'50s rock

By 1955, Rock and Roll had expanded into the most listened to music by young Americans.
The Majors start to lose their dominance
New record labels appear and start to gain market share.
Chess and Atlantic Records are some of the first labels to beat the system and gain popularity.
- Atlantic Records is started by Turkish immigrant Ahmet Ertegun
- His record company exclusively signed black artists at first.
- Atlantic Records help Black artists rise to popularity in the 1950s.
- Chess records is founded in Chicago by Leonard and Phil Chess
- They also exclusively sign black artists
- Specialized in Rhythm and Blues
- Top artists before rock: Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley
Fats Domino
- First hit was The Fat Man, 1950
- Ain’t That A Shame becomes a crossover hit in 1955
- Other Hits
- I’m Walkin’
- Blueberry Hill
- Domino placed thirty-seven records in the top forty by 1963

Chuck Berry
- Innovator of the 1950s rock guitar.
- He influences everyone that comes after him.
- Berry mixed Country Western and R&B to get his signature sound.
- Berry’s first record was Maybellene on Chess Records in 1955.
- Several other hits throughout the 50s
- Roll Over Beethoven
- Johnny B. Goode
- Sweet Little Sixteen
- School Days
- Rock and Roll Music
- The “Rap” genre didn’t officially start until the ‘70s, but many historians believe that Berry had a huge influence on prose and rhymes in his style of music. Especially the song “Too Much Monkey Business.”
- While Chuck is having HUGE success, he encounters his first legal trouble in 1959
- He hired someone he slept with as a hat check and fired her because she sucked. She went to the police and said he slept with her even though she was 14. It’s illegal to cross state lines with borders and sleep with them.
- He was sentenced to three years in jail.
- Berry continues his career after his time in jail.
- Berry had a surprise #1 single in 1972 with his song “My Ding-A-Ling.” It was secretly recorded in a recording studio and released to the public. It sounds like it’s talking about penises but it’s really about a toy his grandmother gave him.
- Berry continued to play until his death in 2017.
Little Richard
- First learned piano at church.
- Early influences were Fats Domino and Chuck Berry. They were all friends.
- Richard’s first big single was Tutti Fruitti.
- Other top hits
- Long Tall Sally
- The Girl Can’t Help It
- Good Golly Miss Jolly
- Little Richard was known for his loud energetic performance as well as his flamboyance and ego. He thought he was the shit. He would pretend to hump his pianos. Wild dude.
- Richard’s career was successful but something changes

Little Richard (Continued)
- In 1957, Richard quits music and becomes a preacher.
- He wanted to clearly find out who he is. He was black and gay in a homophobic white society. This, of course, didn’t work.
- He threw all his diamonds in a river, supposedly.
- In 1964 he returns to the music scene. He tries to navigate both religion and music.
- He becomes even more flamboyant and egotistical and gay.
- He continued to play and record music until his death in 2020.
Jerry Lee Lewis
- Grew up listening to Country and Blues. Grew up poor and uneducated and didn’t make it past the 8th grade.
- After hearing Elvis’ music, Jerry moved to Memphis to try to get signed by Sun Records.
- He is signed in 1956 but originally as a piano player. He plays piano on a lot of Carl Perkin’s and Elvis’ early records.
- His first big hit is “Breathless”
- Lewis decided not to “sanitize” his lyrics for white audiences.
- He sings sexually provocative lyrics.
- His first big hit is “A Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On” in 1957
- It’s about having sex in a barn.
- “Great Balls of Fire” is released in the same year.
- Jerry makes some questionable decisions
- The dude goes through three wives before he’s 30, marries the third before the second is divorced, and the third was his first cousin once removed and 13. He was 26 when they were married.
  - They had their first child when she was 14.
- Someone leaks to the press that he married his 13-year-old cousin. He’s on a plane to England when the news gets out and by the time he arrives everyone knew.
- They stayed together until 1970, she divorces him for abuse.
- He had a total of seven wives, the last one he married in 2012.
- By the 1960s, people don’t care anymore.
- Jerry continues to perform until his death six days ago on October 28th, 2022.

