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The British Invasion
video:
The British Invasion
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Ahmet Ertegun And The History Of Atlantic Records
"WHEN I FIRST started Atlantic Records," reflects the label founder, Ahmet Ertegun, "I intended to make good blues and jazz music, as well as some pop music. My main interest was in jazz and blues." In the nearly 45 years since Ertegun and his original partner Herb Abramson first got together with this idea (and $10,000 from Ertegun's dentist), Atlantic has become one of the most consistently successful companies in music. So much the paradigm of the post WWII growth of the music business, Charlie Gillett used them for his model in his chronicle, Making Tracks. "The late 50s were a time...
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Jan and Dean: You Don’t Come Back from Dead Man’s Curve
OKAY, ALL you, out there. How many of you remember Jan and Dean? If they weren't the great innovators of surf music, they were at least the second in line... the only people who ever shut them down were the Beach Boys. Of course, there were other surfing bands, the Ripcords, Ronnie and the Daytonas, the Surfaris, the Rivingtons and even the Trashmen. But these were no competition. If they weren't an amalgam of Jan, Dean or members of the Beach Boys, they were invariably recording either a Beach Boys or a Jan and Dean tune. Jan and Dean had a...
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Pat Boone: Boone In The USA
LET'S PLAY the numbers game. According to Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1986, Pat Boone is the fifth highest-ranking artist in the history of theBillboard singles charts. Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, James Brown and Stevie Wonder were more successful (based on the number of singles charting and their positions). In the '50s, only Elvis was more popular, chart-wise, than Boone. Pat Boone reached the singles charts 60 times, putting him at #8 on that list. Six of those chart singles reached #1, spending a total of 21 weeks in that position, putting Boone in two more Top 10 lists. So much for...
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The American Blues in Britain
In what ways did American Blues affect English musicians in the early 1960s?
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The Rolling Stones: Giving America Back the Blues
How did the early Rolling Stones help popularize the Blues?
people:
The Kinks
In their first two decades, the Kinks went from playing raw, R&B-influenced Rock and Roll to recording nuanced, experimental concept albums to becoming arena rockers, along the way wracking up numerous hit singles and cementing their status as one the most influential bands to emerge from the British Rock scene of the 1960s. The Kinks formed in the suburbs of London as brothers Ray Davies (lead vocals/guitar) and Dave Davies (lead guitar) moved from family sing-alongs to playing Rock and Roll and Skiffle at school dances and eventually gigs in local pubs. After various name changes and short-lived lineups (including...
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The Four Seasons: Ten Years And Still Hanging On
IN AUGUST LAST YEAR Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons celebrated ten years as one of the most successful recording groups America has ever produced. Their total world record sales now stand somewhere between 80 and 90 millions. Well below the Beatles, but higher than many more consistent artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Creedence Clearwater. But in the rush to document everybody who trod a recording studio floor from 1950 onwards the Four Seasons seemed noticeable by their lack of attention. Maybe as Nik Cohn points out in his definitive book Wopbopaloobop alopbamboom (Paladin) they were such a...
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Lennon and McCartney: Songwriters — A Portrait from 1966
IT IS NOW ABOUT A DOZEN YEARS since the pop music revolution – since Alan Freed began to play, instead of soupy white imitations, straight rhythm and blues in New York and called it rock'n'roll; since Wild Bill Haley and his Comets roared to the top of the Top Ten with 'Shake, Rattle and Roll'; since the advent of the 45 rpm record and the post-war prosperity stretched that Top Ten into the Top 40, and even the Top 100. Despite adult accusations of the sameness of all the bleating sounds, pop has changed many times in those years. Those...
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The Rolling Stones: How It Happened
By 1963, The Rollin' Stones lacked only a "g" and a manager. Enter Andrew Loog Oldham, 19-year-old music publicist and soon-to-be Stones Svengali... Andrew Loog Oldham: "In early 1963 I was doing public relations on a freelance basis for The Beatles and some other Brian Epstein acts. Contrary to popular opinion, I wasn't looking for anything else to do. I was a very happy man. One day, I went to see Peter Jones ofRecord Mirror, trying to sell him something, probably an Epstein act, but he wasn't interested, He kept talking about this other group, they were still called The Rollin'...
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Muddy Waters
(1915 – 1983) A Mississippi native who rose to prominence in Chicago in the early 1950s, Muddy Waters is one the most esteemed figures in Blues, and a seminal figure in the postwar electrification of acoustic Delta Blues. He was a major influence on many Rock musicians of the 1960s, revered in particular among players who made up the British Blues scene. Waters was born McKinley Morganfield in 1915, and raised on the Stovall Plantation in the Delta town of Clarksdale, Mississippi. At age five Waters began to play harmonica and as a teen he taught himself guitar, emulating the style...
