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Starr-Waterman American Popular Music Chapter 8: “Rock Around the Clock”: Rock’ n ’Roll, 1954‒1959 Lecture Outline I.

Rock ’n’ Roll: enormous changes to American popular music a. Styles previously on the margins of pop music began to infiltrate and eventually dominate the center i. Rhythm & blues and country music: no longer directed to specialized and regionalized markets b. Emergence of rock ’n’ roll significant in cultural terms i. Neither a “new” style of music or any single style ii. Era of rock ’n’ roll does not mark the first time that music was written specifically to appeal to young people iii. Not the first American music to bring black and white popular styles into close interaction c. New audience i. Baby boom generation born at the end of and in the years immediately following World War II 1. Much younger audience than had ever before constituted a market for music 2. Large audience that shared specific and important characteristics of group cultural identity a. Grew up in a period of relative economic stability and prosperity b. Period marked by self-conscious return to “normalcy” defined in socially and politically conservative ways following World War II c. First generation to grow up with television as a readily available part of culture ii. 1950s: period characterized by political and cultural traumas 1. Cold War tension a. Congressional hearings concerning “un-American activities” and blacklisting of writers, musicians, and entertainment personalities b. Fears of atomic weapons 2. Racial tension a. 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education 3. Identification by the larger culture as a unique generational group a. Self-identification as teenagers i. Emblems of identity: dance steps, fashions, ways of speaking, and music b. Prosperity: collective purchasing power

d. Rock ’n’ roll: term first used for commercial and generational purposes by disc jockey Alan Freed i. Term derived from many references to “rockin’” and “rollin’” found in many rhythm & blues songs and race records dating back to the 1920s ii. Alan Freed (1922‒1965): disc jockey who discovered in the early 1950s that increasing numbers of young white kids were listening to and requesting rhythm & blues records played on his Moondog Show nighttime program in Cleveland: records he began to call “rock ’n’ roll” 1. 1954: Freed moved to station WINS in larger New York radio market a. Continued to promote African American musicians in the face of considerable resistance from society to the idea of racial integration 2. 1957: TV show sponsored by Freed canceled after black teenage singer Frankie Lymon shown dancing with a white girl 3. 1958: arrested for anarchy and incitement to riot after a fight broke out at one of his rock ’n’ roll concerts in Boston 4. Early 1960s: Freed was prosecuted for accepting payola and blackballed within the music business a. Died a few years later a broken man iii. Disc jockeys all over the country wished to capture the new, large audience of young radio listeners who embraced the term “rock ’n’ roll” 1. Artists lumped together: Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson, the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley a. Rock ’n’ roll records appeared on multiple charts: pop, rhythm & blues, country and western e. Purchase of records by kids in the 1950s: safe and affordable way for kids to assert generational identity through rebellion against previous adult standards and restrictions of musical style and taste i. 1950s: essentially invented the teenager as a commercial and cultural entity 1. Rock ’n’ roll music, along with television and movies, essential role in this invention 2. Ricky Nelson (1940‒1985): popular teenaged musician in the 1950s who was marketed to teenagers as a “rock ’n’ roll” artist a. Popularity closely linked to television because of appearance on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet show before beginning recording ii. 1960s: practitioners of the music who had grown out of their adolescent years and wanted to appeal to a maturing audience rechristened their music simply rock f. Shift in musical marketing away from primarily racial and regional considerations toward primarily generational considerations

