Reissue Roundup: The Golden Age of American Rock `n' Roll.

All around the world, rock and roll is all they play/You can hear that juke box jumpin' all night and all through the day. (Little Richard from the song, "All Around the World," appearing in the film, The Girl Can't Help It.)

If there are any cultural exports that have marked the 20th Century as one belonging almost exclusively to America, they would be movies and music. No other country can, in this century, boast as many internationally recognized personalities in either entertainment medium. No other can rival our own contributions in quality either. In movies, such classics as The Maltese Falcon, To Kill A Mockingbird, and (perhaps even) Gone With the Wind have enjoyed a degree of fame among several generations of moviegoers worldwide that has only rarely come to films from other countries. The same is just as true of music in this century, where two uniquely American forms, Jazz and Rock `n' Roll, have set prominently atop the field of this art form almost since their beginnings. Through the "glocalization" of our modern world, these cultural phenomena are now not as readily viewed as American as they once were. This denotes quite clearly how thoroughly our cultural contributions to this century have been emulated and assimilated in a global community; one no longer thwarted by great distances or language barriers. The objective of this essay is to provide a brief historical perspective on just one segment of this cultural paradigm: the early days of the Rock `n' Roll music phenomenon; and to provide a brief discography that can offer the reader a glimpse at some of the most popular music of the period.

The History: During the decade following the end of World War II, Americans entered into an era of prosperity that provided a wealth of enhancements to their social and cultural lives. Principle among these was additional leisure time, resulting from industrial automation practices that provided for shorter hours in the workplace. The average American working family also enjoyed an increase in wages providing for the purchase of leisure goods such as television sets and radios, which were instrumental in the development and acceptance of the new forms of music. As the '50s decade approached the '60s, American families bought more and more items to enhance their lives. Many became two-car families, and even more had multiple radios and TVs in their homes so that family members could enjoy listening to and watching different programs simultaneously. Since the telephone appeared to have become a naturally occurring anatomical appendage on many teenagers, some families began installing a second telephone line in their homes so as not to deprive the youngsters from their vital communications, while another line could be kept free for Mom and Dad.

With this new-found freedom, American teenagers were becoming more independent, sporting hair styles, clothing, and behavior that their parents often considered abnormal or rebellious. They developed their own verbal idiom, using such words as daddy-o (a person over the age of 30, and hence not desirable), cool (anything good) and square (something uncool; often used to describe the personality of a daddy-o). With this argot came their own movie and music icons. Following his role in the movie, Rebel Without A Cause, actor James Dean became their role model. In his role as a cool-demeanored, anti-establishment teen capable of dealing with the objections of authority figures, Dean established himself as an icon for the younger generation of the mid-'50s who sought to emulate his character in the film. Their music idols often were cast in a similarly defiant mold, wearing leather jackets and duck-tail haircuts. It was Alan Freed, a disk-jockey in Cleveland who first called this new form of music "Rock and Roll."

Music historians attribute Rhythm and Blues as well as Country music as the two major precursors to what became Rock `n' Roll in the '50s. In turn, these earlier music types had their beginnings in yet earlier varieties, including, but not limited to Gospel and Folk music. Indeed, the earliest forms of Rock music even show vestiges of the music of the big band era of the '30s and '40s--primarily through instrumentation and arrangements. What is most clear is that Rock `n' Roll owes a great debt to the black artists whose music was rarely heard on the radio stations that mid-century white America listened to most often, and to the country-influenced artists who developed what was known as Rockabilly.

During the early '50s, the social fabric of America was quite different from the way it is today. Radio stations were just as segregated as most other segments of the society. It was then as nearly impossible for a black Rhythm and Blues artist to have his music played on a radio station whose audience was white, as it was for him to be served a meal in many restaurants. The practice then was to have a white artist "cover" hits that were originally recorded by blacks. Several well-known songs can serve as examples: "Earth Angel" by the Penguins (the black group) and the Crew-Cuts (the white group); "Hearts of Stone" by the Charms (the black group) and the Fontane Sisters (the white group); but perhaps the most absurdly funny of these examples is, Little Richard's "Rip It Up," which was covered by Pat Boone. Such as it was, these covers by white artists often revised the lyrics to "clean them up" whenever something was thought distasteful. To some extent, this practice of segregation continued on through the end of the decade, although by 1959 it had all but completely vanished.