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Lonnie Donegan
(1931 – 2002) Singer-guitarist-banjoist Lonnie Donegan is a key figure in the foundation of British Rock and Roll. In 1954, long before Rock reached the British Isles, the Scottish-born Londoner created Skiffle, an upbeat acoustic variation on American blues and folk that made Donegan a major star. Donegan’s infectious music and exuberant performing style captured the imaginations of a generation of young English boys. That generation included John Lennon and Paul McCartney — whose skiffle group the Quarrymen evolved into the Beatles — along with many of the performers who would populate the British Invasion. As a teenager in the post-World...
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Amy Winehouse
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The Rise of Disco
How did Disco relate to the sentiments and social movements of the 1970s?
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The Who’s Generation
How did the Who represent “My Generation” in mid-1960s England?
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David Bowie: Freak Out In A Moonage Daydream
AYLESBURY, ENGLAND. He is, as he had planned, magnificent. The stage appears impeccably struck, lights arranged to catch the finer angles of his face, making him seem at times wonderfully ape-like and primitive, at others supremely regal, capable of the grand gesture now and again. The band stands behind him in a shock of silver reflections, each part steadily notching its integral role – lead guitar flashy, but always a foil; bass hung back just a stride or two to let you hint the presence; drums anonymous, but precise, punctuating, emphatic. There is never any question of whether they will...
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Chess Records: The Original Blues Brothers
"WOW, YOU guys are really getting it on!" exclaimed Chuck Berry, observing the Rolling Stones cut 'Down The Road Apiece', a track he'd recorded himself just a few years earlier. It was June, 1964, and this youthful British beat band were happily messing around at the Chess studio in Chicago as their older black musical idols watched on, intrigued. In the background Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson argued loudly about a woman from Kentucky. Muddy Waters, whose song 'Rollin' Stone', had supplied the English band with its moniker, even helped them bring in their equipment. Later on, they chatted...
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Frankie Lymon: Why Do Fools Fall In Love?
Black vocal groups once sang for enjoyment on street-corners throughout ghettos in each of the big American cities. Late into the night they harmonised together, sublimating a frustration which exploded by day. Zip-gun safely stored in the cistern, a Harlem teenager could leave his decaying tenement and join others for an acapella session in a dingy pool-hall or on a deserted subway platform. Street-corner talent-spotting became the normal way for a group to obtain a record contract. An audition from the guy who crossed the road to listen might mean gifts for all the folks and a shiny Cadillac. As groups proliferated...
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Bo Diddley: His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection
TO PARAPHRASE the titles of two of the 20 Bo Diddley nuggets contained on His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection , you can't judge a book by its cover but you sure can tell something about how important a musician is by the artists who do cover versions of his songs. That's not to imply that Bo Diddley's legacy rests solely on the interpretations of his music by others. The rich body of work contained here offers ample testament to the multiple talents--as singer, songwriter, guitarist and creator of one of the archetypal rock rhythms--the man born Ellas McDaniels displayed on...
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The Bees Gees: From Down Under To Disco
SINCE ENTERING POP MUSIC in the Fifties, the Bees Gees have had three careers on three continents, each more successful than its predecessor. The first was in Australia as child prodigies. In 1967, they came to Britain as suitable opposition to the Beatles. Finally in the mid-Seventies they found themselves setting the pace for the disco boom and emerging as songwriters of note on the adult-oriented rock scene. The career of the three Gibb brothers began inauspiciously enough in December 1956 at the Gaumont cinema in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, where they volunteered for the regular mime spot preceding the Saturday morning...
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Led Zep in L.A.
"I DON'T EVEN like Led Zeppelin," the girl in the black velvet jacket and hotpants said petulantly as she bummed a cigarette off an acquaintance in the lobby of the Continental Hyatt House Hotel in L.A. "I'm only staying here because my friends have a room. I think Zep are really tacky." Methought the lady did protest too much. Why would three well-known L.A. groupies book a room at Zep's hotel if they didn't dig the band? Why would they spend most of their spare time either hanging out in the lobby or else trying to gatecrash the security on the ninth...
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Genesis: Short on Hair, Long on Gimmicks
LOS ANGELES – Peter Gabriel's five o'clock shadow tints not only cheeks and chin but the shaved patch of flesh which cuts up from the top of his forehead into the center of his hair, as if a tiny lawnmower had gone to work. Will the style catch on? "There are one or two people in England who waddle about with it," he admits. "Very good for my ego. But I think it's too violent a step. I mean I'm not sure how many people would consider it an asset to their sex appeal. I think if I can link...
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Punk as Reaction
How was Punk Rock a reaction both to the commercialization of Rock and Roll and to the social climate in late 1970s Britain?
