This course, part 1 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the days before rock (pre-1955) to the end of the 1960s. This course covers the music of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed. Rock emerged in the mid 1950s as a blending of mainstream pop, rhythm and blues, and country and western--styles that previously had remained relatively separate. This new style became the music of the emerging youth culture and was often associated with teen rebellion. We will follow the story of how this rowdy first wave of rock and roll (1955-59) was tamed in the early 60s but came roaring back with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and then went psychedelic by the end of the decade.
Rockabilly in the Wake of Elvis
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Do curso por Universidade de Rochester
A História do Rock, Parte 1
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The Birth and First Flourishing of Rock and Roll (1955-59)
Chart crossover and cover versions, the first hits of Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Little Richard, the rise of Elvis Presley, the music of Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly, the rise of American Bandstand, the payola scandal and the "death of rock and roll."
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John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
I said at the beginning of this week lectures, that this era's basically
divided up into the period before Elvis. And we talked about that 1955, we talked
about Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Bill Haley, people like that.
And then Elvis, which we've just gotten done talking about.
The importance of him, especially when he comes onto the scene in 1956, when he
signs with RCA. And they put all of their promotional
muscle behind him, and he starts to have all this fantastic national success on
all three charts. And then there's the period after Elvis,
or after Elvis' initial success. So, now we're talking about 57, 58, and
59. and that's what we're going to talk about
now, the artists who were important during that third division of years that
we're talking about in this relatively short period from 55 to 59 or 60.
let's stay with Sun Records for a minute and talk about some of the artists that
were still at Sun after Elvis departed. The first of these is Carl Perkins, a
singing guitar player who had a pretty good hit, a number 2 hit with Blue Suede
Shoes. In fact, even before Elvis did it, Carl
Perkins had a record that was a hit on all three charts at the same time.
but unfortunately for Carl Perkins, on his way to television performance on the
East Coast to promote Blue Suede Shoes, they were in a car accident and he,
nobody was killed. But I, as I recall, I think he busted a
leg or something like that, and so couldn't perform for four to six weeks.
So, just when the song would have crested, maybe he could have put himself
in the position to be a bigger star. He was laid up in the hospital in and out
of it for a month or two. And so that was really a sort of a, a bad
turn of events for him. Interestingly, Carl Perkins was one of
the favorite, artists for the Beatles to cover later.
And George Harrison was such a, such a fan of Carl Perkins, that when all the
other guys, early on in the band when they changed their names to have stage
names. Paul was Paul Ramone, and John Lennon was
Long John Lennon. George Harrison changed his name to Carl
Harrison, not exactly a dramatic change but anyway, kind of cute and fun, Carl
Perkins. Another one that was at Sun after Elvis,
Johnny Cash had a country and western hit in 1956 with Folsom Prison, Folsom Prison
Blues, a song that we all think of now as a classic country hit.
and then I Walk the Line in 1956 was on Sun Records which was a country western
pop crossover. That's something we haven't talked about
yet. The idea that this song could be a hit
first on the country western charts, and then cross over onto the pop charts.
Last week, we talked about New San Antonio Rose, which had originally been a
hit for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, and they, when covered by Bing Crosby
became a hit on the pop charts. But here, the actual Johnny Cash record
moved over from country, and then finally maybe the biggest name and most
successful name, at least for these years, after Elvis is Jerry Lee Lewis
who's Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On. was a big hit in 1957, Great Balls of
Fire in 1957, after that it was Breathless.
I mean, he had a, was a, Jerry Lee Lewis was in many ways very much like Little
Richard, a pianist who sang and who was, sort of, did, had a wild kind of act.
Although his was a little bit more sort of you know, southern white Louisiana.
as opposed to Richards, but he was a fantastic performer, very charismatic.
one other men, person that we should mention who was on Sun.
And we'll talk him, him next week is Roy Orbison, who was here about this time.
Now, in the case of Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, they, they both went on to have
their greatest successes after they left Sun Records.
