Fifties Rock N Rollers POLL

Holly in a heartbeat.

A very tough choice between the first four for me.

Lots of these I like, but the only two I really love are Gene and Bo. Voting for Ellas Bates.

Bo's sense of humour just pushes him over the top for me.

It is definitely about the first four, but Bo's stacking his albums with goofy novelty songs is what ultimately gives it to Chuck Berry for me. Well, that and the insanity Berry was able to pull out of his guitar. I mean, you listen to punk players who built on his style - Steve Jones, Billy Zoom - and they're actually cleaner and less noisy than Berry was!

For insanity pulled out of one's guitar, I'd have to give it to Bo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEfz9VfFOKQ

I love Chuck, but he sure had his share of throwaways too - and his biggest hit was maybe the worst goofy novelty song of all time. Somehow Bo's goofs are a lot less grating than Chuck's corny stuff like "Hey There Anthony Boy" etc. But when he was on, he was as amazing a lyricist as a guitar player. I especially love his story-telling in songs like Promised Land and Nadine and Tulane. Great turns of phrase too.

No Roy Orbison?

He didn't really hit his stride until the 60s.

yeah, no hits for Roy in the 50's, though he recorded some sides for Sun back then. Ooby Dooby and Domino are amazing - but he's also just such a singular artist, I don't know if I'd even call some of his best stuff rock n roll - at least not much related to what it means in relation to the people in this poll.

Should I have included Elvis in here? I left him off thinking he'd sweep it and it wouldn't be that interesting a poll but maybe I'm wrong. Would Elvis have won this on ILM?

Buddy Holly, no question. The first record I asked my mom to buy me was "Peggy Sue." I was three.

Buddy Holly

Gene Vincent

Berry was probably the best songwriter of the bunch, followed by Holly, but it's his guitar playing that puts it over the top for me.

Little Richard
Bo Diddley
Chuck Berry

this is like the holy trinity for me right here, honestly feel bad choosing any of them over the others

Holly's good but I don't really listen to him much, the hiccuping vocal style gets kinda tired for me after awhile

Diddley probably my favorite all-around bandleader of the three - he had great taste in sidekicks: Jerome, Peggy, Willie fucking Dixon

Had to go with Chuck although Bo is a close second. From a hits stand point none of these guys can touch Mr. Berry.

yeah that's true about the hits

otoh Bo Diddley is Jesus

Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard

Bo Diddley
Chuck Berry

Buddy Holly
Fats Domino

Gene Vincent
Eddie Cochran (without the "e")
Carl Perkins

those 18 songs compilations by Lewis and Richard are basically the greatest albums ever

Wonder if anyone will make the case for Fats Domino. I only ever listened to his greatest hits, but I've got to admit I enjoyed it more three CD set of Jerry Lee Lewis or my double disc of Carl Perkins.

I was just gonna post, looks like I rate Fats higher than all y'all. Maybe not "the best" in this poll, but the one I have listened to the most.

everybody's seen this right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZHB3ozglQ

and this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMZjAOoX6nw

This is really hard! I think I'll go with Carl Perkins just because I read his bio and I think I know the most about him as a person and also I love his music, esp the really bouncy stuff.
I love all these dudes though. I was really into the 50s when I was a kid. it's the best music for dancing if you like bouncing around.

cuz i was born and raised in a… a butcher shop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqk2sPcF5r8&feature=kp

This is really tough. Not just because yesterday I had "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" stuck in my head. It's cool that even after all this time, if you go back and listen to the original rock n roll records, they are rawer and rock harder than 90% of everything that has come since.

Torn between Bo Diddley & Little Richard. I love all these guys though.

goddamn Dixie Fried is great

That '55 Diddley clip is so amazing.

i thought no one would vote perkins, so i did, but then i saw la lechera's post and i'm glad to know someone else did too!

looks like a diddley/holly/berry battle so far

1:17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBB5xLUpO4

It doesn't appear to be on youtube, but the joint interview with Berry, Diddley and Richard on the DVD of Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll is completely fascinating.

Just curious, but why no Everly Brothers? Too country?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ6h0kyqSRk&list=PLCCB856712819EEDD

My own personal pantheon would include Berry, Diddley, and Holly. (Also the Everlys.) Most of the rest have at least one song I completely love (e.g., "The Girl Can't Help It," "Lewis Boogie"), but overall, not nearly as many as the first three.

It doesn't appear to be on youtube, but the joint interview with Berry, Diddley and Richard on the DVD of Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll is completely fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcXnoZxvyDs

no real logic to leaving out the everlys, they just didn't spring to mind. all the rest are solo acts maybe?

For just one, I'll vote for Chuck. I wouldn't have included Orbison either. He had some good songs in the '50s, but the work he's famous for comes later. I would have included Johnny Cash, though I realize the lines between rock & roll/country and rock & roll/R&B (you could say Clyde McPhatter was as important as almost anyone on that list) are blurry.

