Red, Hot and Blue


Dewey Phillips - Red, Hot and Blue

Related Lessons

lesson:
Rhythm and Blues Hit the Airwaves

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

How did Dewey Phillips and Hunter Hancock help bring Rhythm and Blues music to mixed race audiences?

Related People

people:
Dewey Phillips

(1926 – 1968) As the most popular radio disc jockey in Memphis in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Dewey Phillips was a trailblazer in several ways. He had a larger-than-life on-air persona that presaged later Rock and Roll DJs. In a segregated southern city he was a white DJ who played both black and white artists for an integrated audience. And he played a mix of styles – Blues, R&B, Country, Rockabilly, Gospel — that were the building blocks of what soon would be called Rock and Roll. Philips served in the Second World War, and when he returned to Memphis his desire...