Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - Rock & Roll (pg 47)

threespires said:
A fantastically concise but on point intro Rob.

At some point we'll have to revisit Peggy Sue but given the chilly weather I need to be transported by:

Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues
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Yeah, didn't see the point in labouring this one. Everybody knows what's rock & roll and what isn't.

Good choice - one of many that were on my list and didn't make the cut.
 
RobMCFC said:
Blue Moon Rock Evolution – Rock & Roll

Introduction

Rock & roll (or rock ‘n’ roll) was the original starting point when I first came up with the idea for this thread. For some reason, I always had it in my head that “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley & The Comets was the first rock & roll record. But as the introductions that have been presented for blues, country, jazz and pop have hopefully demonstrated, pinning down an exact point in time for the birth of rock & roll is not so easy. The genre evolved naturally from the music that had been doing the rounds in the bars, ballrooms and juke joints of America for 30 years or more, but the fact that these places were segregated often made the music unavailable to the general public and therefore it was largely undocumented.

Rock & Roll took elements from all the above genres, and probably more that we haven’t covered, and packaged it in an upbeat danceable format that was a hit with music lovers the world over.


The First Rock & Roll Record

The phrase "rocking and rolling" originally described the movement of a ship on the ocean, but by the early 20th century was used to describe the spiritual fervour of black church rituals, and for decades African Americans had used the term as a euphemism for sex. Over the decades, many music historians have put forward different records from the 40s and early 50s as the contender for the first rock & roll record – Wild Bill Moore even had a song called "Rock and Roll" in 1948. In 1951, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style, and referring to it as "rock and roll", thereby popularising the phrase.

It’s understandable that Bill Haley’s “Rock Around The Clock” is given the accolade of the first true rock & roll record.

Although only a minor hit when first released, its appearance in the opening sequence of the movie Blackboard Jungle a year later arguably 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. The immense popularity of "Rock Around the Clock" undoubtedly introduced the music to a global audience.

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However, just as true is the fact that neither Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" nor Elvis Presley's early rock & roll hits were truly new music, it’s just that they were the first white artists to play a style that had been performed by black musicians in the preceding decade. What is undeniable is that by adding white teenagers to the existing teenage black audience, this “new” music, along with the films and television shows that the songs appeared in, signalled a seismic cultural shift in American lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. And as last week’s write-up illustrated, the advancing technology and advent of transistor radios put the music right in the hands of these teenagers.



Rock & Roll Playlist

Just take a look at the following list of artists and songs that make up the main rock & roll playlist. All of these songs appeared in a three-year window between 1955 and 1958 and none of these artists need an introduction to any student of rock & roll history.

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"Rock Around the Clock" - Bill Haley & The Comets - (1955)

"Tutti Frutti" - Little Richard (1955)

"Heartbreak Hotel" - Elvis Presley (1956)

"Blueberry Hill" - Fats Domino (1956)

"Peggy Sue" - Buddy Holly (1957)

"Wake Up Little Susie" - The Everly Brothers (1957)

"Great Balls of Fire" - Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)

"Johnny B.Goode" - Chuck Berry (1958)

Listen to those songs and you can hear the influence they would wield, from the energy of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, the sexually provocative performance style of Elvis and the effortless harmony vocals of The Everly Brothers.

Whilst Bill Haley might have been the first, it’s perhaps the last name on this list, Chuck Berry, who put all of the pieces together in a manner that would most strongly influence the way music was made in the coming decades. It was Berry who introduced an aggressive guitar sound, establishing the electric guitar as the centrepiece of the band.

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What’s also significant about this first wave of rock & rollers is that whilst there’s a good mix of black and white artists, there are no women. Early rock & roll was certainly a genre that was male-dominated.



The Decline of Rock & Roll

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Some commentators suggested that the original wave of rock & roll started to decline in the late 50s.

The retirement of Little Richard to become a preacher (October 1957), the departure of Elvis for service in the United States Army (March 1958), the scandal surrounding Jerry Lee Lewis' marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin (May 1958), riots caused by Bill Haley's ill-fated tour of Europe (October 1958), the deaths of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash (February 1959), the breaking of the Payola scandal implicating major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs (November 1959), the arrest of Chuck Berry (December 1959), and the death of Eddie Cochran in a car crash (April 1960) gave a sense that the initial phase of rock and roll had come to an end.

Clearly, this music would be monumental in its influence for years to come, but which rising stars would join the remaining rock & roll, jazz, blues, country and pop artists in picking up the baton as popular music moved into the 1960s?

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Cool-Daddyo
That was groovy.
 
Surely Elivs' Hound Dog and Jailhouse Rock need to go on the list.

Bo Diddley: Bo "Diddley" is a different artist but this list may need multiple tracks from a small batch of artists.
 
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I don't think the vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers have ever been equalled. Buddy Holly was one of the first to write or co-write his own material. I remember reading that Elvis took the biggest pay cut in history when he joined the Marines (from $10,000 a week to $60 a week).
 
stan bowles said:
I don't think the vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers have ever been equalled. Buddy Holly was one of the first to write or co-write his own material. I remember reading that Elvis took the biggest pay cut in history when he joined the Marines (from $10,000 a week to $60 a week).
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I agree about the Everly Brothers but a quick look down the writing credits for the few Buddy Holley albums reveals that he really didn’t write or co-write that much. Maybe more than his contemporaries but still a small proportion of the songs on his albums.
 
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