THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICAN ROCK’N’ROLL

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…..The Rise and Fall of American Rock’n’Roll

The 1950s saw the rise and fall of American rock’n’roll.  The golden age of rock’n’roll was undoubtedly the second half of the 1950s. However, its roots go back much futher than that.

ROCK’N’ROLL IN A NUTSHELL

Rock’n’Roll has its roots in both black and white American music. Elements of gospel, blues, R&B, doo wop, and country, hillbilly and rock-a-billy can all be heard in rock’n’roll.

Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats’ 1951 release Rocket 88, is generally considered to be the first rock’n’roll record. In 1955 Bill Haley and his Comets kick-started rock’n’roll, when Rock Around the Clock played behind the opening credits of the movie Blackboard Jungle.

The golden age of rock’n’roll followed but the first cracks appeared just two-and-half years later. Little Richard was on tour in Australia in 1957, when he had an epiphany, found God and renounced rock’n’roll. After Little Richard left the rock’n’roll scene others followed and the rock’n’roll hits dried up.

By the end of the 1950s rock’n’roll was all-but over. It limped on into the early 1960s but the times were definitely a-changin’. Elvis famously reinvented himself as a movie star in the 1960s. Ironically the 1960s beat and R&B groups revitalised the careers of many of the blues, R&B and rock’n’roll stars.

But the golden age of rock’n’roll – will live – forever

EARLY DAYS OF ROCK’N’ROLL

CONTENDERS FOR THE 1st ROCK’N’ROLL RECORD INCLUDE
6 Sep 1946: Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup – recorded That’s All Right
Arthur Crudup wrote and originally recorded it and Elvis Presley chose the song as his first Sun single in 1954.

18 Feb 1950: Fats Domino – The Fat Man entered the Billboard R&B chart.
It gave him his first R&B hit and peaked at #2. Written by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew, it was recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studios in New Orleans.

THE SONG USUALLY CITED AS THE 1ST ROCK’N’ROLL RECORD
5 Mar 1951: Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats – recorded Rocket 88.
Jackie Brenston wrote Rocket 88.
Ike Turner arranged the recording session at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service. His band cut four tracks that day. Piano player Ike Turner took the lead vocal on Heartbroken and Worried and I’m Lonesome Baby, they were released as a single by Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm. Sax player Jackie Brenston took lead vocal on Rocket 88, this was coupled with Come Back Where You Belong and released as Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats.
Both singles were released on Chess Records, Sun Records was still a year away. Willie Kizart played the fuzz guitar, which was one of the first examples of deliberate distortion in rock’n’roll.
Bill Haley and His Saddle Men recorded Rocket 88 shortly afterwards, making it one of the first white cover versions of a black R&B artist.
Rocket 88 – Oldsmobile motor car

ROCK’N’ROLL APPEARED ON THE HORIZON
11 Jul 1951: Alan Freed – “Moondog” opened his R&B show on WJW in Cleveland.
Alan Freed was probably the most influential American DJ to popularise black R&B music and introduce it to white audiences. He’s accredited with coining the term “rock’n’roll”.
Throughout the 1940s he appeared on radio and television as a sports presenter and DJ. Local record store owner Leo Mintz encouraged Freed to join Radio WJW. Calling himself “Moondog”, he began presenting his R&B show, The Moondog Rock’n’Roll House Party. The show’s theme was Blues for Moondog by Todd Rhodes. Freed’s activities soon expanded to include concert promotions and movies.
Alan Freed had to drop the name “Moondog” after a threatened lawsuit from Louis Thomas “Moondog” Hardin, a legendary New York street performer. Hardin moved to New York in the early 1940s, resplendent in Viking cape, helmet and complete with spear he could be found on the corner of 54th Street & Sixth Avenue.

21 Mar 1952: Alan Freed – 1st rock’n’roll concert.
The Moondog Coronation Ball held at Cleveland Arena. Advertised as having “sensational stars”, these included, Paul Williams Hucklebuckers, Tiny Grimes Rockin’ Highlanders and The Dominoes, who’s Sixty Minute Man was an R&B #1 for 14 weeks in 1951. He broadcasted his Moondog Radio Show directly from the Ball. The 10,000 capacity Arena was sold out. Thousands more fans tried to gate-crash the gig and despite being advertised to finish at 2.00 am, the authorities closed the show down much earlier.