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Liverpool: The Birthplace of the Beatles
How did growing up in post-WWII Liverpool influence the Beatles?
people:
The Who
Since they blasted their way into prominence with the British Invasion, the Who’s sprawling half-century saga has been strewn with creative reinventions, personality clashes, breakups, reunions and death by misadventure. It’s also yielded one of the most respected bodies of work in the annals of Rock, from the band’s early days as scrappy Mod icons to its work as Rock-opera conceptualists to its ongoing incarnation as a bigger-than-life arena-rock juggernaut. The Who’s mass of contradictions is reflected in the contrasting yet oddly complementary personae of the four musicians who comprised the band’s classic lineup: guitarist-songwriter Pete Townshend, whose unsparingly personal...
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Cyril Davies
(1932 – 1964) During his short life, singer and harmonica player Cyril Davies played a key role in popularizing American Blues music in the U.K. in the 1960s, both as a performer and bandleader and as the driving force, with partner Alexis Korner, behind a pair of influential venues. Blues Incorporated, the band Davies started with guitarist Korner, is credited as the first British band to play electric Blues and R&B, and an inspiration for many musicians who would go on to fame, including members of the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin and the Yardbirds. Davies began playing music publicly in...
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Larry Williams
(1935 – 1980) Larry Williams was an R&B singer and an outsized character whose raucous late 50s recordings would become favorites of many of the young rockers of the 1960s British Invasion. Growing up in New Orleans, Williams learned to play piano as a boy. As a teen he joined a local R&B band in Oakland, Calif., when his parents relocated there. In 1954 he returned to New Orleans and began to work as a chauffer/valet for singer Lloyd Price, eventually becoming pianist for Price as well as R&B singers Roy Brown and Percy Mayfield, who were all recording for Specialty...
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The Rolling Stones
From their early days as Blues-obsessed Londoners at the forefront of the British Invasion to their current status as living legends and a top draw on the arena circuit, the Rolling Stones – a.k.a. “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band – have proved one of the most influential and enduring bands in Rock. The Stones began their recording career in 1963 as just one of a legion of young British bands enamored with American Blues and R&B. Although they possessed a charismatic frontman in Mick Jagger, a punchy guitar tandem in Keith Richards and Brian Jones, and a solid,...
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Ramones
The Ramones are generally acknowledged as the band that launched the Punk movement. Stripping guitar-driven Rock down to its most basic elements, the four misfits from Forest Hills, Queens, offered an anti-star stance and an anybody-can-do-this message that helped change Rock from an arena-bound spectator sport into a participatory activity, opening the door for countless Punk, New Wave, Hardcore and Indie-Rock combos to follow. Armed with three chords and four leather jackets, the Ramones – guitarist Johnny, bassist Dee Dee, drummer Tommy and frontman Joey, all of whom adopted the last name Ramone — played short, loud, manic-tempoed tunes, hammered...
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Alexis Korner
(1928 – 1984) Alexis Korner was never a household name, but his influence on the British Rock scene of the 1960s continues to be felt today. As one of the first British performers to embrace American Blues, Koerner — often called the “Father of British Blues” — was a mentor to the stars of the next generation, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin. Born in Paris in 1928 to an Austrian father and a Turkish/Greek mother, Alexis spent his childhood in France, Switzerland and North Africa, arriving in London at age 13, at the height of the Second World War....
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Punk Rock: Its Day Will Come
IF YOU thought Jefferson Airplane was a weird name, let some of these drop off your tongue. Talking Heads. Tuff Darts. Ramones. Planets. Heartbreakers. Shirts. Television. Day Old Bread. Manster. They are names of some of the better known of hundreds of New York area bands, often categorized under the catch-all "punk rock" or "punk bands," that are attracting rock fans to lower Manhattan clubs like CBGB, Mothers and Max's Kansas City. That definition is misleading, because the punkiest thing about most of the bands is their names. They represent a variety of musical styles and competence levels. Some, like Television...
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Monterey Pops! An International Pop Festival
Reporting for Newsweek took me to Monterey. I'd gone to work for Newsweekright out of college in 1965 – I was a reporter in the London bureau whenRubber Soul came out, Carnaby Street was jumping, and the Who were at the Marquee. In January '67, just as the '60s musical-social ball was bouncing westward, Newsweek moved me to San Francisco. I arrived in time for the Human Be-In and soon was hanging out at the Avalon and Fillmore, interviewing Jerry and Janis, and covering student demonstrations in Berkeley. In May I began to hear rumours of a huge hippie festival: all the best new bands...
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Doo-wop: At The Hop
White vocal groups of the Fifties embraced a variety of styles and sounds, ranging from adult pop groups (the Ames Brothers, the Four Aces, the Hilltoppers), through shameless pop-rockers who covered the R&B hits of the day (the Crewcuts, the McGuire Sisters, the Diamonds) to a vast army of teenage singing groups who naturally absorbed black vocal mannerisms. Some, like the Skyliners and the Belmonts, rivaled the best black harmony groups but, before the emergence of such quartets, white doo-wop was synonymous with plagiarism and what might be termed 'sham-rock'. The king of sham-rock was Bill Randle, a Cleveland disc jockey...
