music of the 1950s: part 2

…list continued from Part 1, (1952–56).

Buddy Holly—That’ll Be the Day (1957)
I was a big fan of Buddy Holly in the late 1950s, although in retrospect I find that much of his output seems to have been designed to appeal to self-conscious adolescents. Not this one though. Holly’s ‘hiccupping’ vocal styling is what makes this record.

The Edsels—Rama Lama Ding Dong (1957)
This track is classic doo-wop, complete with a honking saxophone solo and a nonsense title.

Dale Hawkins—Susie Q (1957)
This echo-laden example of rockabilly clearly shows the effect of other influences, especially the blues of the Mississippi delta.

Johnny Burnett—Rock a Billy Boogie (1957)
Although Johnny Burnett had his biggest hit with the pop song Dreamin’ in 1960, he’d been active throughout the second half of the 1950s with a string of rockabilly numbers, of which this is a typical example.

Thurston Harris—Little Bitty Pretty One (1957)
Several versions of this song were released around this time, but I believe this to be the original—and improvements on an original song are extremely rare.

Buddy Knox—Party Doll (1957)
This is another rockabilly number, although it’s unusual in featuring female backing singers.

The Diamonds—Little Darlin’ (1957)
The Diamonds were a Canadian doo-wop group whose success was achieved in the United States. This isn’t the original, but it was the only one to be a hit. It also includes a spoken middle eight, which in retrospect turns it into something of a comedy record!

Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Clowns—Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu (1957)
As you might guess from the singer’s nickname and the title of the song, this recording features piano accompaniment that is heavily influenced by both R&B and boogie woogie.

Bobby Freeman—Do You Wanna Dance (1958)
This song was covered by several bands in the mid-1960s, including the Beach Boys, but once again the original is the best. Freeman was just 18 years old when this record was released.

Larry Williams—Slow Down (1958)
I first heard this song on an LP by Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1963, and it grabbed my attention, but this, the original version, was on my search list when scouring the second-hand shops of Manchester a couple of years later. There are hints of Little Richard here (both recorded for Specialty Records), but this is almost out of control. It is, without doubt, the fastest record in this list. It may also have been, originally, just a B-side, because the other side was Dizzy Miss Lizzy, also a rock ’n’ roll classic.

Eddie Cochran—Summertime Blues (1958)
Although I’ve not attempted to rank the recordings in this collection, the fact that I selected this record as one of just eight to be marooned with on a desert island indicates that I consider this the #1 record of the 1950s. Cochran’s death in a car accident in the UK in April 1960 is particularly tragic because he was one of the first to experiment with a variety of recording techniques, including overdubbing and double-tracking, and it’s likely that he would have become a major star in the 1960s had he lived.

This track is also the first on this list to feature a fade-out groove—the standard practice used to be that a song had to have a precise end. It may just be coincidence, but the next recording on my list also ends with a fade-out groove, and Eddie Cochran and Ritchie Valens were friends. Just saying.

Ritchie Valens—Come On, Let’s Go (1958)
Ritchie Valens was the first Latino to make a mark in rock ’n’ roll. Sadly, however, he was only 18 years old when he died, in the same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly in February 1959, so it’s impossible to evaluate what he might have achieved. This record provides just a hint.

The Everly Brothers—Bird Dog (1958)
There was a lot of crossover from country and western music to what was increasingly becoming ‘mainstream’ rock ’n’ roll in the late 1950s, and most of it can be ignored, but not the Everly Brothers, whose close-harmony vocals were something new. This song is typical of their early output, and it also provides another early example of the use of a fade-out groove.

Danny and the Juniors—At the Hop (1958)
This song was performed by Sha Na Na at Woodstock in 1969, but this is the original—and vastly superior—version.

The list is continued in Part 3 (1958–59).