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Others in the 50s

Between 1/55 & 12/60 ...

• there were 109 #1 hits
• only 15 of these were by the major artists discussed in Ch. 3 & 4!!
  • 14 were by Presley!!!!
• There were many other performers ...

 

R&B- & Gospel-derived

 

Lloyd Price

• important New Orleans rock & roll singer-songwriter who penned "Lawdy Miss Clawdy"
  • written as a commercial for a local radio station!!
  • #1 R&B hit in 1952
  • cover versions by Little Richard & Elvis

Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Dawson & Propes on "Lawdy Miss Clawdy"

• after two successful years, served in Korea from 1954-56
• relocated to D.C. upon his return, forming KRC (Kent Record Company)
• after signing with ABC, enjoyed his greatest success with ...

Stagger Lee

(#1, 1959; #1 R&B)
reworked version of New Orleans folk song "Stagolee"

subsequent ABC recordings reflected a shift from the rockin New Orleans style to a mainstream pop sound

Personality

(#2; #1 R&B, 1960)

continues touring on casino & concert tours

Rockabilly

1955-59--importance of Sun Records (Memphis)

Carl Perkins

• one of the seminal rockabilly artists, along with Jerry Lee Lewis (early recordings), Johnny Cash, & Elvis Presley (early Sun Records style)
• auditioned for Sam Phillips after hearing Presley's recording of "Blue Moon of Kentucky," a Bill Monroe song that Perkins & his band had been playing since 1949

Blue Suede Shoes

(#2, 1956)

• at the height of his career, he & his brother were injured in an auto accident
  • driver fell asleep, rear-ended a truck, & plunged into the water
  • Perkins was back on the road in about a month, but his brother never recovered ... died from a brain tumor in 1958
• his recordings since move back and forth between rockabilly & country
• 1989--cowrote (and played lead guitar on) the Judds' hit "Let Me Tell You About Love"
• 1992--diagnosed with throat cancer; year later, declared cancer-free
• 1987--inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame

Everly Brothers ("Bye Bye Love")

• Don & Phil Everly
  • called "the most important vocal duo in rock" (RS Encycl of Rock)
  • influential on the Beatles, Hollies, Simon & Garfunkel, Linda Rondstadt, etc.
• toured with their parents, Ike & Margaret Everly (Midwestern country stars)
• performed on the radio throughout their childhood
• as teenagers, they left for Nashville
  • hired by Roy Acuff's publishing company as songwriters

Wake Up Little Susie

(#1, 9/57)

• note C&W influence in vocal style & harmonies
• rock guitar style (Barr chords), though acoustic

All I Have to Do is Dream

(#1, 4/58)

Bye Bye Love

(only song between 1957-1960 by someone other than Presley to reach the #1 on the pop, R&B, and C&W charts)

• successful duo through the early 60s, ending with "That's Old Fashioned" (#9, 1962)
• remained popular in Britain, though their US popularity waned
• personal lives were difficult
  • both addicted to speed
  • Don suffered a nervous breakdown
  • relationship became increasingly acrimonious, until ...
• 7/14/73--emotions exploded onstage at a Knott's Berry Farm concert when Phil smashed his guitar & walked off stage, leaving Don to announce the duo's breakup
• 1983--Phil's duet with Cliff Richard ("She Means Nothing to Me") reached the British Top Ten
  • in September of that same year, the brothers reunited at London's Royal Albert Hall
• 1986--inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame

Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash "walked the line" between country & rock throughout his musical career, beginning in his early days as a rockabilly singer for Sun Records

• Cash was a preeminent songwriter, admired by many including Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings, & others
• born the son Southern Baptist sharecroppers on Feb. 26, 1932 in Kingsland, AR
• began playing guitar and writings songs at age 12
• moved to Detroit in his late teens until he joined the Air Force as a radio operator in Germany
• in 1954, he left the military and settled in Memphis with his new bride, Vivian Liberto
• began recording for Sam Phillips' Sun Records in 1955

Cry, Cry, Cry

(#14 C&W, 1955)

Folsom Prison Blues

(#5 C&W, 1955)

I Walk the Line

(#17, 1956; million-seller)

• in 1958, Cash moved to southern California, signed with Columbia Records, and began a 9-year period of alcohol & drug abuse
• despite this, he continued releasing successful recordings

Ring of Fire

(#1, Pop, #1 C&W, 1963) - written by June Carter (of The Carter Family) & Merle Kilgore

• in late 1965, Cash was arrested trying to smuggle amphetamines across the Mexican border; received a suspended sentence & fine
• shortly after this event, he was involved in an automobile accident and a near-fatal overdose; his wife divorced him
• Cash moved to Nashville and began a romance with June Carter, who helped him kick his drug habit by 1967 and converted him to fundamentlist Christianity ... the two were married in 1968 and recorded several successful duets: "Jackson" (#2 C&W, 1967), "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" (#6 C&W, 1967), Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe" (#58 Pop, #4 C&W, 1964), and "If I Were a Carpenter" (#36 Pop, #2 C&W, 1970)
• in 1968, Cash's At Folsom Prison (#13) became a million-seller
• that same year, Dylan invited him to sing a due ("Girl from the North Country" on his Nashville Skyline album and, in June 1969, the folk rock icon appeared on the first episode of The Johnny Cash Show (ABC-TV), highly rated TV show that was on the air for two years
• in 1969, Johnny Cash had a hit with Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue" (#2) from Johnny Cash at San Quentin, his best-selling album (#1 for foru weeks)

A Boy Named Sue (live)

• in 1970, he performed in the Nixon White House and
• in 1971, he & June traveled to Israel to make a documentary, Gospel Road
• Cash continued to tour & make hits through the 70s

One Piece at a Time

(#1 C&W, 1976)

• in 1982, regrouped with fellow surviving Million Dollar Quartet members Carl Perkins & Jerry Lee Lewis to release The Survivors
  • back in the Sun Records days (c. 1956), an impromptu recording was made in the studio when Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, & Johnny Cash all happened to be there together: the recording (first a bootleg, then released in 1981) was called The Million Dollar Quartet

    The Million Dollar Quartet

    Jesus Walked that Lonesome Valley

    Down By the Riverside

    Softly and Tenderly

• in 1985, Cash formed The Highwaymen with Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, & Willie Nelson ... the group performed together sporadically through the 80s & 90s
• by the late 80s, his streak of country hits had come to an end; complained that he had been replaced in Nashville by contemporary "hat acts"
• he continued to tour with June and members of the Carter Family; he also began acting in Western-themed movies & TV shows
• during the 90s, he was slowed down by ill health, but even this did not halt his creative output
• on Sept. 12, 2003, Cash died of resperatory failure following a long battle with diabetes; this death was less than five months after June Carter had died on the table undergoing heart valve replacement surgery

 

Ricky Nelson

"Hello, Mary Lou" (1961)

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