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The Beatles
The Beatles are universally regarded as one of the most important bands in the history of Rock and Roll. Over the course of an active career that spanned just 10 years, the band released some of the most enduring popular music of the 20th century – a catalog whose influence would be hard to overstate. To give but one measure of the band’s stature, when Rolling Stone ranked the “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time,” four Beatles records made the top ten: Revolver, Rubber Soul, The Beatles (a.k.a. the “White Album”) and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which...
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Berry Gordy
(b. 1929) Although he began his musical career as a songwriter and producer, Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. made his fortune, and his mark on popular culture, through his ability to recognize and nurture the musical talents of others. At a time when black-owned record labels were largely restricted to a relatively small piece of the Pop marketplace, Gordy created a radio-friendly Pop-R&B hybrid that appealed equally to black and white listeners, and built a musical empire that rivaled the bands of the British Invasion for chart dominance through the 1960s. The Detroit native was a former boxer and all-around hustler...
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Rick Nelson
(1940 – 1985) Ricky Nelson was born into show business — his parents were chart-topping Big Band performers who transitioned into radio and television personalities during the 1940s. As a teen during the 1950s, Ricky starred as himself, alongside his parents and brother, in the television hit The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. For years, each episode would conclude with a musical performance by Ricky Nelson and his band, in the style of his rockabilly idols Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Nelson's performances on the show, along with his boy-next-door good looks, attracted a massive teenage audience and landed him a...
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Pat Boone
(b. 1934) Clean-cut singer/actor Pat Boone had a lengthy run as a major recording star in the years prior to the British Invasion, scoring 38 Top 40 hits and becoming a familiar, wholesome presence in films and TV shows. Boone is notable figure in Rock and Roll’s early history for his smooth covers of then-current hits by such black artists as Little Richard and Fats Domino, which critics blasted as “watered down” versions aimed at listeners and radio stations for whom the originals were too musically — or racially — incendiary. While rocking out may not have been Boone’s forte,...
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The Beatles
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The Shirelles
One of the earliest and most consistently successful Girl Groups, the Shirelles were a quartet of teenagers from Passaic, N.J., who in the late 1950s and early 1960s scored a run of classic hits whose romantic innocence was sweet as the group's harmonies. Originally known as the Poquellos, the girls — originally Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris, Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves) and Beverly Lee — were schoolmates of the daughter of Scepter Records founder Florence Greenberg. Greenberg auditioned them and was impressed enough to sign the group and become their manager, renaming them the Shirelles....
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John Lee Hooker
(1917 – 2001) One of the most distinctive and enduring of Blues icons, John Lee Hooker created a stark, brooding signature style rooted in his primitive, hypnotic guitar grooves, along with a highly original songwriting sensibility. His trademark sound and imposing presence helped to make "the Hook" one of the most popular Blues performers of the post-World War II era, and an influence on many Rock and Roll musicians. Although a native of Mississippi, Hooker came to prominence after relocating to Detroit in 1943, following unproductive stints in Memphis and Cincinnati. He began recording in 1948 and experienced immediate success with...
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The Byrds
Formed in Los Angeles in 1964, the Byrds are credited as the first Folk Rock group, pioneering a sound that bridged the gap between popular Folk acts like the Kingston Trio and the bands of the British Invasion. The core members of the band — Jim (Roger) McGuinn, Gene Clark and David Crosby — all had roots in the Folk world, having put their time in playing in coffee houses with groups like the New Christy Minstrels and Les Baxter’s Balladeers. As with so many musicians in the early 60s, it was the wake-up call of hearing the Beatles that...
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Dick Dale
(1937 – 2019) Dick Dale is known as "The King of the Surf Guitar," and it’s a title that few have contested. The fervid instrumentals he cut in the early 1960s are widely credited as landmarks in the development of Surf Rock – his 1961 single “Let’s Go Trippin’” is often cited as the first Surf record. Dale (birth name Richard Monsour) was born in Boston, Mass., to a Lebanese-American family. His family moved to Southern California when he was 16, and Dale became a passionate surfer. He's said that his love of surfing inspired him to come up with a...
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Bee Gees
The Bee Gees’ public image has long been dominated by the sibling trio's massively successful comeback as one of the most popular acts of the 70s Disco era. But brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb had already achieved international stardom and built a unique and accomplished body of recordings long before they became the white-suited dancefloor smoothies whose Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album burned itself deeply into popular culture. Eldest sibling Barry and twins Robin and Maurice were born in England, moving with their family to Austrailia in 1958, when they were in their early teens. Performing as a trio,...