The year 1955 is generally thought to be when Rock emerged as a distinct form of music. Most readers whose interest in music reaches this far back will know that Rock's first nationally recognized number one hit was "Rock Around the Clock," by Bill Haley and the Comets. What many will not know is that the song had been recorded more than a year earlier than its July, 1955 emergence at the top of the Billboard charts, and appeared in the 1954 film, The Blackboard Jungle. Referring to any of several books Joel Whitburn has compiled that list the hits of the Rock era, one finds several important bits of information. First, prior to July 9, 1955, Haley actually had three other hit records that year, although none of these three was able to break into the Top 10.Second, and perhaps more importantly, no other artist regarded as a Rock artist was able to chart a song at all; but many were listed on the Rhythm and Blues charts. Haley's career had begun in the early '40s as a yodeler with several Country bands. By 1948, he had formed his own group called The Four Aces of Western Swing. Shortly thereafter, Haley was also a disk jockey for WPWA radio in Chester, Pennsylvania, and his new group, The Saddlemen, appeared on their own radio show for that station. Haley started the group in 1950, and the music he played was known largely as "cowboy jive." His earlier groups had recorded several C&W 78s, none of which sold more than a few thousand copies. His "cowboy jive" style found on most of these cuts was usually up-tempo, compared to traditional Country music, and he had found that his different brand of music was attracting a different kind of audience to his shows. Teenagers had become the major faction. While it is Haley's most famous song that we regard as the first Rock hit, some historians state that it is actually his 1952 recording of "Crazy Man, Crazy" that is the first Rock single to break into the charts. With the new identity realized, a new name was in order, and The Saddlemen first became Haley's Comets, and then finally Bill Haley and His Comets.

The floodgates were opened, and a perusal of the Billboard charts for the second half of 1955 proves to be kinder to artists performing Rock `n' Roll: Haley continues with three more hits, Chuck Berry is introduced widely through his classic "Maybelline," Boyd Bennett and His Rockets hit with two tunes, the El Dorados are successful with their famous "At My Front Door," Chuck Miller's "House of Blue Lights" makes it to number 9 (re-done in the '70s by Commander Cody), and the Robins (later known as the Coasters) hit with "Smokey Joe's Cafe." In 1956, no fewer than 20 new Rock artists entered the pop charts. Among them were Fats Domino, Little Richard, Frankie Lymon, Clyde McPhatter, Roy Orbison, and Gene Vincent. Of course, 1956 was also the year that Elvis Presley came to national attention with 14 hits to chart that year. (Only one group in history has managed to have more chart hits than this in their first year, and that was the Beatles, with 30 in 1964.) As the '50s decade was nearing its end, Rock `n' Roll music had begun to dominate the charts. Despite the clamoring of our parents to the contrary, by March of 1958, the message conveyed in Danny and the Juniors' "Rock `n' Roll Is Here To Stay" had become a reality. In the years that immediately followed, Rock would be sub-categorized into several forms, and the number of successful artists would swell into the hundreds.

The Recordings: During Rock's first decade, there were 5,985 songs to chart in the Billboard Top 100. Only a relative few of these are remembered today, and fewer still get much air play on the radio stations that purport to be Oldies oriented (espousing that Fleetwood Mac and Blondie qualify as Oldies artists). Below are recommendations to readers who wish to explore the recordings of the era. The artists selected are those whose contributions to the music are evident to this day.

The reader is advised that most of the music on the recommended discs precedes the popular advent of the stereo recording process. The majority of these recordings do not measure up to the sound quality standards sought by audiophiles, and they are almost exclusively monaural recordings. Still, many of them approach the high standards audiophiles seek, and on good systems even such qualities as image and dynamic range are discernible.

