Rock’n’Roll / Teenage Heaven 1957 – 1959
1957 - 1958
1 ELVIS PRESLEY / Too Much / Single A Side January 1957
2 LITTLE RICHARD / The Girl Can’t Help It / Single A Side February 1957
3 CARL PERKINS / Matchbox / Single B Side February 1957
4 BO DIDDLEY / Who Do You Love? / Single A Side March 1957
5 CHUCK BERRY / School Days / Single A Side March 1957
6 RICHARD BERRY & THE PHAROAHS / Louie, Louie / Single B Side April 1957
7 THE COASTERS / Young Blood / Single A Side May 1957
8 CHUCK WILLIS / CC Rider / Single A Side May 1957
9 EVERLY BROTHERS / Bye Bye Love / Single A Side May 1957
10 DALE HAWKINS / Suzie Q / Single A Side May 1957
11 GENE VINCENT & HIS BLUE CAPS / B-I-Bickey-Bi, Bo-Bo-Boo / Single A Side May 1957
12 BUDDY HOLLY / Mailmen Bring Me No More Blues / Single B Side June 1957
13 LITTLE RICHARD / Send Me Some Lovin’ / Single B Side June 1957
14 JERRY LEE LEWIS / Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On / Single A Side June 1957
15 HUEY SMITH & THE CLOWNS / Rockin’ Pneumonia / Single A Side July 1957
16 LITTLE RICHARD / Keep A Knockin’ / Single A Side September 1957
17 THURSTON HARRIS / Little Bitty Pretty One / Single A Side September 1957
18 ELVIS PRESLEY / Treat Me Nice / Single B Side October 1957
19 DANNY & THE JUNIORS / At The Hop / Single A Side November 1957
20 RICKY NELSON / Waitin’ In School / Single B Side November 1957
21 THE CRICKETS / Not Fade Away / Single B Side November 1957
22 THE EDSELS / Rama Lama Ding Dong / Single A Side January 1958
23 THE SILHOUETTES / Get A Job / Single A Side January 1958
24 CHUCK BERRY / Sweet Little Sixteen / Single A Side January 1958
25 EVERLY BROTHERS / Should We Tell Him / Single B Side February 1958
26 THE CHAMPS / Tequila / Single A Side February 1958
27 JERRY LEE LEWIS / Breathless / Single A Side February 1958
28 BUDDY HOLLY / I’m Gonna Love You Too / Buddy Holly March 1958
29 LARRY WILLIAMS / Slow Down / Single B Side March 1958
30 THE COLLINS KIDS / Mercy / Single A Side April 1958
31 EVERLY BROTHERS / Claudette / Single B Side April 1958
32 JOHNNY OTIS / Willie And The Hand Jive / Single A Side April 1958
33 LINK WRAY & HIS RAY MEN / Rumble / Single A Side April 1958
1958 - 1959
1 THE COASTERS / Yakety Yak / Single A Side June 1958
2 DUANE EDDY & THE REBELS / Rebel Rouser / Single A Side June 1958
3 ELVIS PRESLEY / Hard Headed Woman / Single A Side June 1958
4 CONWAY TWITTY / It’s Only Make Believe / Single A Side July 1958
5 EDDIE COCHRAN / Summertime Blues / Single A Side August 1958
6 DION & THE BELMONTS / I Can’t Go On / Single B Side August 1958
7 LITTLE ANTHONY & THE IMPERIALS / Tears On My Pillow / Single A Side August 1958
8 JANIS MARTIN / Bang Bang / Single A Side August 1958
9 RITCHIE VALENS / Come On, Lets Go / Single A Side September 1958
10 RICKY NELSON / Lonesome Town / Single A Side September 1958
11 CLIFF RICHARD / Move It / Single A Side September 1958
12 BUDDY HOLLY / Well All Right / Single B Side October 1958
13 BOBBY DAY / Rockin’ Robin / Single A Side October 1958
14 CHUCK BERRY / Reelin’ And Rockin’ / One Dozen Berry’s November 1958
15 JACK SCOTT / Goodbye Baby / Single A Side November 1958
16 EDDIE COCHRAN / C’mon Everybody / Single A Side December 1958
17 FRANKIE FORD / Sea Cruise / Single A Side December 1958
18 LLOYD PRICE / Stagger Lee / Single A Side January 1959
19 EDDIE COCHRAN / Teenage Heaven / Single A Side January 1959
20 FRANKIE AVALON / Venus / Single A Side February 1959
21 DEE CLARK / Hey Little Girl / Single A Side March 1959
22 THE BIG BOPPER / White Lightnin’ / Chantilly Lace March 1959
23 DION & THE BELMONTS / A Teenager In Love / Single A Side April 1959
24 WILBERT HARRISON / Kansas City / Single A Side April 1959
25 BOBBY DARIN / Dream Lover / Single A Side April 1959
26 JERRY LEE LEWIS / Lovin’ Up A Storm / Single A Side April 1959
27 VINCE TAYLOR & THE PLAYBOYS / Brand New Cadillac / Single A Side May 1959
28 THE CRICKETS / I Fought The Law / Recorded May 1959
