Elvis and Rockabilly

ELVIS & THE TEEN MARKET

1951 The Catcher in the Rye PublishedThe novel's main character, Holden Caulfield, will become a popular icon for

disillusioned teens seeking to rebel against a society full of "phonies.1952 Fender & Les Paul Electric Guitars

Jan 1952 Sun Records Launched25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 KOREAN WAR

Dec 1953 First White Rock and Roll Song Bill Haley "Crazy Man Crazy”July 1953 Elvis Presley Discovered at Sun Studios

1954 Brown vs. Board of Education1954 Hank Ballard song “Work with me Annie” huge hit but banned

July 1954 First Elvis Single "That's All Right (Mama)"/"Blue Moon of Kentucky1955 James Dean and Rebel Without A Cause

1955 Blackboard JungleMay 1955 Elvis’ Female Fans cause riot

Aug 1956 Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun RecordsSept 1956 Elvis on Ed Sullivan

Aug 1957 Dick Clark and American Bandstand premiers on ABC

• Elvis and Rockabilly

• Poor southern white teenagers who grew up in parts of the south that were segregated but right next door to each other.

• They combine elements of African American popular R&B and Southern Country & Western into what became known as Rockabilly.

• Popular artist included Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, and Bill Haley.

• SUN RECORDS in Memphis became synonymous with the new style

• Early Elvis Presley

• Born in Tupelo Mississippi in 1935.• Growing up Mississippi the Presley’s were extremely poor and

moved several times.• In 1948 they headed to Memphis on the prospect of work for

Elvis’s father, who eventually found a low paying but steady job at a paint company.

• Elvis was exposed at an early age to the 2 indigenous forms of music in the rural poor south: Country & The Blues

• In Memphis, Elvis would frequent blues clubs along Beale Street and hear BB King and others

• Elvis spent his early career as a sideman in Doug Poindexter’s Starlite Wranglers (a country band).


• Elvis also spent time singing in church and learning from other gospel groups that would perform at his evangelical church First Assembly of God in South Memphis.

• SUN RECORDS was started in Memphis by SAM PHILLIPS (a radio engineer) to give southern R&B artist who couldn’t make it to Chicago a place to record.

• He recorded artist on Chess and Modern Records but artist such as Howlin’ Wolf, BB KING, IKE TURNER eventually went to Chicago leaving Phillips looking for something

• July 18, 1953 Elvis walked into Sun Studios to record a song for $4 as a present for his mom.

• Phillips soon took a liking to Elvis who returned a few more times to record for $4 a song.


• Phillips paired Elvis with guitarist Scotty Moore & bassist Bill Black and they recorded their 1st 45.

• They A side was an R&B song “That’s All Right, Mama” and the B side a country tune “Blue Moon of Kentucky”.

• Phillips then gave an advanced copy to local DJ Dewey Phillips 4 days later and the phones started ringing and “all hell broke loose”

• Dewey located Elvis in a movie theater & brought him on his show mainly so people could here what high school he went to as most listeners thought he was African American.

• 5000 orders came into SUN and Elvis began performing with the trio publicly.


• Elvis’s live performance drove teenage girls crazy but much of his on stage dance moves were considered obscene by the older generation.

• In 1954 He started 13 months on “Louisiana Hayride” as very influential radio show that had previously launched country artist such as HANK WILLIAMS.

• In May-July 1955 female fans torn his shirt, shoes, socks, and almost his pant at several concerts throughout the south.

• His appeal even extended into the African American community as he appeared in 1956 at an all black benefit for needy children and caused just as much pandemonium as at previous all white events.


• In Sept of 1956 while in Hollywood filming his first movie Elvis made his first appearance on one of the nations most popular shows THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW and almost overnight was a household name.

• LISTENING JOURNAL• DON’T BE CRUEL / LOVE ME TENDER from Elvis’s Ed

Sullivan performance.

• OTHER SUN RECORDS ARTIST• JERRY LEE LEWIS • Nicknamed “The Killer” in high school because he used to call

people “killer”• Was said to have the left hand of an R&B player and the right

hand of a Country player.• Drove to Sun Studio from home in Louisana at 19 and talked his

way into recording with a producer who showed the recording to Sam Phillips.

• Sam signed him in 1956 to Sun & he played back up for a few lesser known Sun artist.

• In 1957 he released “Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On” and sold 60,000 copies but not a national success.