1954 – IT ALL STARTED TO HAPPEN

12 April 1954: Bill Haley and His Comets recorded (We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock.
James Myers and Max C Freedman wrote the song and it was recorded in New York at the Pythian Temple studios. This was Bill Haley’s first recording session for Decca.
Sonny Dae and His Knights originally released Rock Around the Clock in early 1954 but it sank without trace.

10 May 1954: Released as a single, Thirteen Women (And Only One Man in Town) c/w (We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock failed to make a showing on the Billboard Top-40.

ELVIS PRESLEY
5 Jul 1954: Elvis Presley – 1st Sun recording session.
That came about after Elvis made his second private recording at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service on 4 January 1954. This became Sun Studios and Sun Records. After this private recording, Sam Phillips told Elvis that he’d give him a call if he found a song that he felt would suit Elvis. On a trip to Nashville Sam Phillips came across Without You. He called Elvis to come into the studio to try it out. This didn’t go well but rather than give up on Elvis he introduced him to guitarist Scotty Moore and upright bass player Bill Black. Phillips asked Elvis to perform some other songs that he knew. They tried out a few numbers and, with Sam Phillips at the controls, recorded That’s All Right.

19 Jul 1954: Elvis – released his 1st Sun Records single.
That’s All Right c/w Blue Moon of Kentucky, credited Elvis Presley, and underneath in smaller print: Scotty and Bill. Both sides were covers of 1940s singles. Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup wrote and originally released That’s All Right in 1946. Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys wrote and originally recorded Blue Moon of Kentucky in 1947. A few days later Sam Phillips gave Memphis DJ, Dewey “Daddy-O” Phillips, no relation, a copy for him to play on his Red, Hot and Blue show on Radio WHBQ. This made Phillips the first DJ to play Elvis. Elvis recorded four more singles at Sun before moving to RCA in November 1955.

ARGUABLY THE FIRST ROCK’N’ROLL HIT SINGLE
10 Jul 1954: Bill Haley and the Comets – released Shake Rattle and Roll.
This gave Bill Haley his first hit record, peaking at #7 on Billboard. Big Joe Turner released the original shortly before Haley’s cover. It gave Turner an R&B #1. Haley’s sanitised version was considerably watered down, compared to Turner’s much raunchier lyrics.

THE BIRTH OF ROCK’N’ROLL – CAME FROM THE MOST UNLIKELY SOURCE
25 Mar 1955: Blackboard Jungle – released in America.
The movie was based on a novel by Evan Hunter. It was set in an inner-city New York school, against a backdrop of teenage delinquency. The opening written preamble bemoaned the problems of “juvenile delinquency”. As the preamble and opening credits rolled, Bill Haley and His Comets’ Rock Around the Clock played in the background. Reaction to the movie was immediate – it kick-started rock’n’roll around the world.

Rock Around the Clock had originally been released in May 1954 with Thirteen Women as the A-side. When it was re-released after Blackboard Jungle in March 1955, the sides were flipped and Thirteen Women became the B-side.

A HOST OF ROCK’N’ROLL LEGENDS ARRIVED
– IN THE WAKE OF BLACKBOARD JUNGLE

FATS DOMINO
Had his first R&B hit with The Fat Man in 1949.
Apr 1955: Fats Domino – released Ain’t It a Shame
Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew wrote the song and it gave Fats Domino his first crossover hit. It was his 14th R&B hit and this one was an R&B #1 for 11 weeks. It also scored on the Billboard Top-40, peaking at #10.
With sales estimated at over 65 million, Fats Domino sold more records than any other 1950s rock’n’roller except Elvis Presley. His run of Billboard Top-40 hit singles lasted until 1963.

CHUCK BERRY
Made his first recording with Jo Alexander and the Cubans in mid-1954. He was introduced to the Chess brothers by his friend Muddy Waters.
21 May 1955: Chuck Berry – recorded Maybellene at his first Chess recording session.
The song was based on Bob Wills’s 1938 recording of Ida Red. Early copies give the writing credit to Chuck Berry and DJs Russ Fratto and Alan Freed. It gave Chuck Berry his first hit, peaking on the Billboard Top-40 at #5 but it was also a massive R&B hit spending 11 weeks at #1.
John Lennon performed with Chuck Berry on the Mike Douglas Show in 1972 and famously said, “If you tried to give rock’n’roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’”.