Woo! Thanks, crüt!

saw both Chuck and Carl live in the '80s, goin w/ Chuck. Would loved to have seen Richard and JLL in their prime.

Ah, now that I watch that clip, I was thinking of the unedited interview which runs about 15 minutes or so. It's apparently only on the 4-DVD set (which is out of print).

I don't know, I thought about Cash but it seems like Johnny was pretty identifiably country (and self-identified as such) pretty early on - there's something really different rhythm and guitar-wise between most of his stuff and even someone as similar as Carl Perkins, seems to me anyway.

then again...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBLgtKVwptA

love most of these guys (i've barely heard any gene vincent, need to rectify that), but it's gotta be little richard. even if his 'great' period only lasted a couple years, he made probably the most joyous, life-affirming music i've ever heard. every time one of his songs comes up on my ipod i inevitably end up having to listen to 5 or 6 more.

This documentary about Gene Vincent's 1969 British tour is heartbreaking and brilliant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSDSand-6IY
(Though some of my love for it is as artefact of weird old shabby England)

Bill Haley!

Twenty years ago, I was listening to all these guys non-stop, and would have had a hard time choosing. But now Bo is clearly the visionary- I play his records and watch his clips the most. Just the totality of his sound, the way it blurs lyrics and chords and amplification and beats into a single rhythmic thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwBcuU7ii64

Bill Haley's later years area really depressing story

bo does seem to have the most avant garde approach to sonics, and he's the easiest to hear in stuff like vu and stooges

Holly for his songwriting vs. Diddley for his inventiveness vs. Vincent for his demeanour vs. Berry for his guitar (and again, songwriting). But the others are all great in their way too. Tough to pick only one.

Yeah, I was thinking Bill Haley should be here too. So much more to him than just "Rock Around the Clock" and "Shake, Rattle, and Roll"

Sitting in a restaurant humming Rock Around the Track hoping someone will recognize him. Sad stuff. Actually a great performer and musician gets overlooked by rock n' rollers because he still has a little bit of the big band era vibe about him. That and he wasn't the best looking of rockers.

Clock*

seriously? other than 13 Women he seems super corny. maybe i haven't heard the right stuff.

bo does seem to have the most avant garde approach to sonics

Definitely--I think all drone traces back to him.

xpost sorry - that sounded harsh re haley - I honestly haven't heard anything except two or three songs, i'll check him out

Buddy Holly.

I have more of an appreciation for sound than songs/singing, plus I do like a bit of novelty/weirdness, and Bo scratches those itches more than the others. What brio said, basically.

Don't think Elvis would've gotten more than a vote or two. He was the first one I was exposed to, naturally, and would've gotten my vote when I was 6-10 years old.

bendy where is that "Guitar Rebop" track from

It's Henry Flynt

http://www.discogs.com/Henry-Flynt-New-American-Ethnic-Music-Volume-3-Hillbilly-Tape-Music/release/1047232

bo does seem to have the most avant garde approach to sonics, and he's the easiest to hear in stuff like vu and stooges

― brio, Wednesday, April 30, 2014 12:50 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark

otm

Elvis was great in the '50s. Just in a different place and context, not largely of his doing.

He was great in the 50s, tremendous in the 70s. His voice had grown immeasurably in range and depth of feeling, and the TBC Band could not be fucked with. I love the Sun records, but much of his 70s work (particularly the live stuff) is among his (anyone's) best.

Elvis is kind of the least interesting formally to me, like he just seems like a conventional old-mold "crooner" type who managed to get grafted onto and ride the crest of rock n roll. He's still endlessly fascinating ("That's the Way it Was" is one of my all-time favorite musical performance docs) but I've never gotten the sense that he, personally, was musically on the level of any of these other dudes.

he def acknowledged his Dean Martin idolatry, which is OK with me

a long time ago i dated a guy who used to do elvis covers in his cover band (he played guitar) and the first time i saw them play it made me melt, like i just wanted to die when they played because it sounded so good. i had never heard those songs live before. he was an awful boyfriend but i will admit that he really knew how to rip it up 50s style.

he was an awful boyfriend but i will admit that he really knew how to rip it up 50s style.

probably true of all the poll options

Kinda hard not to be "cold" and "unfeeling" when you're dead, though.

Little Richard by about a million

Johnny Burnette is my favorite missing from this list. I've got the excellent Bear Family "Rocks" compilation for each but Bo (they haven't done one yet) and I'm going with Little Richard, whose 50s work is just so singular and far out that he must've scared every white bigot in the country.

motorik:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jmNe77vces

yeah I feel a bit like songwriting and sonics are being privileged a bit over the sheer presence and wildness of Little Richard and Jerry Lee. They kind of embody rock n roll in a way the others don't to me. Just the sense of abandon, showmanship, and freakiness in those two dudes has to count for something. I voted Bo , but now in terms of just pure rock n roll power I'm not sure if he ever deliver anything as explosive as Tutti Frutti or Breathless.