Elvis Presley: No listing of essential early Rock `n' Roll would be respectable without some examples from "The King of Rock `n' Roll." No other early artist has had as much influence on so many others, and no other has had as many charted hits (139 total from 1955 to 1981 -- "Guitar Man" re-entered the charts four years after his death). Presley's biggest-selling double-sided hit, "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" remained the number 1 record of all time for more than three decades. So much has been written of Presley's life and career that nothing needs to be added: everyone knows who Elvis was.

With such a recording legacy, there are currently more than 100 different Elvis CDs for buyers to choose from, but none is more appropriate here than Elvis 56 (RCA 66817). Here are 22 selections from his first year as the world's most famous recording artist, including his five #1 hits for the year. The original master tapes were used for this recording, and the sound quality proves to be as good as it can be in the CD medium.

Buddy Holly: Holly is considered by most music critics and historians as one of the two or three most important figures in the development of Rock `n' Roll music. His music epitomizes the role that Country or Rockabilly had in the development of the genre. He was one of the first to write his own music, and his use of two guitars (a novel idea then) in his group became the standard for Rock groups that followed. He was influenced by both Country and early Rock musicians such as Hank Williams and Chuck Berry; and he influenced a host of stars that followed. Much of his music has been covered by many artists including the Rolling Stones ("Not Fade Away"), Peter and Gordon ("True Love Ways"), Bobby Vee ("Everyday"), and Linda Ronstadt ("That'll Be The Day"). Holly's band, the Crickets, had originally planned to call themselves "The Beetles," but the name was changed at the last moment. Some years later, a British Rock group, Johnny and the Moondogs, would pay homage to Holly by changing its name to the Beatles. Holly's death in a plane crash on February 3,1959, is often regarded as the end of the initial stage of the Rock phenomenon. Several dirges were written to commemorate him, but none is as famous as Don McLean's "American Pie."

MCA has issued five important Holly CDs: a 2-CD anthology collecting all of his recorded work, a single CD collecting some of it, and released in the mid-'80s, another single CD Anthology introduced in 1996, and two reissues of original LPs. The single, budget-priced CD anthology, Buddy Holly--From the Original Master Tapes (MCAD-5540, 1985), contains all of the best-known songs mastered for CD by Dunhill's Steve Hoffman, and receives my highest recommendation. While most of the tracks are mono, there are two excellent stereo tracks offering near state-of-the-art sound when they were recorded in late 1958.

Johnny Burnette: Before there was Elvis or Buddy Holly, there was the Johnny Burnette Rock `n' Roll Trio. With his brother, Dorsey, on bass, and Paul Burlison playing rhythm guitar, the trio produced some of the most compelling Rockabilly of the mid-'50s. The Burnettes went to high school with Elvis, and even worked with him at Crown Electric Company in 1954; and it was at a Burnette show that Elvis made his professional debut as a guest vocalist. Burlison, who had been a sideman with Howlin' Wolf, contributed a rather unusual style of guitar-playing. On a recent NPR interview, Burlison said he "played the guitar like a buzz saw." During an early live performance his Fender amp fell over, loosening a tube. The audience loved the sound it made, and the "Fuzz guitar" was born. During recording sessions that followed, he would loosen a tube to attain the sound. In years to come, the sound would be adopted by other Rock groups such as the Yardbirds (who covered their "The Train Kept A-Rollin'") and the Guess Who. The trio never enjoyed the popularity of Elvis or Buddy Holly, and prompted Dorsey to leave the group in late 1956 to pursue a solo career. Less than a year later, Johnny disbanded the group and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a songwriter and balladeer. That move turned out to be quite successful.

To my knowledge, only a few CDs are available today that chronicle the early development of the Burnette brothers, and they are all hard-to-find imports. Bear, the German reissue label, has a pricey multi-disc box set containing everything the Burnette Trio recorded. A less costly release from Beat Goes On Records (BGOCD177) in the U. K. contains all of the tracks from the group's first two albums. Although it is not likely that you will find either in your local dealer's shop, both are available at sites on the internet that cater to avid collectors.