But you can kind of see with all of these going through the Sun studios in Memphis,
a small, little independent label. there was an awful lot of talented people
coming through Sun Records. Some of the other, what we call,
rockabilly artists, we talk about this, this southern style out of Sun Records
that Elvis, and the rest of these artists were involved in his rockabilly the, the,
the, the cross between hillbilly music and rock music, rockabilly.
Maybe the most famous later exponent of rockabilly would be somebody like Brian
Setzer who still continues to record in a rockabilly style.
Anyway, some important other rockabillies Gene Vizet, Gene Vincent Who Be Bop a
Lula, was a hit on Capitol label, on the Capitol label out of Los Angeles 1956.
Gene Vincent was, was signed by Capitol, in the wake of Elvis, to be their version
of Elvis Presley, when once RCA had one, everybody had to have one.
Eddie Cochran was signed by Liberty out of Los Angeles, and had a hit Twenty
Flight Rock in 1956, and Summertime Blues, in 1958.
Interestingly, those Eddie Cochran records were recorded in Gold Star
Studios in Los Angeles, which will, later, we'll talk about this next week,
be a very important studio for Phil Spector and those wall of sound
recordings. Both Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran
performed in a movie called The Girl Can't Help It from 1956, which is sort of
an upscale version Alan Freed movies I was talking about a couple of lectures
ago. Because they're actually are move, real
movie stars, and there actually is a real story.
This movie, The Girl Can't Help It, was a kind of a hit movie of the day, and Paul
McCartney often talks about how influential that movie was, and the
performances in it. especially the Eddie Cochran performance
of of Twenty Flight Rock. In many ways, Eddie Cochran and Gene
Vincent were probably more influential in the UK.
And that may be because they were so available to UK, music fans through that
film. But anyway, both of them had really big
success in the UK, maybe a bit bigger than they had in the United States.
Now, right in this part of the course, we probably should talk about Ricky Nelson
and the Everly Brothers. In this period at the end of the 50's, as
other important rockabilly stars. But I'm going to save discussion of them
for next week when we talk about music and the period between 1960 and 1963.
Because both Ricky Nelson and the Everly Brothers went on to have a lot of
success, sort of into that era. And so we'll save discussion of those,
we'll double back and pick up on those guys.
when we get to that point. let's talk a little bit about something I
call Rockabilly Ladies. One of the things we, you have to
remember that when rock and roll was unfolding people were trying various
kinds of things. And one thing they thought is, well, you
know, if there can be a rockabilly Elvis, why not a female Elvis.
That, that could maybe be something we could sort of sell some records.
And so Janis Martin actually was signed to RCA just weeks after Elvis Presley was
signed to RCA to be kind of the Elvis, female Elvis, and so she had a, a single
that came out called Drugstore Rock from 1956.
So, that gets kind of into the teen, teen life, you know, you go to the drugstore,
the soda, soda fountain there. But then she had a song called My Boy
Elvis from 1956. Wanda Jackson had a tune, a bunch of sort
of rockabilly tunes from that era maybe the biggest one at the end of this era
called, Let's Have a Party from 1960. She knew Elvis Presley personally and he
sort of talked Wanda Jackson into doing this sort of female rockabilly thing, but
maybe the most interesting historically is is Brenda Lee.
Now Brenda Lee went on to have tremendous success in the 1960s.
These are her song I'm Sorry was a fantastic country western hit and cross
over, but when she was just 12 years old in 1956 she was called Little Brenda Lee
and recorded a tune called Bigelow 6-2000, that was markedly a female
rockabilly tune. Now these female rockabilly are now sort
of a a bit of a kind of footnote to the history, but it sort of shows you that
the, the people in the industry didn't quite know what they were not that they
didn't know what they were doing. But they didn't know what would catch on,
and so they tried a couple of different things and this is one that probably
didn't catch on so much, it didn't catch on like Elvis did.
Well the last figure I want to talk about in this lecture is Buddy Holly.
