The Music of the Fifties

The music of the 50's, 60's and 70's holds a special memory for those who grew up with it.It was music you could sing along with, music you could dance to, music you fell in love with.

Different music periods
1. Bubblegum - 1950 to 1954
2. Early Rock - 1955 to 1964
3. Serious Rock - 1965 to 1974
4. Disco - 1975 to 1980
5. Beats The Hell Outta Me - 1981 to Present

Charts from 1956-1960,USA
1956
1. Singing The Blues - Guy Mitchel - Columbia
2. Don't Be Cruel - Elvis Presley - RCA
3. The Wayward Wind - Gogi Grant - Era
4. Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley - RCA
5. Poor People Of Paris - Les Baxter - Capitol
6. The Green Door - Jim Lowe - Dot
7. Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle - Capitol
8. My Prayer - Platters - Mercury
9. Memories Are Made Of This - Dean Martin - Capitol
10. Rock & Roll Waltz - Kay Starr - RCA

1957
1. All Shook Up - Elvis Presley - RCA
2. Love Letters In The Sand - Pat Boone - Dot
3. Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear - Elvis Presley - RCA
4. Tammy - Debby Reynolds - Coral
5. So Rare - Jimmy Dorsey - Fraternity
6. Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley - RCA
7. Young Love - Tab Hunter - Dot
8. Bye Bye Love - Everly Brothers - Cadence
9. Little Darlin' - Diamonds - Mercury
10. Honeycomb - Jimmy Rodgers - Roulette
1958
1. At The Hop - Danny & The Juniors - ABC
2. It's All In The Game - Tommy Edwards - MGM
3. Tequila - Champs - Challenge
4. To Know Him Is To Love Him - Teddy Bears - Dore
5. April Love - Pat Boone - Dot
6. Tom Dooley - Kingston Trio - Capitol
7. Witch Doctor - David Seville - Liberty
8. It's Only Make Believe - Conway Twitty - MGM
9. All I Have To Do Is Dream - Everly Brothers - Cadence
10. Sugartime - McGuire Sisters

1959
1. Mack The Knife - Bobby Darin - Atco
2. Battle Of New Orleans - Johnny Horton - Columbia
3. Venus - Frankie Avalon
4. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Platters - Mercury
5. Donna - Ritchie Valens - Del-Fi
6. Mr. Blue - Fleetwoods - Dolton
7. Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price - ABC
8. Lonely Boy - Paul Anka - ABC
9. Heartaches By The Number - Guy Mitchel - Columbia
10. The Three Bells - Browns - RCA

1960
1. Theme From A Summer Place - Percy Faith - Columbia
2. It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley - RCA
3. He'll Have To Go - Jim Reeves - Decca
4. I'm Sorry - Brenda Lee - RCA
5. Running Bear - Johnny Preston - Mercury
6. Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers - Warner Brothers
7. The Twist - Chubby Checker - Parkway
8. El Paso - Marty Robbins - Columbia
9. North To Alaska - Johnny Horton - Columbia
10. Last Date - Floyd Cramer - RCA

A Brief History of the Early Years
Light melodies, sweet lyrics, wholesome singers. Innocent and inoffensive songs.

All of this can be said about the music of the Early Fifties. Yet, all that white American complacency could not hold back the vitality of Black R&B music, so a whole new sound emerged - Rock and Roll.

Most of the songs of the Early Fifties were "feel-good" tunes, which genuinely reflected the mood of post World War II America. Artists like Pat Boone, Rosemary Clooney and Perry Como dominated pop charts.This bored the newly independent
life form known as teenagers. Mom and Dad's music wasn't, you know, "cool, Daddy-O." About this time, a Cleveland DJ named Alan Freed (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, 1986) began playing black R&B tunes. Freed moved his show to New York in 1954 and began including live performances, especially of the artists with the vocal harmonies he favored. His called this sound Rock and Roll.
Although gaining in popularity, these black artists originally did not sell as well as their white contemporaries, who had rerecorded the same songs as what is known as a "cover version." If you have ever heard Pat Boone's "cover" of Tutti Frutti you will understand why, thankfully, this practice of having whites "cover" black artists wasn't long-lived. In the South, where Country and Western had ruled the charts, Sam Phillips (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, 1986) opened the Memphis Recording Service - the first place a black musician could go to record.
In Chicago, two brothers, Phil and Leonard Chess (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, 1987) took the best of the black bluesmen performing in their nightclub and began recording them on their Chess label. Chess Records, a storefront on Cottage Avenue in the "Little Mississippi" area of Chicago, was already
home to the great Muddy Waters. Still, what both Phillps and the Chess brothers needed was a crossover artist - someone who had the energy of Rhythm and Blues and the marketability of say, Pat Boone. Someone who could sell records. Phillips found just such an artist - a 19 year old truck driver by the name of Elvis Presley. And the Chess Brothers, well, they found Chuck Berry.

In 1952 a band out of Chester, Pennsylvania began to enjoy some modest success with a sound that was part Country and part R&B. They recorded one song in 1954 that brought only modest success. Then the song was used as the theme for a movie, The Blackboard Jungle, and that got them a whole lotta attention. The song was Rock Around the Clock and the band was Bill Haley and the Comets. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, 1987
These diverse factors influenced the music of the Early Fifties. The bubblegum sweetness would eventually fade away, like the blush of America's post war optimism. Whereas Rock and Roll, with its irrepressible energy - well, Rock and Roll was here to stay.