I really wrestled with my vote; went with Bo, but for the life of me I can't possibly imagine what it must have been like hearing Little Richard for the first time in 1955.

I have to pick up Shag on Down By the Union Hall. I hear that's one of Little Richard's best.

I've never gotten the sense that he, personally, was musically on the level of any of these other dudes.

this statement about elvis is immeasurably wrong.

on the Little Richard tip - he did some pretty amazing stuff in the 60's too - soul ballads like "I Don't Know What You Got" and stompers like "Baby Don't You Tear My Clothes". Maybe not relevent in terms of this poll but still so good.

Just the sense of abandon, showmanship, and freakiness in those two dudes has to count for something.

totally
also this poll totally put me in a good mood so thanks!

i've never been much into gene vincent tbh -- am i missing anything?

for guitar playing: bo

for songwriting: chuck

for singing: the everlys (though a lot of their greatness, including the sound of their voices, really blossomed in the '60s)

for rock and rollingness: bo or little richard

xpost
Oh yeah! Just get a solid Gene Vincent greatest hits, he's got tons to love you'd otherwise miss. Woman Love and Lotta Love are real dirty, and Bi I Bicky Bi Bo Bo BO! is catchy and nuts. His guitar player Cliff Gallup was on some outer space hillbilly jazz shit too.

Jerry Lee Lewis' beardo phase was hawt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RHpX76Ly94

Jerry Lee Lewis was my crush of shame at one point.

His own cousin couldn't resist him. What chance do those outside his family have?

i just went back and looked at the other youtubes itt and everybody's seen this right NO

people say they don't understand what made young girls go completely batshit but it's kind of obvious in that performance

There's a reason The Birthday Party and The Fall have covered Gene Vincent.

No doubt as to who Eric Burdon would choose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8t387oPwQI

Yeah, Cat Man was such a perfect song for the Birthday Party to cover - obviously a big influence.
Better hide your sister, man!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuYWvounKck

gene vincent, but a hard choice

what do you have to do embed youtube vids now?

just remove the s after http

people say they don't understand what made young girls go completely batshit but it's kind of obvious in that performance

^ & the high-pitched audience screams in old rock and roll videos are fucking unreal

this statement about elvis is immeasurably wrong.

I'm loathe to make this whole poll about Elvis but... he just seems to have done a different thing and played a different role than these other dudes. He's not much of a guitar player. He's not a songwriter. He doesn't have a SOUND the way some of these guys (esp Bo and Chuck) do. He had a phenomenally expressive voice (which is why I called him out as more in the mold of a traditional crooner), altho I agree with Tarfumes that he applied it with more facility in the 70s.

but as a live performer, especially in the 50's, he kind of blew them all away

also not sure about the "he doesn't have a SOUND" thing - Sun sessions Elvis most definitely has a sound, as does later Scotty oore + Jordanaires stuff

oh I dunno about that re: live performance

I guess how I think of it is some of these other guys (Bo, Chuck, JLL, Little Richard) seem like forces of nature, they sprang forth fully formed, so to speak. whereas when I listen to Elvis' 50s stuff, I hear the synthesis, I can see the seams in the stitching. It's still great, but in a different way.

xp

yeah I see the point you're making there about how visible the country/r&b/pop synthesis thing is in the early stuff - but I guess it's kind of subjective then because I totally hear a force of nature thing happening there at the same time

and as far as who was the best performer, I know competition is fierce here but
http://www.missumgs.dk/SirCliffShadows/ElvisPresley/ElvisPresley/ElvisLive54.jpg

to me, the suggestion that elvis isn't on the musical level as the others gets into a wider argument -- which probably doesn't need to be had on this thread -- about whether a pure vocalist is a musician or not. to me, the answer is a slam-dunk yes, but opinions vary on that, obviously. but elvis in any case had some guitar facility and some piano facility -- though he was certainly not a chuck berry on the former or a jerry lee on the latter -- and his vocal chops were as good as any in popular music in the past 60 years. and, more important to this particular argument, he had absolute command of his best records in the same way that, for example, pure vocalist michael jackson had absolute command of his.

as for the seams in his stitching, yeah, his blues and pop and country and crooner roots were all obvious, but i'm not sure they were any more obvious than, say, bo diddley's blues and latin roots or buddy holly's country and rockabilly roots.

Not only that, but he was kind of a de facto producer on some of his biggest records.

he had absolute command of his best records in the same way that, for example, pure vocalist michael jackson had absolute command of his

vocalists are absolutely musicians but lol yeah you ain't gonna get very far with me with MJ comparisons, who I consider vastly overrated

What was the title of this thread again?

imo elvis in the sun era is every bit as interesting and idiosyncratic and original musically as any of these guys, tho it's maybe got as much to do with scotty moore, sam phillips et al as with elvis. even his approach to ballads ('blue moon' especially) was very different then, nothing like the more straightforward crooner-y approach he took later on.

