Emergence of Rock, and Elvis

The previous topic detailed some of the styles that lead to rock and roll. They were mostly segregated into their own separate markets (Pop, C&W, and R&B), but for a short time (1954-1956) the barriers between those categories dissolved completely.

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Crossovers were songs that were from one specific market that started to chart in a different market. Most often this happened with R&B songs, moving into the Pop charts. Some examples:

• Lawdy Miss Clawdy - Lloyd Price
• Earth Angel - The Penguins
• Crying in the Chapel - The Orioles

As always, when there's money to be had, big business will rush in and take over. In this case, major record labels moved in and commissioned cover versions of popular R&B and C&W songs to be performed and recorded by Pop artists. While there were cases of Pop & C&W tunes being covered by R&B artists (Doris Day's "Secret Love" was a Pop tune that was covered by the Moonglows and "Crying in the Chapel" posted above was actually a cover of a C&W ballad), most of the time it went the other way. R&B hits were bought and covered by Pop artists. Often, the two versions would be on the charts at the same time, sometimes even the same chart ("Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino, and a cover by Pat Boone, were both in the top of the Pop charts at the same time).

In reality, the "serene and safe" mid-1950s were chaotic where the popular music scene was concerned. Crossovers, covers, and a new phenomenon of "sound a likes" made for confusion, and rapidly became the musical arena for the youth. Up until now, the popular culture music, movies, television, and radio programming had been controlled by the older generations. But "rebellious teenagers", who didn't really have any real cause to rebel against, started to develop their own movies, dress code, slang, hairstyles, and behaviors, and started exerting influence on musical styles and culture.

Two popular movies "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Blackboard Jungle" served to exemplify this new youth movement. Particularly the music that opened "Blackboard Jungle" - called "Rock around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets. You should all know this from last week's listening. This is widely considered to be the first real popular "Rock" song. This was an R&B hit song that Bill Haley covered, and when first released it flopped. But when the movie became popular, so did the song:

• Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock Around the Clock

As a personal aside, I (and presumably most of you) have heard this song quite a few times before this class. I first heard it at a 7th or 8th grade dance party thing. I had (until this course) never heard the original version by Sonny Dae and the Knights, which is kind of a shame. Love the intentional alternate spelling of the "sunny day" and of course, the complimentary backup group of "the knights".

More to the point, timelines are funny. Rock Around the Clock was recorded and released in 1954, in the same year as his other really big hit, Shake, Rattle, & Roll.

• Bill Haley & His Comets - Shake, Rattle, and Roll

Shake, Rattle, & Roll was another R&B cover that did very well when released, while Rock Around the Clock floundered. But once the movie became popular, Rock Around the Clock seemingly took over the airwaves, and Bill Haley's legend was cemented. Although he had follow on hits, and even a "Rock Around the Clock" film, he was too old (nearly 40), too innocent looking, almost too milquetoast to be the "front" of rock and roll. These were both on last week's listening quiz. Organizationally, it makes more sense to put them on this week's listening, but we have enough other stuff for this week that I thought it best to leave them on last week's examples.

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ELVIS

Elvis Presley was a unique figure, the right figure, at the time to lead the rock and roll revolution. Some critics have argued that rock might have died out as a fad had Elvis not come along with his youth, style, and sense of showmanship. Growing up poor in Tupelo, Mississippi, he absorbed a wide variety of musical influences, including R&B, gospel, C&W, bluegrass, western swing, and pop. When he and his family moved to Memphis in 1948 (he would have been around 13 at the time), he lived in federally funded housing projects. He was fascinated with black american musical sounds, and sought out that kind of music over white america's Pop and C&W.

He sang and perfomed a bit in high school, but his real break came in 1953, when he went to Memphis Recording Service to make a record as a gift to his mother. The owner? Sam Phillips, the man who owned Sun Records and of course a bunch of subsidiaries. This is a name that, if not familiar now, will become more familiar as we go on further in this course.

Phillips was a producer who knew the marketability of the R&B sound, but wanted a white artist who could perform with a true R&B sound and feel.  As soon as he heard Elvis, he knew he had his man, and signed him to Sun Records.

His first single, That's Alright Mama (with it's B-side Blue Moon of Kentucky) was a decent regional success, although some radio stations refused to play his music because they assumed he was mixed race.

Elvis' first chart success came on the C&W charts, and became the number 1 "Up and Coming" C&W artist for 1955. However, he didn't really fit the C&W mold - appearance was a mix between black fashion and teenage rebel. He would swing his hips in a way that drove teenage girls (of the time) mad. As part of some package shows with other C&W artists, promoters would notice that more and more teenage girls would buy tickets, and would scream and cry for him if someone else was performing. Most of the other performers were annoyed with him.

Excursion - Rockabilly and Jerry Lee Lewis

About the time when Elvis was an up-and-comer for Sun Records, there were also C&W and R&B performers who were trying to emulate Elvis's early success, and a turned to the lighter and more mainstream style called Rockabilly. From around 1955-1959, Sun released recordings of Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, amongst many others. To be clear, at this time, Elvis was straddling the line between pure "rock" and "rockabilly". He was not quite shout-singing, but he had a rasp and edge to his voice. One artist who didn't hold back from the shout singing was Little Richard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u-ihWoRC4w Rockabilly style was an attempt to make rock a little more acceptable, but to some it seemed to "dilute" the "purer" style of hard-driving rock. Even then we had rock snobs and purists. Compare that Little Richard song with the Jerry Lee Lewis song that we had on last week's listening:

• Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

To my ears, the instrumentation and forms and chords are quite similar, the biggest difference is in how hard the drums are driving, the vocal styles of the singers, and of course the echo effect added to Jerry Lee Lewis. Side note - you will have no doubt heard about Jerry Lee Lewis's rather scandalous personal life - for his third marriage, he married his 1st cousin, who was 13 at the time (he was 22). She later said "...that she “has been subject to every type of physical and mental abuse imaginable”; Jerry Lee later said that “it was all my fault—she caught me cheating.”" (https://medium.com/cuepoint/ballad-of-the-13-year-old-bride-f909cbe1c6b4 Links to an external site.: First The Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show and then The Milton Berle Show, Elvis was working up to the Ed Sullivan show, biggest in the nation at the time. At first Ed Sullivan said that Elvis would never be on his show, but when The Steve Allen Show beat Ed Sullivan in the ratings when he had Elvis on, he changed his mind. Again, these sentences were informed from this article here