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The Rise of the “Girl Groups”
Were the Girl Groups of the early 1960s voices of female empowerment or reflections of traditional female roles?
people:
The Four Seasons
The vocal group the Four Seasons rose from their working-class roots in Newark, NJ, to become one the most commercially successful recording acts of all time. With over 25 singles in the Top 40, they helped define the sound of mid-60s Pop, and remain popular over 50 years after their initial success. Versions of the group were working in New Jersey clubs and lounges and recording for small labels as early as 1953 under various names. It wasn’t until lead singer Frankie Valli, guitarist-vocalist Tommy DeVito and bassist-vocalist Nick Massi added keyboardist-vocalist Bob Gaudio to the band in 1959 that...
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Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Folk Rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young rose in the late 1960s from the ashes of several highly successful acts. Both Neil Young and Stephen Stills were previously part of Buffalo Springfield, David Crosby was a member of the Byrds, and Graham Nash arrived from the British Invasion group the Hollies. Known for their soaring harmonies and laid-back Folk Rock sound, the group’s core is the trio of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, with Young as an on-and-off fourth member. The group initially formed after Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang together at a party in Los Angeles and were excited by...
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Fats Domino: The Man Who Sang Rock Before Haley
HIS first million-seller was named after himself. Until last year he had more million-sellers than Elvis, who finally caught up with him after a hard struggle. He had more Gold discs before his biggest hit – in 1956 – than after. That hit was 'Blueberry Hill', the first disc was 'The Fat Man' and the man himself is Antoine "Fats" Domino. When Fats first came on the scene back in 1948 the big trend in pop music was jazz, and watery pops. There was no "vital" music for the kids except some obscure Blues that wasn't commercial enough anyway. Fats made 'The...
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Gospel: Soul Sources
ON STAGE at the Apollo, Harlem: standing at one microphone, an immaculately dressed man dramatically insists his love. At the second mike, four men bend towards each other, sing a phrase in harmony, step back and spin into an intricate flowing movement as the lead singer takes a line by himself, but comes swooping back in time to echo his last phrase. Behind them, poised, seemingly somehow to control what they do without any obvious signs or instructions, stands the guitarist; near him, the organist and drummer. The scene doesn't change much from week to week. The names and faces are...
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Leiber And Stoller : The Blues (1950-1953) & The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years
JERRY LEIBER AND MIKE STOLLER. They rank alongside Berry as rock ‘n’ roll’s wittiest composers and their influence as record producers has been immeasurable. As writers they were the first to bring satire and a social conscience to rock; as producers they ushered out the simplicity of an era in which groups were pulled off the streets to "doo-wop" and "doo-wah" into a microphone for three minutes. From these primitive beginnings to monaural overdubbing, the very first eight-track studios and on into the realms of the technological future-shock, Leiber and Stoller have directed all the phases of post-war record production....
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Rockabilly: Was this the purest style in rock?
A DEFT, HARD-DRIVING BLEND of country, gospel and blues, rockabilly was performed mainly by white artists who traded legitimate country backgrounds for a short-lived but frenzied involvement in music with a strong beat. Young, naturally exuberant musicians were the prime exponents, but traditional country singers were not without guile and, for a brief period around 1954-57, they too sang with a flash and glamour to match their rhinestoned clothes. The word rockabilly was first coined by American trade papers who required a catchall term to cover a new development which had a variety of names including ‘western and bop’, ‘cat...
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Dua Lipa
article:
Louis Jordan
The King of Jive Who Made The Good Times Roll IF BILL HALEY AND ELVIS PRESLEY have to be dubbed the father and king of rock’n’roll, then Louis Jordan must be considered its godfather. Practically all of the black American rhythm and blues, rock’n’roll and early soul stars who upset the Fifties have cited Jordan as the main man of their youth and several of the white rock’n’rollers have acknowledged his influence or recorded his songs. Certain elements of rock’n’roll were developing even before Jordan appeared on the scene and others cropped up after his heyday. But most were completely...
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Newcomers To The Charts: Liverpool’s Beatles Wrote Their Own Hit
MAKING THEIR NME Chart debut with 'Love Me Do' this week are the Beatles, a vocal-instrumental group who hail from Liverpool, the birthplace of such stars as Billy Fury, Frankie Vaughan, Norman Vaughan and Ken Dodd. Their own composition, 'Love Me Do', is their first disc to be released on a British label. Previously they were with Polydor and had several discs released on the Continent, including one with singer Tony Sheridan, of 'Oh Boy!' note. Why are they called "the Beatles" ? The boys laughingly put off this question by saying : "The name came to us in a vision!" The line-up is...
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Long Live Rock: The Who
ARGUABLY THE MOST famous line The Who's Pete Townshend ever wrote was "Hope I die before I get old" on 1965's angry young anthem 'My Generation'. Today, at the ripely Beatle-esque age of 64, Townshend will – in his own words – "carry the flag for the boomer generation" during the half-time show at Super Bowl XLIV in Miami. The entertainment spotlight doesn't burn much brighter. It may even remind the world just how great the Who once were. The group have long had to settle for third place in the pantheon of '60s rock giants behind the Beatles and...
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I Confronted Metallica On Their Own Terms!