What was the title of this thread again?

Bo Diddley is Jesus

The people who are making this about Elvis are the haters, not the fans, and they should be making arguments in favor of their favorites I sets is essentially derailing.

This is my favorite '50s rock and roll song not by someone listed above (including, maybe, Elvis...would have to think about that):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDyeePUXN18&feature=kp

Between "La Do Dada" and "Susie Q," I'd probably take Hawkins over Eddie Cochran.I

bo diddley is jesus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxXQYtBa65Y

Almost voted for Berry, but then I watched a couple of those Bo youtubes and now I'm not sure.

i don't think it's weird to spend a little time on elvis in a thread about '50s rockers! plus, it's a convenient way to avoid making the impossible choice that the thread presents.

Considering voting for pretty much every artist here except the first and the last. For me Jerry Lee's wildman antics often overshadow the records. As far as Fats, feel like the New Orleans thing was done better by Little Richard and all the artists that didn't have so many hits- Benny Spellman, Ernie K-Doe, Chris Kenner, The Showmen, to name a few, plus Richie Cunningham ruined "Blueberry Hill" for me for life.

So much ruining with all these guys

Ha, exactly. One reason I'm thinking of voting for Carl Perkins.

crüt otm with that video. Was just recommending that movie and trying to describe that very scene.

James Redd, I don't know what to say. You've probably heard those artists more than me. I know "Mother-in-Law" and "Lipstick Traces" and "It Will Stand" and "I Like It Like That." I don't perceive a world where Fats Domino is not top drawer.

(Not to say those other records are not also top drawer, naturally.)

Bria's Elvis photo says it all, but I'm sure there are Berry and Little Richard fans who think they were more important to Rock's birth than Elvis. But I would have voted Elvis every time.

bo diddley just barely over chuck berry and fats domino. woulda voted elvis pretty easily.

http://www.geni.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/birthcertificate_original-600x489.jpg

http://www.elvisinfonet.com/image-files/Elvis_Presley_grave.jpg

Don't think I knew or forgot that

• Vernon's middle name was Elvis
• Gladys's maiden name was Love and first name was misspelt on the birth certificate

Sorry *middle* name was Love.

I'm glad Elvis isn't among the options, even though, like MBJ, I'm a much bigger fan of his work starting with From Elvis in Memphis. The '50s stuff is undeniably great, but doesn't have the twitchy, bug-eyed insanity that also-rans like Charlie Feathers and Sonny Burgess had. Anyway, still definitely voting for Chuck Berry. I really need to get those Hip-O boxes of his complete Chess recordings one of these days when I've got a few hundred bucks to spare.

xpost according to that document, you were right the first time.

BO DIDDLEY has won my heart and I can never give it to another.

Interesting point on the rockabilly also-rans over Sun-era Elvis - much like how the wildest 60's rock n roll came from the garage bands, not the Beatles and Stones. Not necessarily "better" but definitely more bug-eyed, twitchy and insane. Been listening to Sonny Burgess a lot lately, and Ain't Got a Thing and Red-headed Woman definitely hold their own with any of the best of the guys in this poll.

Poll is too difficult

these guys are all great, I guess for pure impact Bo, CB, Rich and JLL are the kings

Love Sonny Burgess. Ald although he didn't record much, every Joe Clay song I've heard is incredible.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UP93tRdP89g/Uz2_3uH4UVI/AAAAAAAABeY/BdcG7B-Lyug/s1600/genevincent1958_Yakima_Washington_2Small.jpg

Gene Vincent, people!

Hard to believe we made it this deep into a 50's rock convo without a Link Wray mention. I'm really only familiar with "Rumble", but he's got to have his fans around these parts.

Yeah Link Wray's a genius.

I think that's one of those cases where "genius" is a term way too easily thrown around. Genius implies intellect to me, and I think Wray's greatness comes from an instinctive, almost subconscious zone.

ie. he's a genius

But yeah it's a shame he never learned calculus and theoretical physics and ended up designing rockets for the military industrial complex. You know, genius stuff.

is that some kind of jokey reference to Skunk Baxter

Baxter Stockman

But yeah it's a shame he never learned calculus and theoretical physics and ended up designing rockets for the military industrial complex. You know, genius stuff.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, May 1, 2014 11:51 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://pixel.nymag.com/content/dam/daily/vulture/2013/08/23/23-thomas-pynchon.jpg

oops, sorry about the size (thomas pynchon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8de10hR6Xho

Sorry for continuing to derail this.

Thought it was Ray Charles who was known as The Genius.

lol at Pynchon photo.