Little Richard: Richard Wayne Penniman is the perfect example of the black artist covered by whites in mid-century America. As noted above, Pat Boone had covered "Rip It Up," but he also covered at least two other Little Richard tunes. A host of other Rock artists, including Elvis, the Everly Brothers and Bill Haley, followed suit. Of the early Rock artists, Little Richard was, unquestionably, the most flamboyant. He stood at his piano banging it wildly, and often played the keys with one of his feet. His dress, makeup, and pompadour heralded the outrageous costumes of the likes of Alice Cooper, Elton John, Mick Jagger, and David Bowie. Most often, Richard shouted his overtly sexual songs, his raspy voice adding much emotion to the risque lyrics. The original lyrics to his "Tutti Frutti" were so bawdy that Specialty Records of New Orleans hired another songwriter to revise them substantially before the song was recorded. In the '60s, both Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels and Britain's Swinging Blue Jeans would again cover several of Little Richard's songs.

Little Richard was one of several Rock artists featured in the 1956 film, The Girl Can't Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield and Tom Ewell. Other featured artists in the film included Fats Domino, The Platters, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent. Despite the film's comical treatment of the payola scandals rampant in the mid-'50s music industry, and the mediocre acting, the performances provided by these premiere interpreters of early Rock `n' Roll makes for much viewing pleasure for the music enthusiast.

Rhino's Little Richard--18 Greatest Hits (RNCD 75899) brings together all of his original early Rock classics (some other collections contain remakes). Sound quality is as good as the original master tapes will allow with 1985 CD transfer technology. For readers residing outside North America, Ace Records of the U.K. offers several Little Richard compilations, and they receive my highest recommendation.

Chuck Berry: Berry's influence on the early development of Rock music is no less important than Buddy Holly's; and his influence on the generation of Rock guitar players to follow is legendary. Second only to Elvis in popularity among the teens of the mid-'50s, Berry's driving rhythms and humorous lyrics assured him of a succession of hit records lasting nearly a decade. Berry's guitar style was influenced greatly by Charlie Christian, perhaps the most famous jazz guitarist of the '40s. In the early '60s, the Beach Boys would modify "Sweet Little Sixteen" to produce their immensely popular "Surfin' U.S.A." Other artists, too, covered Berry's music: the Beatles ("Roll Over Beethoven"), Linda Ronstadt ("Back in the U.S.A."), and Johnny Rivers ("Memphis" and "Maybellene"), among them.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Chess record label (Berry's label for most of his career) MCA has released two volumes collecting Berry's music, but my recommendation remains their earlier release, The Great Twenty-Eight (CHD-92500), as it contains all of Berry's early hits on a single disc.

Fats Domino: Of the black artists who made their mark with white audiences, only Chuck Berry was more popular; and with 65 million record sales in the '50s, only Elvis was more successful. Born on February 26, 1928, Antoine "Fats" Domino is currently the oldest living rock performer. At the age of 10, Fats began learning to play the piano from his brother-in-law, Harrison Varrett, a musician playing in several New Orleans honky tonks. By his teens, Domino was an accomplished ragtime and boogie-woogie player. By the time he was 17, Fats quit school to play at The Hideaway Club for $3 a week, where an Imperial Records scout later found him in 1949. Fats was an overnight success, his first recording for Imperial making it to number 6 on the R&B charts; his first number 1 came in 1952. In both 1955 and '56, deejays named him "America's Favorite R&B Artist" in a poll sponsored by Billboard. His first record to cross over into the Pop charts, "Ain't That A Shame," came following a 42-city tour, with Joe Turner, The Moonglows and The Clovers, called "The Top 10 R&B Revue." Fats' talent with the piano was so good that he often appeared as a backup on other artists' recordings.

Ace Records of the U.K. is in the process of assembling the definitive Domino collection, of which three of the projected four volumes are currently available. Each is available separately. Most highly recommended is their The Imperial Singles Volume 3, 1956-1958, CDCHD 689, which offers the best-sounding collection of Domino's hits from the early part of the Rock era.

