It was 50 years ago this week....

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that Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel hit No. 1 on the pop charts.
And that means rock 'n' roll is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Do you agree with this?
There is much debate as to what should be considered the first rock and roll record. Candidates include the 1951 "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats, or later and more widely-known hits like Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" or "Johnny B. Goode" or Bo Diddley's "Bo Diddley" or Bill Haley & His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" or, as Rolling Stone magazine pointed out, to some controversy, in 2005, "That's all right", Elvis Presley's first single for SUN records, in Memphis. Some historians go further back, pointing to musicians like Fats Domino, who were recording in the 40s in styles largely indistinguishable from rock and roll; these include Louis Jordan's "Caldonia" (1945), Jack Guthrie's "The Oakie Bookie" (1947) and Benny Carter and Paul Vandervoort II's "Rock Me to Sleep" (1950). Even Benny Goodman made recordings in the early 1940s with the pioneering electric guitarist Charlie Christian which use many techniques later utilized by rock and rollers. If we agree with Huey Lewis that "The heart of rock and roll is the beat," and we examine the beat and set out to define it, we immediately find that the rock and roll beat is almost the same as the boogie woogie beat. Both are 8 to the bar, 12 bar blues, and the essential difference is that rock and roll has a greater emphasis on the back beat than boogie woogie...if you take any boogie woogie record of the 30's or 40's, and sit a drummer down to play snare on the backbeat, then you have turned it into rock and roll.
Main artists starting to score in the main hit charts from 1955 onward included the influential and pioneering: Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis,Buddy Holly.

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Topic - It was 50 years ago this week.... - millen 12:40:34 05/04/06 (8)

Re: For what it's worth, Elvis' P.J.s go for $3,000 U.S. * - Guy. 07:48:53 05/05/06 (0)

Rock 'n' roll was at least a decade old by 1956 - Rob Doorack 07:10:02 05/05/06 (0)

Absolutely NOT - DAT 19:08:53 05/04/06 (0)

Re: It was 50 years ago this week.... - musetap 13:24:24 05/04/06 (4)

As Pete Townsend sang.... - mkuller 14:24:38 05/04/06 (3)

Re: As Pete Townsend sang.... - PdL 18:18:00 05/04/06 (1)

lol!...good one PdL....* - jaiva 20:55:08 05/04/06 (0)

Most likely he WILL die before he gets old... - musetap 16:06:05 05/04/06 (0)

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