Genius is pain
-Bob MarleyKurt VonnegutDr. Winston O'Boogie

Hard to believe we made it this deep into a 50's rock convo without a Link Wray mention. I'm really only familiar with "Rumble", but he's got to have his fans around these parts.

― DavidLeeRoth, Thursday, May 1, 2014 11:34 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was just listening to Link's version of "Ain't That Lovin' You Babe" and thinking hey, he should be in this thread!

I mean, ffs, in the midst of all the hysteria and pearl-clutching over "juvenile delinquency," he managed to get an instrumental song of his banned.

Did he do the vocals on "Ain't That Lovin' You Babe"?

Did you think I was disparaging Wray because I thought you were misusing the term "genius"?

Saw Link Wray live in 1997 and it was completely awesome. Meanwhile, "Let's go, cats!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqk2sPcF5r8

Hidden Charms is the Link vocal face-melter for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBAl52LTiAE&feature=kp

xpost WilliamC, no not at all. I just think we have two different definitions for the word.

But yeah it's a shame he never learned calculus and theoretical physics and ended up designing rockets for the military industrial complex. You know, genius stuff.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, May 1, 2014 11:51 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thought it was Ray Charles who was known as The Genius.
lol at Pynchon photo.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, May 1, 2014

LOL at the B. Traven screen name...
(Pynchon worked for Boeing before his writing career took off)

Speaking of which, surely Ray Charles is the massive omission here...?

(Also: Johnnie Ray)

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/04/140501_CBOX_LRonHubbard.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg

L Ron Hubbard

I don't know about Ray Charles, he's like Johnny Cash - related and important to Rock N Roll but outside it

Another omission, seriously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttMt9SHRwsM
If you don't believe me, ask John Fogerty or Greil Marcus.

where's Hasil Adkins

Sorry I dont mean to belabor the whole "...but who got left OUT???" angle. I've v recently been getting into a lot of this stuff, and it is absolutely great.

Tempted to go w Fats bcz The Fat Man is v possibly the first rock song (though Louis Jordan's Saturday Night Fish Fry gives it a run for its money imo)

Listening to "Fujiyama Mama" by Wanda Jackson right now. I hate to keep tossing names into the thread especially when they aren't more important than the poll choices, but there's so many great early rockers.

0:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Q-CGSPaso

Woah.

Nobody cuts the Killer.

I dunno who the high school marching band in that clip is but lol

i don't know enough about post-50s bo, but is JLL the only one here who might actually have done most of his best stuff after the 50s? sun era's great of course but his later country stuff is incredible.

yeah I dig JLL's country shit, he does a beautiful version of I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

bo did really good stuff all through the sixties, pretty different but gives Jerry lee a run for his money post-50's.
1970 Bo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ki6Fj4I6cc

yeah Bo's peak is probably between '58-'65 or so. and I love those ridiculous 70s funk albums he did but they're kind of a different beast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdy_nZ7abZE

are there any recordings earlier than "Lucille" that have straight eighths played on the hi-hat + snare on the 2 and 4? it seems like the first example of something that has become Rock Drumming 101

always thought black gladiator wass kind of the cut-off for pure gold, but I haven't heard a ton of later stuff

also also also no one's mentioned Johnny Otis in the also-ran/excluded pile :( way underrated

as the proprietor of https://twitter.com/BoDiddleyBeat, i feel obligated to vote for bo.

plus, as mentioned more than once above, he is jesus.

I don't know about Ray Charles, he's like Johnny Cash - related and important to Rock N Roll but outside it

genre boundaries are extremely fluid and subjective things, though.

Latest Bo I heard was 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll which I bought because Keith Moon is on it. Come to find out Moon only plays tambourine, and it's a pretty boring all-star session.

Tempted to go w Fats bcz The Fat Man is v possibly the first rock song (though Louis Jordan's Saturday Night Fish Fry gives it a run for its money imo)
No, this one from 1928:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wquFkHOhIL4

that song/recording is killer

my dad saw Bo Diddley in the late 50s and swears he ate a cigar onstage...best show he saw in 40 years of concert going

Very hard choice, but went for Bo
some of my faves already posted. Best insults on vinyl here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ZdKCFFR3I

Chuck Berry's singles discography is voluminous. Distinct classic after distinct classic. There would have to be some major deep cut realization with any of the other artists to make me vote for one of them.

It's probably not in the spirit of the poll, but I voted for Buddy Holly because, more than any of the others, he was a real bridge to the '60s. Had he lived, I suspect his best work was ahead of him.

Hail, hail, it's Chuck for me.

Shouldn't Link Wray be on this poll?

Couldn't really vote - lots of love for all in the list, including Eddie Cochran and Fats Domino who haven't been talked about on here that much.

Kinda love seeing so many of these guys' clips on youtube. I have spent the odd hour or two every now and then just flicking through those performances on decayed B&W.

