Rank the Big 6 '50s Rock n Rollers

By the Big 6 I mean Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, which I think is pretty much the decade's Rushmore, even though there are plenty of others I love.

From favorite to least favorite. For me, the order I'm most likely to listen to them at any given time:

Everlys
Berry
Richard
Holly
Presley
Lewis

without thinking very much

Holly
Presley
Little Richard
Everlys
Lewis
Berry

bo tho

Yeah, he was on the bubble. I listen to him more than half of these — see also Fats Domino — but don't feel like he had the same cultural presence?

Are we including their post-fifties work? If we do then I think Elvis gets my vote, but it’s pretty close between him, Little Richard, and Berry. I guess Dion is more of a 50s-60s cusper but I would put him over half these guys.

Lewis is my favorite post-50s

I haven't heard anything of the Everly Bros besides the big hits. Is there a good comp? Where's the best place to start?

Otherwise,

Little Richard
Elvis Presley
Chuck Berry
Buddy Holly
Jerry Lee

But I like all of them almost equally except Jerry Lee, who is fine but I appreciate his music more than I reach for it. Presley probably has the richest catalog, if I could only have one complete collection on a desert island it would probably be his. Little Richard would get old, but the best of his stuff smashes everything else.

This is so difficult. Lewis probaby has the fewest knockout singles, but he is responsible for the best live album I have ever heard (Star Club), if you're not familiar, listen now.

OK...

Presley
Chuck Berry
Buddy Holly
Little Richard (quality is A+ but not enough quantity)
Jerry Lee
Everlys

Bo Diddley (is God)
Little Richard
Chuck Berry
Buddy Holly
Elvis
Everly Brothers
Jerry Lee Lewis

If you can ignore quite a lot, Berry towers over everyone for me; the most personal enjoyment subjectively, the unmatched genius objectively. I've never been that big on Elvis, Little Richard, or Jerry Lee Lewis, except for a few songs (especially "The Girl Can't Help It"). So:

Berry
Holly
Everlys
(put a line under those three)
Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis (tie)

I'd actually put Bo Diddly third, between Holly and the Everlys.

Most of my favourite '50s music is doo-wop.

Chuck Berry
Elvis Presley
Little Richard
Jerry Lee Lewis
Buddy Holly
*about 500 other acts starting with Fats Domino and Carl Perkins and getting all the way down to Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee Riley*
the Everly Brothers

Going to recant on my three-way tie for fourth: because of The Sun Sessions, I'll put Elvis ahead of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis (both of whom have a couple of songs I love--the aforementioned "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille," "Lewis Boogie" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"--and many I'm tired of).

Never heard The Everly Brothers mentioned in the context of these other fellows. Did they ever even use an electric guitar?

I'd never really thought about that...They did help invent the Byrds, though, and they used electric guitars.

They themselves (the Everlys) didn't play them, but their session guys and members of their band certainly did.

Elvis Presley
Chuck Berry
Little Richard
Buddy Holly
Everly Brothers
Jerry Lee Lewis

Tough choices, especially when you are comparing their relatively compact formative works and not taking into account their subsequent careers (as applicable).

Based on their 50s work only

Chuck Berry
Little Richard
Elvis Presley
Buddy Holly
Everly Brothers
Jerry Lee Lewis

Everly Brothers would be much higher based on 60s work. I do like Jerry Lee Lewis but just not enough. Chuck Berry has more depth and variety in his catalogue than any of the others at this point.

Little Richard - voice
Elvis - sex
Jerry Lee Lewis - pumping piano
Chuck Berry - the great 28
Buddy Holly - not fade away
Everly Brothers - don't want no tears

I knew we had done a similar poll, took me a while to find.