LITTLE RICHARD
Little Richard’s career started after he won a talent contest with a prize of an RCA recording deal. He had a handful of singles on RCA in 1951 and 1952 but failed to find commercial success.
14 Sep 1955: Little Richard – recorded Tutti-Frutti.
This was his first single on the Speciality label. Bumps Blackwell produced it and the recording featured Huey “Piano” Smith. It gave him his first hit, peaking at #17.
During a break in the recording session Little Richard started to sing one of the songs that he performed in the clubs. It had a very catchy refrain in, “wop bop a loo bop”. Bumps Blackwell could see the song’s potential but he felt that the ribald lyrics would be too much for the sensitivities of the pop market. Dorothy LaBostrie was called in to clean up the lyrics and the result was Tutti Frutti. The song has joint writing credits for LaBostrie and Little Richard.
If you come across Tutti-Frutti by Slim and Slam, it’s a different song.

1956 – CONTINUED TO GENERATE MORE ROCK’N’ROLL LEGENDS

ELVIS PRESLEY
Released his first Sun single in mid-1954. He released a total of five singles at Sun Records.
27 Jan 1956: Elvis Presley – released his first RCA single, Heartbreak Hotel.
Heartbreak Hotel gave Elvis his first hit single, which stayed at #1 for 8 weeks. His old Sun buddies, guitarist Scottie Moore and upright-bass player Bill Black accompanied him, plus new regular drummer DJ Fontana, and Nashville session musicians, guitarist Chet Atkins, and pianist Floyd Cramer.
Tommy Durden and Mae Boren Axton wrote the song. Their inspiration came from a newspaper article headed, “Do You Know This Man?” The newspaper wanted to identify a man who had killed himself, leaving a note simply saying, “I walk a lonely street”.

GENE VINCENT
Unlike many of his contemporaries, who chased fame for several years, Gene Vincent’s first single was an immediate success.
4 May 1956: Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps – recorded Be-Bop-A-Lula.
Written by Gene Vincent and his manager, Sheriff Tex Davies, it gave him his first hit, peaking at #7.

ELVIS PRESLEY – FOUND NATIONAL FAME
9 Sep 1956: Elvis Presley – first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
His highly anticipated performance attracted an audience of 60 million viewers, representing an astonishing audience share of 82%. He performed:Don’t Be Cruel, Love Me Tender, Ready Teddy and Hound Dog. This was not Elvis’s first television appearance, that had been on The Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show on 28 January.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR ROCK’N’ROLL’S 1st HERO – BILL HALEY
10 Oct 1956: Bill Haley – released Rudy’s Rock.
This peaked at #34 on Billboard. It was the last of Bill Haley’s continuous year-on-year string of Billboard Top-40 hits. The first came with Shake Rattle and Roll in 1954. Rudy’s Rock was Haley’s 14th Billboard Top-40 hit. He had one more hit, with Skinny Minnie in 1958.

HOLLYWOOD GOT IN ON THE ACT
1 Dec 1956: The Girl Can’t Help It – released in America.
This movie was a light-hearted gangster romp with rock’n’roll as a backdrop. It starred Jayne Mansfield and featured a host of rock’n’roll luminaries, including: Fats Domino, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.
Eddie Cochran performed Twenty Flight Rock in the movie. Paul McCartney played it when he auditioned for John Lennon and his skiffle group, the Quarry Men.

THE MOST FAMOUS JAM SESSION OF THEM ALL
4 Dec 1956: The Million Dollar Quartet – jammed at Sun Studios in Memphis.
The quartet comprised Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. It came about because Carl Perkins was in Sun studios to record Matchbox. Jerry Lee Lewis had recently signed to Sun and had been brought in to play piano. Elvis, who was now with RCA, dropped in and Johnny Cash was also passing by.
Sam Phillips rolled the tape but it would be several decades before fans heard an official release of the session. The jury is still out as to whether-or-not Johnny Cash was involved in the actual recording.

AND ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ROCK’N’ROLL QUOTES
15 Dec 1956: Elvis – gave his final performance on the Louisiana Hayride.
Compere, Horace Logan uttered the famous phrase, “Elvis has left the building”, for the very first time. He was attempting to settle the rowdy crowd and encourage them to listen to remaining acts on show.
The Louisiana Hayride was a very popular country music show, syndicated on radio stations across much of the South and West. It provided Elvis with his first exposure to wider audience.

ELVIS PRESLEY – FROM ZERO TO HERO IN 1956
10 Jan 1956: Elvis Presley – released his first single for RCA, Heartbreak Hotel.