I think the poll choices are right- the likes of Link Wray, Wanda Jackson or Johnny Burnette didn't really have a big profile in the 50s, not like these guys. Elvis was an order of magnitude bigger culturally, though maybe not artistically. Vocal groups like Everly Brothers or Coasters didn't have the songwriting chops. Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Ike Turner feel like guys who recorded great rock songs, but were to the side of the genre overall. The guys on this list are the key ones who influenced the rock-era garage bands and beat groups.

Also, everyone in this group seems like they were a weirdo, which is essential. Weirdos who got careers out of it (though maybe not royalties.)

The long tail is very very long for early r 'n' r, and since it wasn't an album genre at that point, one fantastic track could make a performer feel legendary later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxt_7sD9znM&feature=kp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrOqqKO7tBE

Always loved Ray Smith from those Sun rockabilly comps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyTZ2Pkb9cA&feature=kp

That ain't rockabilly, BTW. This is closer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkh1eBUviKs

Just read Bendy's interesting post above. The choices for the poll are just fine--there's no formula that will generate a precise list. But for what it's worth, I would put Cochran and Vincent to the side of the other seven. I think of them as guys who became legendary largely because of dying young (really young in Cochran's case), because of one (Vincent) or maybe three (Cochran) songs, and primarily in England at that.

Some good posts yesterday and today, especially from Tim and Hideous Lump. Remember coming up being constantly surprised by hearing another cover of another as-yet-unheard Chuck Berry song and it being just as good as the ones I already knew. Will flack again for the documentary The Real Buddy Holly Story. in which Keith Richards talks about what a big inspiration Buddy Holly was because he had a self-contained unit, writing and playing the songs- "he had the whole package" I think is what he said. Also some nice stuff from the Everlys about their friendship with up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSDMRjBjKIg

vincent and cochran should come after ricky nelson imo

I'm torn between Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis....but i think it has to be Jerry Lee for me. Playing the shit out of the piano like that in a time when everyone was picking up guitars, and making the piano sound dangerous and exciting -- and that voice!! still gets me jazzed whenever I listen to it. and i love his country stuff too, its really good. yeah. its the Killer for me.

Gene's lead guitarist, Cliff Gallup, unjustly ignored itt

You will get no argument from me on that.

Although you left out his honorific: "Galloping" or "Gallopin'" Cliff Gallup.

Great thread, love all the love. Recommend watching through the Hail Hail Rock & Roll clip crut posted and into the next chapter - long, poorly-told but wonderful anecdote from Bruce Springsteen.

This is Chuck for me for the sheer size of the 'stone cold classics' pile - not sure anybody else here can sustain a Great Twenty-Eight of perfectly hooky, earwormy songs - although I like everybody here quite a bit. Fats and Jerry are the only ones where I'd be 100% satisfied owning just a cheap shitty 10-track greatest hits.

Bo is maybe cooler than Chuck, but I'm not sure I'd say he's necessarily sonically more ambitious, just closer to lots of later ILM-friendly weirdo music. It's easy to forget that before Chuck Berry, rock and roll guitar didn't have a standard sound yet, and Chuck's songs weren't yet the default sourcebook for meat-and-potatoes bar bands. So I suspect both guys had to sound like equally bizarre, wonderful, where-the-fuck-did-this-come-from kinds of music. TS: Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" vs. Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" gets into all this a bit I think.

Is the Springsteen story about playing as Chuck's backup but nobody knowing the keys of any of the songs except one guy who was "the historian of the band"?

Yeah! And Chuck showing up minutes before showtime, by himself, just starting into his set and expecting the band to know what's up.

Consistent with this practice I believe he is also in the 0.001% of guitarists who actually enjoy checking their instrument at the airport to let it fly in the hold and then upon arrival watching it arrive on the conveyor belt at the other end to see if it is in one piece.

Maybe the fourth or fifth gig I ever paid to see was Chuck Berry. The local pick up band played for a while, then out comes Chuck duck walking. Plays Johnny B. Good, Maybelline, a few others, on guitar. Waves at us and leaves the stage after twenty minutes, tops. Probably 17 minutes. Everyone clapped and chanted for him to come out, but after 10 minutes of that, it turned into a chant of "What the fuck Chuck". I think he was long gone by then.

Crazy great on guitar, that should have read.

xpost lol

I got to see Jerry Lee Lewis in 2007...he could hardly walk, and even just sitting at the piano looked like it was causing him considerable pain. I wasn't really sure what we were going to get when he came out but man, even while his whole body was betraying him & he had to sit practically rigid he played the shit out of every song, just the ultimate showman. I'm really glad I got to see him.

Yeah! And Chuck showing up minutes before showtime, by himself, just starting into his set and expecting the band to know what's up.

I read an interview with Chuck where he said that his only instructions (or words of any kind) to his pick-up bands are, "When I put my foot down, start; when I put it down again, stop."