29 CHUCK BERRY / Memphis, Tennessee / Single B Side June 1959
30 THE BOSSTONES / Mope-itty Mope / Single A Side June 1959
31 PAUL ANKA / Lonely Boy / Single A Side July 1959
32 THE SHIRELLES / Dedicated To The One I Love / Single A Side July 1959
33 THE CLOVERS / Love Potion No.9 / Single A Side July 1959
34 THE COASTERS / Poison Ivy / Single A Side August 1959
35 RONNIE HAWKINS / Mary Lou / Single A Side August 1959
Most of the best rock’n’rollers came out of the South where the living had always been meanest so the rock’n’roll kickback was naturally the most frantic. If Little Richard with his baggy suits, and backcombed hair, embodied the style of rock’n’roll, Chuck Berry embodied the sound. Something of a poet laureate to the rock’n’roll movement, he charted its habits, hobbies, hang ups and triumphs and mourned its limitations. By and large, most white rockers were less impressive than their black counterparts, but there were some notable exceptions like the original tortured rocker Gene Vincent, the hard edged Johnny Burnette and The Rock’n’Roll Trio and the arrogant Jerry Lee Lewis.
Buddy Holly was arguably the most adventurous and barely a rock’n’roller at all. Coming out of Lubbock, Texas with broken teeth, wire glasses, halitosis and every possible kind of country Southerness, he was an obvious no hoper. But, he had a voice and wrote natural hit songs and morphed into Mr All America. His career was perfect in every detail, and just to round it off, he got himself killed in an air crash. He was just twenty.
Where Southern rock’n’roll was all noise, violence, anarchy and a stew of R&B and honky tonk, Northern rock’n’roll was highschool, basically the continuation of white tradition. Highschool was an attitude that said: ’We go to highschool. We dig rock’n’roll. We wear sneakers, short shorts and sweaters. We sometimes neck but we never pet. Our parents can be draggy, but, gee whiz, they were young once and they’re only trying to do their best for us. We dig America and think its really peachy keen’.
Highschool singers were the manufactured, sugar sweet puppets of middle aged businessmen. They transformed rock’n’roll into an exact reflection of what white, middle class, American teenagers really liked and dreamed of, all the danger surgically removed. Probably it was the most pop, pop ever.
At its core was an unlimited assortment of faceless, spotty boys: Tab Hunter, Paul Anka, Danny And The Juniors, Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon, even Bobby Darin. They all had neat hair and neat voices. Sometimes they made good records but often they made bad. Generally, highschool was a total dog but it did have a perverse attraction, so bad it’s good and all that. The Everly Brothers were often lumped in with highschool but in rock’n’rolls final years they turned out the most consistently good records of anyone.
Inevitably, highschool signalled the beginning of the end. But there was one absolute rocker still to emerge. Looking like another sub Elvis, Eddie Cochran was a bit quiet, a bit inarticulate, a bit aggressive. His songs were perfect reflections of everything that rock’n’roll ever meant, so right in every detail. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but Eddie Cochran compressed the atmosphere of a whole period into his songs, crystallizing the way the fifties generation worked. And he did it instinctively.
And that’s about where it ends, that was rock’n’roll and those were the great rockers. Sadly, just like Eddie, most of them ended up lost, either dead, drunk or broke, because rock’n’roll was such committed music, with such a specific attitude tied so absolutely to its time that it was impossible for them to move on to anything else. Of course, it wasn’t anything like as complex, or as creative as what came after, but on its own terms, and in its own way, rock’n’roll was quite perfect.
July 2008.