FUCK YEAH BUDDY HOLLY

🟦🟦🟦weezer \n 🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦 OOH WEE OOH I LOOK JUST LIKE BUDDY HOLLY \n 🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦 OH OH AND YOU’RE MARY TYLER MOORE \n 🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦 I DON’T CARE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US ANYWAY \n 🟦🧍🧍🧍🧍🟦 I DON’T CARE ABOUT THAT

In all seriousness though I do LOVE Buddy Holly (tbh I think he’s hotter than Elvis.)
- Born in Texas and was influenced by Country and Western
- Has a band called The Crickets. All the members were high school friends. The band had a fourth member but he didn’t usually take pictures or tour with them because of his anxiety.
- Like Bill Haley, Holly starts as a Country-Western artist.
- Signed by Decca Records in 1956
- Released single Blue Days, Black Nights
- He wasn’t happy with Decca records. He wrote his own songs and wanted creative control to produce them. He knew how he wanted them to sound.
- Holly leaves Decca for Coral Records. Coral gives him creative control.
- Coral re-records a song called That’ll Be The Day as a faster rock tune
- It becomes an instant hit.
- He also releases
- Oh Boy!
- Not Fade Away
- Peggy Sue
- Rave On
- Buddy Holly enjoyed using new techniques and weird instruments in his songs.
- Holly was supposed to go on a tour headlining along with other acts
- The Big Bopper
- Dion and the Belmonts
- Ritchie Valens
  - First Latin-American star in rock and roll.
- At the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake Iowa. Buddy Holly decides to charter a plane to their next bus stop in Fargo, North Dakota. They had all the acts on one bus and it was really uncomfortable. He wanted some rest. Additionally, The Big Bopper had the flu and if they were around him everyone would get sick.
- Buddy hires a pilot and a Beechcraft Bonanza.
- Some of the seats get switched around
- Bass player Waylon Jennings gives his seat to The Big Bopper because he was sick. Buddy wasn’t happy about this because The Big Bopper was sick.
- Guitar Player Tommy Alsup lost his seat on the plane to Ritchie Valens in a coin toss.
- The plane crashed so hard it dug a six-foot hole in frozen ground. All members were ejected from the plane and everyone died.
The Day The Music Died
- Holly, Richardson, Valens, and Pilot Roger Peterson are killed on February 3rd, 1959.
- We don’t know what the cause was. We know that a wing tip hit the ground first and then it nosedived. The plane is still very successful today, so it most likely wasn’t a manufacturing issue. Those planes are still in production today.
- Ritchie Valens is 17.
- The Big Bopper leaves behind a wife who was pregnant with her son.
- Buddy Holly left behind a pregnant wife who had a miscarriage from the stress.
- Buddy Holly’s career was a year and a half long.

The Legacy of Buddy Holly
- Buddy introduces the basic rock band set up
- Two guitars, bass, and drums.
- Buddy is one of the first artists to write and produce his own music.
After Buddy Holly’s death, many of the top stars of rock weren’t making music. But luckily, there were other ‘50s artists that influenced the next round of rock music.
Ray Charles
- Born in Georgia, spends childhood in Florida. He grew up poor.
- He wasn’t born blind, but he lost his sight really early. He loses his sight after contracting claucoma at 5 years old. He lost his eyesight slowly over two years.
- Before he went blind, he was taught how to play piano. He remembered where the keys were and continued to play after he was blind.
- He was able to take apart stereos and put them back together blind.
- He could tell if a woman was attractive based on the touch of their wrist.
- Charles orginally wants to be a Jazz singer, but but the time he started his career, Jazz singers weren’t getting signd by record companies.
- Ray is signed to Atlantic Records in 1952. Ahmet Ertegun (the head of atlantic records) changes his sound to Boogie Woogie, a fast type of R&B.
- Early Hits
- The Mess Around
- I Got A Woman
- Charles crossed into Rock with What I’d Say
- Other Hits
- Hit The Road Jack
- Georgia On My Mind
- Ray Charles has one of the longest careers of early Rock artists

Late ´50s Rockabilly
- Rockabilly has huge success in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s
Carl Perkins
- Perkins is one of the most influential country guitar players of all time.
- Perkins signed to Sun Records in 1954
- His song Blue Suede Shoes reaches #1 in 1955
- This song was covered by Elvis.
- Perkin’s songs are covered by countless Rock artists
- For example, The Beatles covered Honey Don’t.
Johnny Cash
- Johnny Cash is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
- He was a “certified badass” who was arrested multiple times and had a huge anger problem. He would go to concerts in prisons because he thought inmates deserved music. Cool dude.
- Cash has sold over 100 million records.
- His songs of recurring themes
- Sorrow
- Redemption
- Death
- Love
- Cash is signed to Sun Records in 1954.
- Top songs while at Sun
- Folsom Prison Blues
- I Walk The Line
- Cry, Cry, Cry
- Notable songs from after Sun Records
- Ring of Fire
- Ghost Riders in the Sky
- Jackson - duet with his wife June Carter Cash
- Cash was also known for his cover songs
- The Night They Drove Dixie Down - The Band
- Hurt - Nine Inch Nails
  - This one had a really deep music video.
- Rusty Cage - Soundgarden