• OTHER SUN RECORDS ARTIST• JERRY LEE LEWIS • Sun Records gambled on Jerry and put together an expensive

promo package to promote the single which included spots on The Steve Allen Show & Ed Sullivan Show.

• The spots paid off and Lewis’s frantic banging of the Keys,kicking the piano stool into the audience,& playing the keys w his right foot made the teen fans in the audience go crazy.

• “Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On” soon reached #3 on the Billboard singles charts and 1 month later “Great Balls Of Fire” neared #1 on the Top 40.

• LISTENING JOURNAL• GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

• OTHER SUN RECORDS ARTIST• CARL PERKINS

• Soon after Lewis’s Top 40 success a steady stream of Sun talent began climbing the charts.

• Carl Perkins, born in Tiptonville, Tennessee developed a unique style of guitar playing after building his own guitar a a youth.

• He developed his rockabilly style playing around Memphis and was very similar to Elvis.

• He signed with Sun in 1954 and is best known for his hit song “Blue Suede Shoes” .

• At the height of his early success tragedy struck.

• OTHER SUN RECORDS ARTIST• CARL PERKINS

• While in route to a TV appearance in NYC him & his band were in a terrible car crash in Delaware that put Carl in the hospital with a broken collarbone.

• Shortly after Elvis covered “Blue Suede Shoes” and had an even bigger hit with it.

• Carl was best known afterwards for being a songwriter more than a performer & wrote several hits for Elvis.

• LISTENING JOURNAL• BLUE SUEDE SHOES

• OTHER SUN RECORDS ARTIST• JOHNNY CASH

• Completed the BIG FOUR at SUN RECORDS (Presley, Lewis, Perkins, & Cash)

• Cash joined the Air Force in 1953 and began learning the guitar in his spare time.

• He learned songs by country stars Hank Snow & Hank Williams but also loved artist like Howlin Wolf & Muddy Waters.

• He started a group with other Air Force musicians and began to write songs in his barracks.

• In 1955 after leaving the Air Force he signed with Sun Records as a songwriter.

• OTHER SUN RECORDS ARTIST• JOHNNY CASH

• After writing a hit song for one of Sun’s country artist, he convinced Sam Phillips to let him record his next song “Folsom Prison Blues”

• Later in 1956 he released his signature song “I Walk The Line” and it reached the top 20 on Billboard.

• Elvis ask Johnny to write him a song many times but after his chart success Phillips kept having Johnny sing his songs.

• LISTENING JOURNAL• I WALK THE LINE

• MAJOR LABEL ROCKABILLY• DECCA RECORDS – BILL HALEY & THE COMETS

• Major Labels began to compete with Sun for the Rockabilly market.

• Decca Records took the lead with the signing of Bill Haley• Started out as a country & western group in Pennsylvania

but released a cover of Rocket 88 in 1951 & began infusing the R&B sound.

• For sometime they were no longer accepted as a country band or an R&B band

• In 1953 had a minor hit song “Crazy Man Crazy” that got them noticed by Decca.

• MAJOR LABEL ROCKABILLY• DECCA RECORDS – BILL HALEY & THE COMETS

• In 1954 they released “Rock Around The Clock” & followed with a cover of Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” which hit the Top 10 in the US & Britain.

• After this success they rereleased “Rock Around the Clock” in 1955 which hit the top of the charts and cause world wide riots when it was included on the soundtrack of “Blackboard Jungle” which was a movie about teen rebellion.

• LISTENING JOURNAL• ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK

• MAJOR LABEL ROCKABILLY• DECCA RECORDS – BUDDY HOLLY

• In 1956 Decca discovered Buddy Holly a skinny geeky looking teen w/ thick-rimmed glassed from Lubbock, Texas.

• Holly had played to try and make a career in western swing music but that all changed when he meet Elvis at concert.

• Elvis asked Buddy & his then group to back him at the grand opening of a Pontiac car dealership.

• After that Buddy began to incorporate Elvis’s style into his own music.

• In 1957 he started a new trio called “The Crickets”• After signing with Decca, Holly took his new group to

producer Norman Petty.

• MAJOR LABEL ROCKABILLY• DECCA RECORDS – BUDDY HOLLY

• Petty produced the groups first big chart hit “That’ll Be The Day” which was a line taken from a John Wayne movie The Searchers.