29 Dec 1956: Elvis Presley – had 10 Singles on Billboard Hot-100.
He was kept off the #1 spot by Guy Mitchell’s Singing the Blues, which was spending its fourth week at #1.
ELVIS’S CHART POSITIONS
2: Love Me Tender – from the soundtrack of his first movie, Love Me Tender, released on 15 November.
7: Love Me
26: Don’t Be Cruel
38: When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again
47: Old Shep – written and recorded by Red Foley in 1935. First song Elvis performed in public, at a talent show in Tupelo on 3 October 1945.
54: Hound Dog – Leiber & Stoller song, originally by Big Mama Thornton. It gave her an R&B #1 in 1953.
54: Poor Boy – from the soundtrack of Love Me Tender.
70: Any Way You Want Me
78: Paralyzed
93: Blue Moon – Rodgers & Hart song, originally performed by Shirley Ross as The Bad in Every Man, in the 1934 movie Manhattan Melodrama.

1957 – YET MORE LEGENDS CAME TO THE FORE

BILL HALEY – HIS CAREER WAS ON A DOWNTURN BUT…
31 Jan 1957: Bill Haley – Decca announcement…
Rock Around the Clock was the first UK single to sell 1-million copies. The single had multiple UK chart entries, in 1955, 1956 and the 1960s. It has sold an estimated 25 million copies around the world.

Feb 1957: Eddie Cochran – released Sittin’ In the Balcony.
“Johnny Dee” received the writing credit. Actually, a pseudonym for John D Loudermilk, who wrote and originally recorded it.
It gave Eddie Cochran his first Billboard Top-40 hit, peaking at #18.

FOLLOWING HOT ON COCHRAN’S HEELS – JERRY LEE LEWIS
15 Mar 1957: Jerry Lee Lewis – released Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On.
This gave him his first hit, peaking at #3. Yet another cover of an R&B song, originally from Big Maybelle in 1955.

AND…THE EVERLY BROTHERS
The brothers started out on the family radio show, Everly Family Show. Chet Atkins was a fan of the show and he introduced them to Columba. Their first single on the label was released in early 1956 but sadly, it sank without trace.

20 Apr 1957: Everly Brothers – released Bye Bye Love.
This gave them their first hit single on the Cadence label. It was to be the first of many of their hits penned by wife & husband team, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.

BUDDY HOLLY FINALLY FOUND SUCCESS
Buddy Holly’s first-ever recording session had been with Decca at the beginning of 1956. He released a couple of singles there, without troubling the charts in any way. His success and fame came after he teamed up with the Crickets.

27 May 1957: Buddy Holly and the Crickets – released That’ll Be the Day.
Writing credits went to by Jerry Allison, Buddy Holly and their manager, Norman Petty. The Crickets on this release were, Jerry Allison, Niki Sullivan and Larry Welborn. The song’s title was taken from a line in the John Wayne movie, The Searchers.
This was their first hit single, giving them a #1. For contractual reasons, it was released on the Brunswick label as “The Crickets”. Buddy Holly and The Crickets had separate contracts, resulting in their singles being released with different credits and on different labels. In America the singles were released as “Buddy Holly” on Coral or “The Crickets” on Brunswick. In the UK it was far more straightforward, all their releases were on the Coral label.

THE FIRST NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF AMERICAN ROCK’N’ROLL

12 Oct 1957: Little Richard – was part-way through his Australian tour.
Billed as The Big Show, Rock’n’Roll, it also featured Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Johnny O’Keefe and the Dee Jays, Australia’s first rock’n’roll band.
This is generally the date given as to when Little Richard announced to his audience in Sydney, “If you want to live for the Lord, you can’t take rock’n’roll too. God doesn’t like it.” Shortly after this announcement he threw his jewellery into the Hunter River – or maybe Sydney Harbour. The epiphany was due to, possibly, a sputnik passing overhead and signifying the end of the world or a traumatic plane journey with the engines on fire… Sources vary for all aspects of the story. But what is for certain, is that Little Richard renounced the world of rock’n’roll. When he returned to America he recorded one final rock’n’roll session for Speciality.

27 Jan 1958: Little Richard – enrolled into Oakwood Theological College, Huntsville, Alabama.
He became a Seventh Day Adventist minister. Following his new-found calling he only performed gospel songs, until his return to rock’n’roll in 1962.