Fifties Rock N Rollers POLL

(Coasters)
Holly
Berry
Penniman
(Diddley)
Everlys
Presley
(Domino)
Lewis
Ranked by how often I listen to them in last decade. Heartaches & Harmonies boxset opened up the Everly Bros to me. Never really got the appeal of Jerry Lee outside a few hits.

not including bo diddley is so incredibly wack

Berry
Lewis
Holly
Little Richard
Everlys
Presley

All my rankings are based on core work--whatever compilation is definitive--though I did extend that back to The Sun Sessions for Elvis. I know Elvis, Jerry Lee, and the Everlys did revered work--sometimes country--well into the late '60s, but I'm really looking at the earlier stuff. Which was not strictly '50s, though--Chuck Berry's window closes with the phenomenal St. Louis to Liverpool in '64.

Little Richard is the only one these that I play somewhat regularly. Hate to sound like an old fart, but today's indie/pop/rock world could use a healthy dose of the spirit of Rock n Roll Little Richard.

Excluding Bo Diddley is not a judgment on quality! But he had exactly one pop top 40 single ("Say Man," peaked at #20), compared to: Lewis, 4 (3 top 10s); Richard, 9 (4 top 10s); Berry 10 in the '50s alone, 5 of them top 10; Everlys, 14 in the '50s alone, 7 of them top 10; Holly, 8 (3 top 10s); and Elvis obviously too many to bother counting.

However on checking the charts Fats Domino had more top 40 hits (16 in the '50s) than all of them except Elvis, so apologies to Fats and this should actually be the Big 7.

I love Fats. He’s one of those guys like Bill Haley that I think are best remembered for a couple hits, and then you realize how many they actually had.

"By the Big 6 I mean Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, which I think is pretty much the decade's Rushmore, even though there are plenty of others I love."

Little Richard, Everly Bothers (i'm leaving the typo, I think it's funny), Chuck Berry, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis. I like Jerry Lee Lewis a lot as a musician - I just ranked him last for murdering his wife. I don't know that any of the others murdered anyone. Similarly I downranked Chuck Berry for being a creep. I didn't uprank Little Richard, but he was incredibly fucking queer and I really appreciate that. I think the Everly Brothers are massively underrated. Buddy Holly is second to last because I just don't think he's that great. He's nearly as famous for dying as he is for his music. I prefer Eddie Cochran, who also died but who isn't really famous for it, and Bill Haley. Bo Diddley is also a little overrated I think, but I'd rank him between Chuck Berry and Elvis.

Excluding Bo Diddley is not a judgment on quality! But he had exactly one pop top 40 single ("Say Man," peaked at #20), compared to: Lewis, 4 (3 top 10s); Richard, 9 (4 top 10s); Berry 10 in the '50s alone, 5 of them top 10; Everlys, 14 in the '50s alone, 7 of them top 10; Holly, 8 (3 top 10s); and Elvis obviously too many to bother counting.

However on checking the charts Fats Domino had more top 40 hits (16 in the '50s) than all of them except Elvis, so apologies to Fats and this should actually be the Big 7.

― paper plans (tipsy mothra)

yeah but Bo wrote Love is Strange

Berry
Holly
Richard
Presley
Everlys
Lewis

(Bo might've been my #1. And if this were a POX instead of a PO6, Mickey & Sylvia would surely have been among them.)

Little Richard
Elvis
Jerry Lee
Chuck
Buddy
Everlys (whose appeal mostly escapes me aside from the hits)

Almost all of these guys and many other mentioned (Fats, Bill Haley, Carl P) have great single disc compilations on the Bear Family label.

This would be Richard by a huge margin even if he didn't look like that.

I was actually just talking about this with a friend: I don't think anyone has really bettered Long Tall Sally or Tutti Frutti in however many years of rock n roll expansion. Maybe only Van Halen with Roth has come close to that. The way I feel about Richard's best songs is like Picasso @ Chauvet, "we have learned nothing".

Jerry Lee lewis is last, Idk I think the others are all "good to great" but I don't know how I'd rank 'em, ranking shit isn't my idea of a fun time, it makes my head hurt. you are all nuts.

He was the first artist I loved as a really little kid, then James Brown, the gulf between those two and everyone else is vast as far as I'm concerned.

Similarly I downranked Chuck Berry for being a creep

it honestly bothers me more that most of his best songs are celebrations of consumerism, and I mean that can't compete with gay sex.