All of them were great and while I think Bo Diddley had more attitude, you got to go with Chuck Berry. The guy had just a huge catalog with songs and when paired with his guitar playing you pretty much have the foundation for nearly every rock band that followed. It's possible that Berry's bust and the odd turns and peculiarities of his attitude towards music might somewhat obscure what he did in a few short years, but the guy laid our the rock band DNA. Just his influence on the Stones and then the Stones shadow alone is pretty huge.

Bo Diddley definitely had the attitude, hell "Who Do You Love" might have invented metal and punk right there, but he doesn't have that body of songs like Chuck Berry. Bo and Link Wray never lost the attitude and made cool ass music whether the world bought it or not all the way home.

Buddy Holly was also a singer/songwriter on an electric guitar, but he didn't have the blues in the same way.

I think Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis were much more dynamic performers but the sax/piano sound really didn't make it out of the 50s as "the" sound of rock and roll.

The other guys are great, but they just don't have quite the same profile.

Little Richard by a shriek over Chuck Berry.

Also love Bo Diddley, but I will play Little Richard more than the rest combined.

I love Chuck, but he sure had his share of throwaways too - and his biggest hit was maybe the worst goofy novelty song of all time.

Way upthread but btw I think this is unfair and maybe not accurate - highest chart peak yeah but surely some of the early ones were bigger hits in terms of sustained chart/jukebox presence? Dunno if I'd rate My Ding-a-Ling that low in the canon of goofy novelty songs anyway, and if you bring that in it's also fair to consider his 60s singles, several of which are substantial additions to the rock library (No Particular Place To Go, Nadine, You Never Can Tell...).

Would there ever have been Roxy Music, glam rock, or New Wave without Little Richard?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Hard to call how ILX will go on this one - much solid championing of the first five and some of the underdogs here.

It's between Bo and Fats for me. Will probably vote Fats just because he seems way underrated in this thread.

Bo will probably take it by a nose.

Went Buddy over Chuck, but man , Chuck Berry ...

the good thing is there really is no wrong answer here

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Should have voted for Eddie instead of Carl.

One of the earlier guys to do multitracking, always nice to the session men, at least according to Earl Palmer, wrote and performed some great, clever tunes, novelty or otherwise, mainly in that comedic 50s put-upon teenager vein.

I'm quite comfortable with my winning vote. Really, ladies bathroom cameras be damned, he's truly the end-all-be-all of ROCK AND ROLL. I just changed from Celtic Frost 'To Mega Therion' to Great 28 with nary a blink. I've got a few buds that went through that whole 80s State Fair Circuit-Know-The-Hits-Watch-Chuck-Get-His-Wad-of-Cash-And-Goddamnit-Watch-Him-On-The-Changes-On-'My-Ding-A-Ling'-bullshit, dammit if those weren't great ROCK AND ROLL shows. Shit, every major label at the time screwed him, and yet he is paragon of USA ROCK. I had the most surreal day in St. Louis once when I caught a late night Tivoli showing of David Lynch's 'Lost Highway,' and then walked to his club to see him perform & chat & get an autograph, and then take a train to an unrequited love in a downtown hotel. Those memories of seeing him give smoking performances still certainly balance out the recent New Years show in Chicago where I'm pretty sure he had a minor stroke on stage. (Yes I know he hasn't been too hot live for many years, but let a rockist have his fun).

No qualms with the win, place and show, just a wee bit disappointed about the shutout. Maybe it's because his name was misspelled? Anyway, time for a new screenname.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyU5bsfRdpE

Surprised JLL is so low, and maybe that Gene Vincent is that high, otherwise everything more or less what I expected. Lot of votes, heartening--I've been saying for the past couple of years that '50s rock and roll is slowly vanishing from (excuse me here) the discourse, and that I'm guilty myself.

Come to my house Clemenza, where it pretty much IS the discourse. Even tonight, when I'm listening to The Blasters and Ten Years After. They both owe a ton to all these dudes. We all do.

i'm not sure the blasters owe a ton to '50s rock and rollers so much as they *are* '50s rock and rollers for all intents and purposes.

and of course friend-of-the-blasters billy zoom played for a short time with our #5 vote-getter, gene vincent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgQg4ze1_KU

The intro to this is sick. Noise/Punk/Krautrock

I forgot to vote in this. May have gone with Bo, as out of all these guys he's the one I listen to most now. But I was mentally preparing a passionate defense of Fats Domino back when debate was raging. I would have touched on the length of his heyday; the virtual hit assembly line he had going with Dave Bartholomew; his great bands; and how strongly the rhythms of his later Imperial stuff forecast ska and rocksteady.

That most recent Beatles book, about their early history, has a couple of great epiphanies, the first where all the guys hear, separately, Elvis, and go bonkers for him, the second where Paul next hears Little Richard and then totally loses his shit, especially when he realizes he can shriek like that, too.