GENE VINCENT’S LAST AMERICAN TOP-40 HIT
Oct 1957: Gene Vincent – released Dance to the Bop.
This peaked at #23.

ELVIS HAD A CHANGE OF SCENERY
24 Mar 1958: The US Army greeted 53310761, Elvis Presley.
He was inducted by the Memphis Draft Board.

10 & 11 Jun: Elvis was on leave.
He made last recordings for nearly two years, when he recorded five songs, including I Got Stung, A Fool Such As I and A Big Hunk O’ Love. The session musicians included, guitarist Chet Atkins, drummer DJ Fontana and pianist Floyd Cramer.

Oct 1958: Elvis arrived at his German base in Friedberg, near Frankfurt, where he spent the next 18 months.

Sep 1959: Elvis met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, who later became his wife.

2 Mar 1960: He flew out of Germany and famously touched down in Scotland.

5 Mar 1960: Elvis was officially discharged from the US Army.

20 Mar 1960: He was back in the studio working on his new album, Elvis Is Back!
He recorded first post-army single, Stuck on You. Filming for his fifth movie GI Blues started shortly afterwards.
Elvis Presley, the 1950s King of Rock’n’Roll, became Elvis the 1960s silver-screen matinee idol. Only to reinvent himself once again, for the 1970s…

THE END OF JERRY LEE LEWIS’S ROCK’N’ROLL CAREER
22 May 1958: Jerry Lee Lewis – arrived in London for his Ill-fated first tour of the UK.
When he arrived in London he was at the height of his rock’n’roll success. Just a week earlier, on 17 May 1958, his Ferriday hometown held the first Jerry Lee Lewis Day. In London he was questioned by reporters and it transpired that Myra Gale was Lewis’s child-bride. She was the 13-year-old daughter of his bass-playing cousin, JW Brown. Lewis soon discovered that his relationship might well be legal in Louisiana but for British fans it was totally unacceptable. He played three poorly received concerts before pulling out of his own headlining tour and returned to America. The tour continued, with British skiffle legend Chas McDevitt stepping into the breach.
He went into damage limitation mode but his American audiences also deserted him. On 30 May he recorded the single The Return of Jerry Lee and on 9 June he took a whole page in Billboard magazine to write an apology, in the form of an open letter. All to no avail. His record sales plummeted and his rock’n’roll career never recovered.
Jerry Lee Lewis left Sun records in 1963 and moved to the Mercury subsidiary label Smash. There he reinvented himself as a country artist. This brought him renewed success, with 40+ country hits between 1964 and 1981.

EDDIE COCHRAN – LAST AMERICAN TOP-40 HIT
27 Oct 1958: Eddie Cochran – released C’mon Everybody.
Written by Eddie Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart, this was to be his third and last Billboard Top-40 hit. It peaked at #35 for just one week.

BUDDY HOLLY BECAME A SOLO ACT
…AND EMBARKED ON HIS ILL-FATED WINTER DANCE PARTY TOUR
late 1958: Buddy Holly – ended his management deal with Norman Petty.
The Crickets stayed with Petty, resulting in Buddy Holly becoming a solo artist.

23 Jan 1959: Buddy Holly – Winter Dance Party tour opened.
George Devine’s Ballroom, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin hosted the debut gig. Holly’s backing band comprised guitarist Tommy Allsup, drummer Carl Bunch and Waylon Jennings, playing bass guitar.
By the time that the Winter Dance Party reached the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, moral was very low indeed. The tour bus was regularly breaking down in the sub-zero temperatures of winter in America’s Mid-West. Drummer Carl Bunch suffered from frostbite on the tour-bus and was hospitalised after the concert at Duluth, Minnesota.
Holly decided that enough was enough and, to get away from the dreadful conditions on the tour bus, chartered a light aircraft to fly to Fargo, North Dakota for the next concert at nearby Moorhead, Minnesota. Holly’s backing musicians, Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup, were planning to accompany him on the flight to Fargo. But, fate took a hand and Waylon Jennings gave up his seat for the Big Bopper. Ritchie Valens “won” the flip of a coin and took Allsup’s seat. The plane took off shortly after midnight and on 3 February crashed a few miles out of Clear Lake, killing the pilot Roger Peterson and his three passengers.
It’s an ill wind… the tragedy launched the career of Fargo’s own Bobby Vee. When news broke of the crash, the search for local talent began. Fifteen-year-old Bobby Vee and his backing group the Shadows performed at Moorhead concert that evening.
Frankie Sardo and Dion continued on with the tour. They were joined by the new headliners Jimmy Clanton and teen idols Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Carl Bunch rejoined the tour a couple of days after crash.
It’s interesting to note that there were no Billboard Top-40 hits for the Crickets after Buddy Holly died.