METALLICA. YOU KNOW the story. Those that don't are doomed to have me repeat it. Early '80s, a metal brat and a friend not ashamed to look like Frank Marina come crashing out of the Ulrich family garage in tree-lined Norwalk, California, and into the L.A. metal scene proper, only to be kicked in the corner by a batallion of stilettos. Not that there's anything wrong with stilettos, nor make-up nor spandex nor hairspray for that matter; all have been a better friend to me than any dog I've known. What was wrong, in the metal sense, was the behavior of...
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The Roots of Heavy Metal
What are the musical and cultural roots of Heavy Metal?
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Jimi Hendrix: Introducing Hard Rock
In what ways did Jimi Hendrix help create a new "Hard Rock" sound while retaining a connection to the Blues and R&B of his past?
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“Twist and Shout” and Post-War Britain
What role did cover songs like “Twist and Shout” play early in the Beatles's career, and how did their experiences growing up in post-WWII Liverpool and performing in Hamburg nightclubs help them to develop as a professional musical ensemble?
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Sun City: A Musical Force Against Apartheid – Part 2
What was South African apartheid, and how did musicians unite to challenge it?
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Music and the Berlin Wall during the Cold War
What was the Berlin Wall and how did music respond to what it symbolized?
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With a Little Help from His Friends: George Harrison and the Concert for Bangla-Desh
STEVE VAN ZANDT, May 2011, Lillehammer, Norway: "The anti-apartheid Sun City project (single, album, video, documentary, book, teaching guide) was a high point and a rare clear cut victory from the ten years I spent immersed in the dark, murky, frustrating labyrinth of international liberation politics. It came in the middle of my five politically themed solo albums and had its roots – like all the charity and consciousness raising multi-artist events that would follow – in the Concert for Bangladesh." August 1st marks the 40th anniversary of two landmark benefit concerts that nearly 40,000 attended at Madison Square Garden...
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Long John Baldry
(1941 – 2005) Although he never achieved the fame of such contemporaries as Rod Stewart and Elton John — both of whom were members of his early bands and championed him after they became successful — 6'7" vocalist Long John Baldry was a key figure in the Blues revival that hit England in the early '60s. Baldry was one of the first on the London scene to perform American Blues material, and was an early member of the Alexis Korner’s seminal group Blues Incorporated. He was featured on Korner's 1962 LP R&B from the Marquee, which is generally regarded as the...
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Unravelling the Legend of Robert Johnson
IN THE short space of seven months in the 1930s, a slender youth from Robinsonville, Mississippi, recorded twenty-nine blues sides in madeshift conditions, and a year later he was dead. But these two sessions, in Dallas and San Antonio, contain the greatest legend the blues has ever known, and precipitated a whole string of tales, theories, fancies and fabrications about the man which present such a incongruous pastiche when woven together that indeed Johnson’s life, his sudden fame and immediate death, is reminiscent of the kind of mysteries usually recounted exclusively in black magic anthologies. But as that great authority...
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The Police
One of the first bands associated with the 70s Punk/New Wave movement to achieve widespread commercial success, the Police were initially ridiculed by some for their perceived lack of “authenticity.” But the bleach-blond, leather-jacketed threesome quickly got the last laugh on their critics, becoming one of the world's biggest recording acts with an expansive musical approach that won them a massive global audience. It's not surprising that the Police were initially dismissed as bandwagon-jumpers, since all three members were seasoned players whose technical skill violated Punk's embrace of amateurism. Singer/bassist Sting (born Gordon Sumner) had played with various Jazz-Rock combos,...
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Dick Clark: The Beat Goes On
THE MOST AMAZING thing about Dick Clark is not that "America's Oldest Living Teenager" still fits that role at age 61. It's not that he's one of the most successful (and wealthiest) people in show business. It's not even the fact that nearly all the great (and plenty of not-so-great) artists in the history of rock 'n' roll have appeared on his American Bandstand. The most amazing thing about Dick Clark is that he can't dance. He's admitted it. Dick Clark has two left feet. Beginning August 5, 1957, the Monday afternoon when he took over as host of the longest-running variety...
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Graham Parker
British singer and songwriter Graham Parker emerged in London in 1976, rising to prominence with a sound that was steeped in Rock and Roll tradition – Dylan, Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, and classic Soul music were obvious influences – but that crackled with a ferocious energy and an angry edge that presaged the Punk explosion. Parker came more or less out of nowhere – a resident of the London suburb Deepcut, he was working at a gas station and writing songs on his own when he placed an ad in the British music newspaper Melody Maker seeking backing musicians....
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Led Zeppelin
Formed in London in the late 1960s, Led Zeppelin went on to become one of the most popular and influential bands in Rock and Roll history. Like many British bands of the era, Led Zeppelin were steeped in American Blues, but they took that influence in a heavier direction than most of their peers, creating a powerful, stomping sound that also incorporated elements of British Folk, Psychedelia, Soul, Reggae, and Celtic and Arabic music. As such, they wielded a huge influence over subsequent Hard Rock bands, and are often credited as forbears of Heavy Metal. The band was brought together...