• They followed with several soon to be classics including “Peggy Sue” “Maybe Baby” and “Not Fade Away”

• Unfortunately Buddy is probably best known for his career being cut tragically short when he died in a plane crash in Iowa with two other rising stars of the time The Big Bopper (Chantilly Lace) and Richie Valens (La Bamba)

• LISTENING JOURNAL• THAT’LL BE THE DAY

• MAJOR LABEL ROCKABILLY

• OTHER MAJORS

• With the success of Rockabilly artist in Sun Records and now a Major Label Decca, other majors began to scramble to keep up.

• Capital Records signed Gene Vincent, Korean War vet from Virginia who scored with the hit song “Be Bop a Lula”

• Columbia Records signed a duo called THE EVERLY BROTHERS (sons of country stars Ike & Margaret Everly), they released 2 songs that flopped but then after being dropped from Columbia scored a major hit after moving to Cadence Records with “Bye Bye Love”

• LISTENING JOURNAL• BYE BYE LOVE

• MAJOR LABEL ROCKABILLY• ELVIS leaves Sun Records

• In 1955 Major labels began to bid over Elvis.• RCA Victor offered Sun Records $40,000 to buy out Elvis’s

contract, Sam Phillips took it as Sun was in financial trouble.

• The real force behind the selling of Elvis to RCA was his new manager, Colonel Tom Parker, from The Netherlands who had got his start in carnivals.

• The Colonels new strategy for Elvis was to continue radio and touring but also to focus on the new media of TV and to get Elvis into Hollywood films.

• ELVIS backlash

• After the success of Elvis & other Rockabilly artist a major backlash was brewing especially among older Americans.

• Main stream press such as The New York Times, Time Magazine, etc…. openly criticized Elvis and other acts as being sophomoric artist that were “sexhibitionist” that “lived off the fat of teenagers heads”.

• Government officials blasted Elvis and others for their role in the moral corruption of America’s youth.

• Fears of increased juvenile delinquency continued to grow & movies such as Blackboard Jungle, The Wild One (w/ Marlon Brando) & Rebel Without A Cause (w/ James Dean) symbolized teenage rebellion in 1950’s America.

• ELVIS backlash

• The generation gap between the baby boomers who loved Rock & Roll & their parents began to widen & fueled fears.

• The older generation who had grow up and lived in a very racist and segregated society feared the social implications of race mixing and violence.

• 1958 a quote from a southern teen made its way through the media and scared parents to death… “I’m not afraid of Negroes, I’m afraid of parents”.

• Anger parents organized: They burned effigies of Elvis, burned R&R records, expelled students for attending Elvis shows, got Elvis songs banned from Radio stations, etc..

ELVIS goes to HOLLYWOOD

• After the backlash against Elvis his manager Tom Parker decided to take advantage of all of the attention.

• Colonel Tom put Elvis in a tux and had him stand perfectly still singing to a “hound dog” on The Steve Allen Show.

• It was meant to be humorous but it foreshadowed a new direction in Elvis’s image.

• Elvis splits from his original trio• Elvis’s popularity will increase as his image became more

subdued after being drafted into the Army in 1958 for a 2 year stint.

• He also opted for a clean cut image in his movies which only farther severed to broaden his fan base.

• MAJOR LABEL ROCKABILLY• ELVIS goes to HOLLYWOOD

• On orders from Colonel Parker Elvis did not sing for the Army and instead concentrated on lining up movie deals after his tour of duty in Germany.

• Elvis starred in 31 feature films including GI Blues, Blue Hawaii, Viva Las Vegas, Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, etc….

• Colonel Parker insisted Elvis only do films that were written around songs even though he was offered dramatic roles in such classics as Midnight Cowboy and West Side Story.

• YOUTUBE – ELVIS MOVIES

• HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL EPISODE 2 • 0:00 – 43:30

• THE RISE OF THE TEEN MARKET• LOST ROCK & ROCK IDOLS

• At the end of the 1950’s Rock & Rolls early idols were having issues………..

• Elvis was in the Army and not performing.• Buddy Holly died in a small plane crash in Iowa.• Little Richard returned to the ministry.• Chuck Berry was in Federal prison for illegal transportation

of a minor and intended solicitation.• 23 yr old Jerry Lee Lewis had married his 13 yr old cousin.

• THE RISE OF THE TEEN MARKET• LOST ROCK & ROCK IDOLS

• Even though Rock & Roll’s early Idols were having “issues” the Rock & Roll market was booming.

• The Us economy are was booming at the end of the 50’s. • The Record industry had been reinvigorated by the new Rock &

Roll market.• Rock & Roll was sweeping the international scene.