Buddy Holly is a very important figure in this period, but comes, comes at it
pretty late in the game. In fact, Buddy Holly is somebody who also
was signed in the wake of Elvis going to RCA as as a major labels version of Elvis
and that label was Decca. But let's say a little bit about Buddy
and his background. Buddy, I think as most people know, comes
from Lubbock Texas. and as I said signed to Decca in the wake
of Elvis's RCA deal. But that initial signing with Decca went
absolutely nowhere. They took Buddy off, I forget where they
did their recording, maybe it was in New York.
And the did some recording and nothing became of it, and so he went back to
Lubbock. And back in Lubbock, he caught the
attention of a producer. Well a guy who had had some records on
the charts himself, Norman Petty, who had his own recording studio in Clovis, New
Mexico who was kind of becoming a record producer not unlike Sam Phillips at about
the same time. He has great equipment, great ideas, was
a very forward looking kind of guy. So Buddy Holly and his guys used to go to
Clovis, New Mexico to record almost everything they did.
So, almost all of those recordings that you know, the classic Buddy Holly
recordings, were all recorded in Clovis, New Mexico.
And, and engineered by, and produced by Norman Petty.
there's a time difference of one hour between Lubbock and Clovis.
And so the, Buddy Holly and his buddies, and I think the distance between the two
is about 100 miles. You can, you can check on a map and see.
But, the story is that you know, long stretch of flat highway.
The, the band used to like to leave Texas and try to arrive in in Clovis before
they left Texas. So, that meant sometimes having to do 70
or 80 miles an hour, maybe 90 or 100, depending on, on what the distance is
there. That gives you some idea of the wide open
spaces of, of what we're talking about here.
Well, with those recordings from Clovis, New Mexico they got interest in two
labels. Well, one label first, Coral, who
ironically was subsidiary of Decca. So Decca had had, had not, wasn't holding
anything against Buddy Holly for the first one not working out.
But what they decided was an interesting, kind of, promotional trick.
They decided that some of the records would be released as Buddy Holly on the
deck of subsidiary Coral. And some of the others as the Crickets on
the deck of subsidiary Brunswick. I guess the idea is that you can one
artist being two different bands, and on two different labels, and be able to
maybe have more chance of getting on the charts, or getting more records in, in,
into radio play, and that kind of thing, and so anyway, that's why it happened.
So, if you really want to get picky about it, the tunes that we really think of as
being Buddy Holly tunes, some of them were Buddy Holly tunes, and some of them,
strictly speaking, were Cricket's tunes. Although now in all anthologies, they're
basically thought of you know, as Buddy Holly's and the Cricket, and same guys,
same studio, same everything, and most folk.
again an important songwriter along with Chuck Berry one of the important early
songwriters The Beatles of course and others Bob Dylan.
And a lot of other 60's musicians were very much influenced by by Buddy Holly
and Chuck Berry. some of the big representative examples
of the Buddy Holly style. Peggy Sue from 1957, Oh Boy from 1957 and
Maybe Baby from 1958 Buddy Holly was much covered by other artists, so we've got
the Beatles doing Words of Love the Rolling Stones doing Don't Fade Away,
Linda Ronstadt doing It's so Easy and lots and lots of others later.
Buddy unfortunately died early in a plane crash it was February the 3rd, 1959.
I think he was only 22 years old when he died.
Don McLean, later in 1971, in a song called American Pie talked about that as
the day the music died. The idea that rock and roll in its
original incarnation, this era that we're talking about from 55 up to this point
basically died the day that Buddy Holly went down in that plane.
and so, what we want to do is in the next segment talk about what happened at the
end of this period in 1959. But at this point, rock and roll it turns
out was in a certain kind of trouble. There had been a lot of pressure that
rock and roll was a negative influence, and this pressure was really starting to
threaten the possibility of rock and roll continue.
So, in the next video, let's, let's find out what happened at the end of the
decade when rock and roll was in such trouble.
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