovers he survived.

I was fortunate enough to see him live on a couple of occasions and there was little he could not do.

He could make Broadway sexy and what a voice especially for a chain smoker.

I was going to nominate him in 1962 for an obvious choice but as you actuate in a good way TS I will nominate:

I Got Plenty o' Nuttin from Porgy and Bess.