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Discussing Teen fashion
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New York: Plug in to the Nerve-ends of the Naked City
In downtown Manhattan the rock 'n' roll war rages on as potential crown princes of Punkdom battle for recognition.. NICK KENT interprets the action IN MANHATTAN you're either uptown or down town and there's really no halfway house to dissolve into while in transit. You case your bearings purely on instinct as the yellow cab careers awkwardly down, down, down from the uptown three-star 51st and 3rd Mafioso hotel (ageing Hawaiian bellboys/the overbearing aroma of styrofoam in the Coffee Shop/the tight-lipped Italianate retired hit-man of a receptionist who always makes you wait for the key, nodding suspiciously to the grease-ball house...
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Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul
SOME PEOPLE are going around saying that Aretha Franklin is the Queen Of Soul, many people are buying her records, and one person (show compère Johnnie Walker) even said that she was the best coloured girl singer ever to make records. Now it isn't every girl singer who is fortunate enough to have these things said about her or happen to her, whether you go along with them or not. After chasing around and about the metropolis, I tracked Aretha down to her hotel (in the Penthouse Suite) and asked her a few questions, some of which she answered in...
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Bob Dylan: Royal Albert Hall, London
With A Mixture Of Folk, Rock And Comedy, Dylan Shows He Can Take Every Insult But Not A Compliment "EQUALITY, I spoke the word, as if a wedding vow, ah but I was so much older than, I'm younger than that now..." Bob Dylan thus changed. It all began with a song called 'My Back Pages' recorded some three years ago on an LP and reached its probable culmination at the Royal Albert Hall the other week when he performed his last British concert. As always, Dylan is logical and compromising. A full half of his concert is given purely to his...
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Cardi B
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Cardi B
Birth Name: Belcalis Almanzar Birthplace: The Bronx, New York, NY October 11, 1992 – Present Years Active: 2015 – Present Rapper/Singer Cardi B grew up in the Latin neighborhood Highbridge in the South Bronx with a Dominican father and Trinidadian mother. After growing up in the Bronx, she gained popularity after she had several videos go viral on Vine and Instagram in 2013. In 2015, she joined the cast of Love & Hip Hop: New York. Cardi B made her music debut in the fall of 2015 in Jamaican singer Shaggy’s song “Boom, Boom”. In 2017, she released her second mixtape and signed her...
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Women’s Perspectives in Country and Tejano Music
How did female Country and Tejano artists approach the issues of feminism and Women’s Rights in the 20th and 21st century?
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The Chicks
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Negotiating Native Identity through Art, Poetry and Music
How have Native American musicians, poets, and visual artists negotiated their identity, and what role does physical space play in these negotiations?
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The Banjo, Slavery, and the Abolition Debate
What is the relationship between the banjo and slavery, and how did music making by enslaved people influence the abolition debate during the 18th and early 19th century?
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Singing Democracy During the Second Great Awakening
What was the Second Great Awakening, how did it change American society, and how does Sacred Harp singing exemplify its ideals?
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Camila Cabello
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Third Wave: Women’s Rights and Music in the 1990s
What was Third Wave Feminism, why did it occur, and how did musicians address some of the movement’s demands?
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Kate Bush
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Bonnie Raitt
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Signature Style in Art and Album Covers
How have visual artists worked with musicians without compromising their style?
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X-Ray Spex
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The Indigenous Roots of Rock and Roll
What does Link Wray’s biography say about how Native Americans lived in the first half of the 20th century, and what role did Wray’s upbringing have on his music?
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The Rise of the Electric Guitar
What factors led to the rise of the electric guitar as the dominant symbol of Rock and Roll?
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Sun City: A Musical Force Against Apartheid – Part 1
What was South African apartheid, and how did musicians unite to challenge it?
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The Teamwork Behind the Beatles
How did the input of manager Brian Epstein and record producer George Martin help The Beatles develop and refine skills that aided the band in presenting their music and personalities to a mass audience?
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Rhythm as a Representation of People and Place
How does “the beat” of popular music reflect the histories of multiethnic populations and places?
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Albert Grossman
(1926 – 1986) Albert Grossman was an American talent manager who is most famous for representing Bob Dylan between the years 1962 and 1970. A shrewd and aggressive businessman, Grossman foresaw the 1960s Folk revival, and smelled opportunity. He co-founded the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, famously saying at the time, "The American public is like Sleeping Beauty, waiting to be kissed awake by the prince of Folk music." Over the years, Grossman represented many of the most prominent names in the folk and rock worlds, notably John Lee Hooker, Odetta, Todd Rundgren, The Band, Gordon Lightfoot, Peter, Paul and Mary, Electric Flag and...