• 2 young entrepreneurs took advantage of the vacancy of Rock & Rolls MIA Idols to produce a new crop of idols & a fresh batch of songs to sell Americas teens who were starving for it….

• DICK CLARK & DON KIRSHNER

DICK CLARK & AMERICAN BANDSTAND

• Clark who would become known as a market genius was born in upstate NY in 1929.

• Studied advertising and radio at Syracuse University• He worked his way up in radio and landed his first real

announcing job in Philadelphia at WFIL for a radio show of popular and classical music

• In July of 1956 he moved to television and took over hosting Philadelphia Bandstand, a local showcase of high school students dancing to popular hit records.

• Clark knew very little about pop music and rock & roll but quickly learned to enjoy it. He realized quickly there was a lot of money to be made in this new music.

DICK CLARK & AMERICAN BANDSTAND• Clark who traveled to Madison Ave to find sponsors, eventually

turned Philadelphia Bandstand into a nationally televised show in 1957 & changed the name to American Bandstand.

• Clark was known for running a tight ship enforcing a strict dress code for dancers to make the show more acceptable to adults.

• Clark was criticized by some for taking the rebellion & sex out of rock & roll and cleaning it up for the older generation.

• However droves of teenaged girls still responded to the show with over 45,000 letters a week and sent ratings throw the roof.

• Clark would soon also move into the business of not only promoting his show but acts he would groom to be its stars.


• FABIAN• In 1959 Clark agreed to promote FABIAN who lip-synced on his

show but “got screams though he couldn’t sing a note”• He hardly ever sang live & relied on studio tricks for his records.• He turned the $6 a week drugstore clerk into an overnight

sensation.• Within one year Clark helped the Philadelphia teen sell almost 1

million copies of his signature song “Tiger” plus had him on The Ed Sullivan Show and on the cover of Time Magazine.

• LISTENING JOURNAL• TIGER by FABIAN


• FRANKIE AVALON• Another regular Philadelphia teen on American Bandstand.• Played trumpet in the group Rocco and The Saints but went

solo in 1958.• Through repeated appearances on Bandstand he scored hits

with songs such as “Venus” and “Why”• He would later go on to Hollywood and star in a series of

popular beach movies with actress Annette Funicello.

• LISTENING JOURNAL• VENUS


• CHUBBY CHECKER & THE TWIST• Clark also brought fame to another Philadelphian Ernest Evans

(better known as Chubby Checker).• Clark noticed a couple doing a new dance on the show and

thought it might be offensive and kept the cameras of them.• Soon Clark realized that this dance had commercial potential

and urged Cameo Records (a company he part owned) to record a new version of the Hank Ballard song “The Twist”.

• Cameo choose Chubby Checker (an African American singer who had attended high school with Fabian and Frankie Avalon) to cut the new version.

• In 1960 American Bandstand played Checker’s version until it hit the top of the charts.


• CHUBBY CHECKER & THE TWIST• The Twist not only gave Chubby Checker a hit song but sold 70

million copies and got him 2 starring roles in Hollywood films (Twist Around The Clock & Don’t Knock The Twist).

• The new dance craze went international and also spawned a series of records…”Twist with BB King”, “Twist and Shout”, “Twist with Bobby Darin”, “Twistin’ The Night Away”, “Twist with Duane Eddy” etc…etc…. & a follow up song by Checker “Let’s Twist Again”

• LISTENING JOURNAL• THE TWIST by CHUBBY CHECKER

THE PAYOLA INVESTIGATION

• Clark became entangled in the payola investigations of 1959 & 1960 due to his interlocking business interests.

• Payola (Play for Pay) was not a new idea in the music business & dates back to the early vaudeville era & some see it as simply a part of promotion.

• The scandal started on TV when Charles Van Doren admitted before Congress he had been given answers in advance on the NBC quiz show Twenty-One.

• Congress extended their investigation on corruption into the music business.

• ASCAP joined in mainly out of concerns that new rival licensing company BMI must be involved due to its success with Rock & Roll songs

THE PAYOLA INVESTIGATION

• This was a new way to attack Rock & Roll legally and focus was directed towards Rock & Roll DJs and Record Labels.

• Congress alleged that “bribery had become the prime function of this business to get a record on the air at any cost”.

• Many DJs were fired in the wake of the investigation and many were called to testify before a special Congressional committee.