Best boxed set over?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G8BeKemGL._SY300_.jpg

I can also listen to the entire Golden Age of Rock and Roll series all day.

Wow, surprised Jerry Lee took such a beating.

The "Hail Hail" clip above is revealing also in showing how easy it used to be to go though airport security.

I can get behind those results, but Eddie Cochran deserves at least one vote. "20 Flight Rock" man!

Great results, hard to argue with for the most part. Jerry Lee remains the all-time rock n roll underdog, I guess. Also a little surprised Bo didn't do better given all the praise in this thread - but Chuck definitely deserves the crown.

Of course, Jerry Lee is the guy who recorded both "Born To Lose" and "Born To Be A Loser" so results fit with his own mythology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9-eEqACkh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ynVJPu_dI

and "You Win Again"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6JPzGIVB7M

I feel like Cochran getting shut out is mostly due to the demographics of poll voters - he was big shit in England but nobody at home gave a fuck about him, was always my impression.

And yeah, that Loud, Fast & Out of Control box is great. So is the sequel, Rockin' Bones.

JLL definitely underrepresented in these poll results -- Gene Vincent ain't that hot, y'all.

i voted for chuck berry but i feel bad for jerry lee now

I think it's actually kind of great. Jerry Lee's whole schtick is about sneering contempt at the world for not recognizing him as the one true king. Nice to see it justified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6BUHsHRRYk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6BUHsHRRYk

Great thread, which I wish I'd seen sooner. Lots of great one-shots on various Sun collections; check Ike Turner in the 50s (incl. on Sun); ditto Cash, with all his Sun tracks released as a series of albums a few years back (on his MySpace and maybe Spotify too, come to think of it): he's already assimilating rock & roll into his own thang, as is Charlie Rich. Link Wray, on the other hand, is rock & roll.

xpost Rockin Bones not really a sequel, just focuses on mostly obscure rockabilly cuts. Still great, though!

Wanda Jackson's Complete Capitol Singles has all the lemon-squeezers and weepers too (the latter label-mandated, albeit insincere-sounding apologies for the former, Ah suspect).

the xpost Everys were and are p crucial. The harmonies linking great country brother tradition/innovation to Beatles, Byrds, etc., and also, their singles producer Chet Atkins bragged about slipping Diddlyesque guitar(in)to the Pat Boone fans, with who knows whut-all results.

I wish C Grisso wouldve posted about Fats. I feel bad for how I kinda mounted a throwaway defense. Feels like without Fats and Lloyd Price, there's no Little Richard...

Correction: the xpost Wanda Jackson collection I was thinking of is actually The Best of The Capitol Classic Singles, on Omnivore/Universal, 2013. The ballads make it uneven, but they get better, and the rockabilly tracks are even more startling by contrast.

Holy smokes, how have I never heard Jimmy Wages until today? This is amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGcs8Q_AOA4

woah - first time hearing this for me too, thanks!

He got talked up a bit and this song was posted in a different 1950s thread, but I hadn't seen it. I listened to this three times in a row today, along with everything else I could find by him. There isn't much, the few songs he recorded for Sun were never released.

We don't really have a better thread for the ridiculously obscure 50s rock I love, so I'm gonna just post this here. Gotta love both the name Chewing Ray and the title "Little Boogie Ding Dong." (This seems like a rewrite of "Giddy Up A Ding Dong" by someone who's maybe not a native English speaker?) I can't figure out most of the words, or the country of origin (and is that an accordion in the background?), but this just swings like nuts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjb5IUtRekQ

I'm not going to poll this, since it would only get a handful of votes. I'm currently reading Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock and Roll and came across this:

In 1958 Alan Freed started his first "Big Beat" Tour headlined by Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Frankie Lymon, but it crashed head-on with Irvin Feld's Biggest Show of Stars for 1958, starring Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson... Another tour featuring The Midnighters, the 5 Royales, Bo Diddley, Etta James and Little Willie John, threw in the towel after a week.

Three amazing line-ups; given a time machine, which would you see? (fwiw Domino was tired of eighty day tours by that time and declined the Big Beat tour, although it bears the name of one of his songs.)

ahem

haha so otm.

Yeah, this went over about as well as I thought it would. I was mostly just marvelling at that third bill, which I don't imagine was planned for predominantly white venues, but man... Hank Ballard, prime period Bo and Etta, Lowman Pauling!

Oh, this is easier than you might think it would be. Seeing Sam Cooke sing live would be it for me. What else would be left to do? What could top that?

Yeah, I'd pick the Sam Cooke tour. Not only would Sam be gone in a few years, but also Clyde and Jackie.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Frankie Lymon

never heard of frankie, but the rest of that line up would easily seal if for me.

of for the chance to see the killer in his prime years ..

Only one of these is a the godfather

Surprised to find that Fats Domino is younger than Chuck Berry, always thought he was much older.