CHUCK BERRY – THE END OF HIS CONTINUOUS STRING OF HIT SINGLES
May 1959: Chuck Berry – released Back in the USA c/w Memphis Tennessee.
Chuck Berry wrote both songs. This proved to be the last of his continuous year-on-year string of hits. Back in the USA peaked at #37, again just for a single week. Chuck Berry had seen chart entries every year, from 1955 to 1959.
He had three more Billboard Top-40 hits, all in 1964. His next appearance on the Billboard Top-40 chart was not until 1972, when My Ding-A-Ling gave Berry his only #1.

Oct 1964: Chuck Berry – released Little Marie.
This was a sequel to the story in Memphis Tennessee.

PAYOLA TOOK A HOLD – THE END FOR ALAN FREED
Payola was the practise of DJs taking payment for pushing new recordings or artists. This was widespread in the 1950s. As well as payments in the form of money or gifts, more subtle payment came from adding a DJ’s name to the writing credit for a song.

21 Nov 1959: Alan Freed – sacked by ABC.
His departure from the TV station came about after he refused to sign an affidavit saying that he had never promoted recordings in return for payment.
Alan Freed was one of highest profile DJs and made an ideal target for the House of Representatives subcommittee when it cracked down on payola in late-1959. Freed was arrested in May 1960 for receiving payments of over $30,000. In December 1962 he pleaded guilty and received a fine of $300 plus a six-month suspended sentence. He also had to pay massive legal costs. The experience broke Freed, his career was over. When he died on 20 January 1965 he was penniless and facing tax-evasion charges.

BY 1960 IT WAS VIRTUALLY ALL OVER…

THE EVERLY BROTHERS – SURPRISE CHANGE OF LABEL
8 Mar 1960: The Everly Brothers – first recording session for Warner Brothers.
The decade started well for the brothers, with a lucrative new record deal. Despite finding great success at Cadence, the Everly Brothers signed to Warner Brothers for a guaranteed $100,000-a-year-for-10-years deal. This is generally considered to be the industry’s first $1m deal.

Apr 1960: The Everly Brothers – released Cathy’s Clown
This was the brothers’ first single on Warner Brothers. Don and Phil took the writing credit and gave them a US #1 for 5 weeks. The single was also a great success in the UK, where it spent 7 weeks at #1.

18 Apr 1962: The Everly Brothers – released That’s Old Fashioned (That’s the Way Love Should Be).
This proved to be the end of their continuous year-on-year chart run and peaked at #9.
Their run of hits started in 1957. It ended in 1962 with That’s Old Fashioned, which was their 25th Billboard Top-40 hit.

FATS DOMINO
Sep 1963: Fats Domino – released Red Sails in the Sunset.
This peaked at #35 and was Domino’s 37th crossover hit. He’d found chart success in every year, from 1955 to 1963.
He had two more R&B hits after this, both in 1964.

WHAT REPLACED ROCK’N’ROLL?

In the late 1950s rock’n’roll took on a clean-cut image with teen idols such as Frankie Avalon, Bobby Vee and Ricky Nelson.

DANCE CRAZES
8 Aug 1960: Chubby Checker entered the Billboard Top-40 with his cover of The Twist, originally a Hank Ballard and the Midnighters 1959 B-side. This heralded a plethora of other dance crazes, the swim, the hully gully, the hitch-hiker, the watusi, the mashed potato, the jerk and a host of others.

WALL OF SOUND
11 Dec 1961: Phil Spector’s wall of sound arrived when the Crystals entered the Billboard Top-40 with There’s No Other (Like My Baby).

SURF MUSIC
15 Sep 1962: The Beach Boys entered the Billboard Top-40 with Surfin’ Safari. Other surf artists created the sounds of crashing waves, including Dick Dale, Jan and Dean…

The music continued to progress on both sides of the Atlantic. British skiffle and rock’n’roll morphed into beat music, which led to the British Invasion in 1964 and the birth of rock music in 1966. But that’s another story – or two…

In fact, for the story of how Merseybeat Groups Led the British invasion…