Roy Orbison: Many critics consider Roy Orbison to be the greatest Rock balladeer of all time; he is my favorite performer of the era. With a uniquely rich voice of stunning range, he fused Country and Rock (with a trace of Doo Wop) as few others before or since have; and he has influenced countless stars from Elvis to Bruce Springsteen. (So great was his regard for Orbison that Presley dyed his hair black to look more like him). As with fellow-Texan Buddy Holly, Orbison wrote most of his hits himself, and he often wrote songs that he intended for other artists. His songs were emotionally moving ballads that spoke of lost loves and loneliness. During the first decade of the Rock era, Orbison charted 26 times. His dance favorite, "Oh, Pretty Woman," is his most famous composition. While Orbison's first hit, "Ooby Dooby," appeared in 1956, his popularity was greatest beginning in 1960 with "Only the Lonely." Just before his death in 1989, Orbison teamed up with several other famous musicians to form The Traveling Wilburys. The music from this group shows none of Orbison's early inspiration, and is not as interesting for the most part.

There are several Orbison anthologies available today, but two stand above the others: For The Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits (Rhino R2 71493) first appeared in 1988, and has all of Roy's greatest hits on it. For the well-heeled audiophile, Dunhill has reissued the gold CD of Monument's 1972 LP The All-Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison (GZS-1118) that was reviewed by both KWN and John Puccio in Issue 68. For readers who still play vinyl, both of these are available in this, my preferred medium. I have not heard the Dunhill release, but my Rhino vinyl is significantly better sounding than the CD. I suspect the same would be true of the new Dunhill releases. Most of these tracks are in true stereo.

Various Artists: There had to be at least one compilation disc on this list, as there are far too many great recording artists who would otherwise be missing. There is no finer collection than MCA's American Graffiti (MCAD2-8001). This two-CD set has it all: its 41 selections range from 1955 to 1962 -- the first seven years of the Rock era. It includes examples from most of the sub-categories of Rock -- Doo Wop (Skyliners, Flamingos), R&B (Lee Dorsey) Rockabilly (Bill Haley, Buddy Knox), and balladeers (Fleetwoods, Mark Dinning); and it is mastered for CD by Rhino's Bill Inglot. Ten of the tracks on this set are in stereo, and the sound quality is excellent overall.

A few afterthoughts on the availability of this older music are worth mentioning in closing this installment. Readers are aware that the audio industry plans to do away with the current 16/44.1 CD standard, replacing it with who-knows-what. A discussion in detail of the alternatives that the industry is considering is an article unto itself. What is clear, though, is that whenever a new medium is introduced, it seems like an eternity before the software products measure up to the potential it promises. And, in the case of the music that is the subject of this article, it is doubtful whether much of it will ever be reissued in the new succeeding format. Roger Armstrong of Ace Records, UK, tacitly expressed his reticence over the universal acceptance of a new digital standard (see my interview with him beginning on page 84 of Issue 73), noting that for much of the music recorded in bygone days the new standards are "not generally relevant."

Indeed! While I have often taken the position that analog recordings frequently sound better than their digital counterparts, there is no question that with the advent of the compact disc, much of the music that "Reissue Roundup" covers has never sounded better. I agree with Mr. Armstrong that for this old music the new standard in digital would be gilding the lilly. With the availability of some items in this genre taking as much as 15 years to appear, it will be an anxious time for collectors to watch as these recordings will now begin disappear from the catalog. Get them while you can.

In a future article, I will discuss the changes that rock music underwent in the '60s. Meanwhile, I would be happy to hear from readers who enjoy discussing just about any kind of music that was recorded in the '50s or '60s, whether it be jazz, rock or classical. I maintain a database that contains information on availability of every song to chart on Billboard from 1955 through 1969. I may be able to help you with something you have been looking for, and, in many cases, tell you which CD has it sounding best. You can e-mail me at [e-mail]. -- SGB