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Glam: The Return of the Teenager
How was Glam Rock part of a new teenage culture in the 1970s?
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Cream
The British band Cream were only active for a short while, but their blend of Blues, Rock and psychedelia became instantly popular and proved an influence on many Hard Rock and Blues Rock bands that followed them. The three members of Cream were all veterans of various London bands when the power trio formed in mid-1966. As a member of the Yardbirds and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Eric Clapton had become a highly regarded guitarist; bassist/singer Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker had both been in the Graham Bond Organisation, a band that combined R&B and Jazz. All three were looking...
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Beatlemania
What were the factors that contributed to the rise of Beatlemania?
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Dead Kennedys
Pioneers of Hardcore Punk, the Dead Kennedys were noted for their biting, often satirical sociopolitical diatribes against U.S. foreign policy, Ronald Reagan-era domestic policy, a culture they lambasted as conformist and superficial and anything else that roused the ire of lead singer Jello Biafra. A puckish, satirical provocateur with a quavering, caustic howl that cut like an icepick over the band’s furious riffing, Biafra (born Eric Boucher) formed the band in San Francisco in 1978, along with guitarist East Bay Ray. The band’s first single, “California Uber Alles,” was released in 1979 – that same year, Biafra ran for mayor...
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Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden With a career spanning three decades and tens of millions of records sold, the U.K.’s Iron Maiden are one of the most successful and influential Heavy Metal bands in history. Emerging in the early 1980s, the band spearheaded the so-called “New Wave of British Heavy Metal,” built around a sound that eschewed the Blues influence of progenitors like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath in favor of faster tempos and a harder sound Iron Maiden was formed in east London in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. The band spent the next few years swapping players and developing...
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Jimi Hendrix
(1942 – 1970) Jimi Hendrix’s recording career lasted only a few years, but he blew a swath threw the late 1960s, doing things with a Fender Stratocaster guitar that nobody had done before. He’s widely acknowledged as one of the most influential and innovative musicians Rock has produced, and is often cited as the greatest electric guitarist in history. Hendrix was born in 1942 in Seattle, Washington, and raised mostly by his single father. As a boy Hendrix spent hours “playing” a broom as if it were a guitar, eventually graduating to a one-stringed ukulele he found in the trash. When...
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Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an iconic Heavy Metal band who helped to transform the genre from its 60s Blues-Rock roots to the mainstream phenomenon we know today. Alongside Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, the band are widely ranked among the most influential Heavy Metal bands of all time, and with a career that’s spanned over 40 years, they’re one of the most enduring. Judas Priest formed in the gritty industrial city of Birmingham, England, in 1971. They spent the next few years playing local shows and developing their heavy, Blues-based sound. Their debut album, Rocka Rolla, was released in 1974 and...
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Paul McCartney
(b. 1942) It's tempting to imagine how different the world would be today if Paul McCartney hadn't run into John Lennon on July 6, 1957, at the Liverpool church fete where Lennon's group the Quarrymen was performing. But it's also hard to imagine that, even if the Beatles had never existed, McCartney's prodigious talents and considerable ambition wouldn't have found an outlet somehow, or that he wouldn't have become an influential cultural figure even if the British rock explosion that the Beatles ignited had never happened. It's an oft-repeated if overly simplistic meme that McCartney was the facile Pop tunesmith to...
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Sex Pistols
While they may not have invented the genre, the Sex Pistols emerged in the late 1970s as the very face of Punk Rock. Forming in the midst of a harsh economic recession in Britain – and a musical landscape dominated by Prog, Disco and staged arena Rock — the Pistols were brash, crude, and gleefully provocative, spitting into the face of the British cultural establishment with a howled message of political anarchy and anti-authoritarianism. They were around for only two years and recorded only a single record, but their influence was vast in both the U.S. and the U.K....
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Yes
One of the most successful and durable of the British Progressive Rock bands that proliferated in the 1970s, Yes built its reputation upon a distinctive blend of intricate musicianship, majestic soundscapes, a strong melodic sensibility and the mystical lyrics and elfin vocals of frontman Jon Anderson. Having outlasted countless musical trends, survived myriad personnel changes and withstood various commercial ups and downs, Yes remains both a musical institution and a popular live attraction more than half a century after its formation. After starting out as a charming post-flower power outfit on its early albums Yes and Time and a Word,...
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David Bowie
(b. 1947 – 2016) One of Rock’s most enduring auteurs, David Bowie was notable for his influence, his eclecticism, and the knack for self reinvention he repeatedly displayed over a long and prolific career that saw him working in Glam Rock, Soul, Dance Pop, Electronica, Folk, and other genres. Born David Robert Jones in London, Bowie showed his musical restlessness from the beginning. By the time be became a star in the early 70s, he’d already been kicking around the British music scene for several years, with stints as a mod Rock and Roller, a twee music-hall Popster, and a hippie troubadour. He had...