• Two big names were called in: Dick Clark & Alan Freed.• Dick Clark wearing a blue suit calmly told Congress he had

never taking Payola & after his testimony escaped the scandal with his job and reputation intact.

• Alan Freed was not so lucky, after admitting he had taken $30,650 from 6 different record companies, he was fired and blacklisted.

DON KIRSHNER & THE BRILL BUILDING

• TIN PAN ALLEY • is the name given to the collection of New York City music

publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

• ASCAP (the established tunesmiths) had hoped & for a time (1960-1963),as an effect of the payola scandal, songwriters became the dominant force in Rock & Roll.

• The established writers were disappointed as a new breed of songwriters outdistanced them. They were lead and nurtured by NYC music publisher Don Kirshner.

• Kirshner was the mastermind behind the reshaping of Tin Pan Alley sometimes called in later years after Kirshner took over -TEEN PAN ALLEY.


• ALDON MUSIC• At age 21, Don Kirshner & Al Nevins (pop group Three

Suns) started a music publishing company in the middle of Tin Pan Alley in offices at 1615 Broadway in the fame “Brill Building”.

• Kirshner discovered teams of young songwriters who challenged the established firms and soon over took them.

• Among Kirshners discoveries were Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller who wrote many hits for Elvis, The Coaster, and many others

• & Neil Sedaka, who not only wrote hits for popular artists such as Connie Francis but also was one of the few songwriters of the era to record his own music.


• THE DOO-WOP GROUPS• Kirshner’s songwriters wrote hit songs and helped establish

Doo-Wop groups as commercially successful.• Doo-Wop originated on the streets of NYC by poor young

African Americans who wanted to sing R&B but where to poor to afford instruments. Sometimes the groups were “duel” on the streets.

• Many groups modeled themselves after The Ravens, who were formed in 1945 and later signed as an R&B act to Columbia in 1950, most notable hit was “Earth Angel”


• THE DOO-WOP GROUPS• One successful group that Leiber & Stoller of Aldon Music wrote

for was The Coasters.• LISTENING JOURNAL • THE COASTERS : SEARCHIN’

• Leiber & Stoller were also involved with one of Doo-Wops biggest hits with Ben E. King who was formerly of The Drifters.

• It was a song written for The Drifters but recorded and produced as an after thought.

• LISTENING JOURNAL:• STAND BY ME


• CAROL KING• Carol Klein (later known as Carol King) just out of high

school in 1960 and who was once the subject of a Neil Sedaka song, wrote Aldon Music’s 1st super smash hit that would set the trend of Aldon’s musicial direction for the next 3 years.

• Along with her songwriting partner Gerry Goffin, whom she meet in college, she joined Aldon in 1958.

• They wanted to compose Tin Pan Alley songs that were aimed at teens. “Not too adult, artistic, or too correct”

• The duo composed a teen ballad “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and at first Kirshner had a hard time selling it.


• After striking out with major labels and artist Kirshner approached a small New Jersey label called Sceptor Records and convinced them to have their all girl group The Shirelles record “Will You Still Love Me”

• The song hit number 1 in Jan of 1961 and The Shirelles were the first number one female / Doo-Wop/ Rock & Roll act every.

• LISTENING JOURNAL:• THE SHIRELLES – WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME


• PHIL SPECTOR & Other Girl Groups• Phil Spector (owner of Philles Records) would record & produce

other successful All Girl Groups and use Aldon Music to supply the hit songs.

• Spector best known for his WALL OF SOUND recording technique (which meant usually doubling everything, vocals instruments, etc…) would perfect this sound and achieve success with groups like The Crystals and most famously with THE RONNETTES.

• Spector also married and then later divorced the lead singer of The Ronnettes.

• LISTENING JOURNAL• THE RONNETTES – BE MY BABY


• KIRSHNER & NEVINS SELL ALDON MUSIC• 1963 Kirshner and Nevins sold Aldon Music for $2 million.• They had so much success so quickly and began receiving

offers they eventually could not refuse.• After leaving Aldon, Kirshner took a high paying job in the

Columbia Screen Gems Television Music Division, where he supervised the record and music publishing interests of the company.

• He timing was impeccable as the popular music scene was getting ready to take a new direction from the hits Aldon had supplied at the being of the 1960’s.

• HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL EPISODE 2 • 43:30 – end

Elvis and Rockabilly

Documents

elvis single thats

early career

popular artist

early age

southern rb artist

rb song thats

sam phillips

southern country western