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i. Same popular music played for segregated settings Cover Versions and Early Rock ’n’ Roll a. Cover version: practice of recording a song that has previously been recorded by another artist or group i. Restricted sense: refers to a version, sometimes almost an exact copy, of a previously recorded performance that often involves an adaptation of the original’s style and sensibility and is usually aimed at cashing in on that original’s success ii. Most notorious examples: white performers covering the work of African American recording artists 1. New stage in the evolution of white fascination with black music 2. 1944 Paula Watson, “A Little Bird Told me” recorded for independent label Supreme a. Reached number two on R&B charts and made an impact on the pop charts b. Evelyn Knight’s cover version recorded with Decca: reached number one i. Promotional power of Decca and the fact that white performers enjoyed privileged access to radio and television play c. Supreme sued for copyright infringement: claimed Decca had stolen arrangement, texture, and vocal style i. Judge favored Decca, ruling that musical arrangements were not copyrighted property and did not enjoy legal protection 1. Song published in the form of sheet music was copyrightable form of intellectual property but individual interpretations of a given song were not Listening Guide: “Sh-Boom” and Its Cover Version a. “ShBoom,” original version performed by the Chords (number two R&B, number 5 pop, released 1954); cover version performed by the Crew Cuts (number one pop for nine weeks, released 1954) i. Original version often cited as one of the very first rock ’n’ roll records 1. On the “flip” side of the Chords’ cover version of white pop singer Patti Page’s “Cross over the Bridge” 2. Unexpected elements in arrangement and performance: extraordinary and original pop record a. AABA with sentimental lyrics and stereotypical chord changes but treated as an up-tempo instead of a ballad i. Novel touches: a capella vocal introduction, scat singing, long instrumental break with saxophone

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solo, “doo: wop” nonsense syllables in the background, unexpected ending ii. Crew Cuts’ version—novel touches as well 1. Scat singing at the beginning, brief sections of group nonsense: syllable singing punctuated by loud kettledrum stroke; two “false” endings 2. Crooner-style singing The Rock ’n ’Roll Business a. Music business 1950s i. Overall vitality of the American economy after WWII: entertainment industry’s profits reach a new level ii. Expansion accompanied by gradual diversification of mainstream popular taste 1. Reemergence of independent (“indie”) record companies a. Smaller companies began to attract a national audience i. Process viewed with interest and alarm by directors of the major companies b. Larger companies took a couple of years to react to the emergence of rock ’n’ roll i. RCA Victor signed Elvis Presley 1. Rockabilly: form of country and western music informed by the rhythms of black R&B and the electric blues iii. Sales charts chronicle changes in popular taste and emergence of teenage market 1. “Rock Around the Clock” (Bill Haley and the Comets) 1955 became the first rock ’n’ roll hit to reach number one on the “Best Sellers in Stores” chart a. Beginning of a new era in American popular culture 2. “The Yellow Rose of Texas”: 19th-century minstrel song performed in a deliberately old-fashioned sing-along style by the Mitch Miller Singers a. Mitch Miller: powerful director of the A&R department at Columbia Records i. Archenemy of rock ’n’ roll music ii. Refusal to recognize teen market and anger over domination of radio by Top 40 playlists Box 8.1: Bill Haley and “Rock Around the Clock” (1955) a. Bill Haley (1925‒1981): leader of obscure western swing groups seeking a style that would capture enthusiasm of growing audience of young listeners and dancers i. Dropped cowboy image, changed his accompanying group’s name from the Saddlemen to the Comets

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ii. 1954 signed by Decca Records 1. Worked with Milt Gabler, who had produced hit records with Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five a. Pushed Hayley’s style further in the direction of jump band rhythm & blues iii. “Rock Around the Clock”: first rock ’n’ roll record to become a number one pop hit 1. Written by Max C. Freedman and Jimmy DeKnight 2. Featured in 1955 movie Blackboard Jungle, which dealt with inner city teenagers and juvenile delinquency Listening Guide: Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” a. Music and lyrics by Chuck Berry (also credited to disc jockeys Russel Fratto and Alan Freed); performed by Chuck Berry and His Combo; recorded 1955 b. Charles Edward Anderson (“Chuck”) Berry (1926‒2017): pioneering singer, songwriter, and guitarist who synthesized diverse influences from R&B and country music in rock ’n’ roll songs about teenage life i. Grew up in St. Louis, where he absorbed blues and rhythm & blues styles ii. One of the first black musicians to consciously forge his own version of these styles for appeal to the mass market iii. Found that his performances of country songs in clubs appealed strongly to the white members of his audience c. “Maybellene”: novel synthesis that did not sound like anything before it i. Distantly modeled on a country song “Ida Red” ii. Rhythm & blues elements: thick, buzzing timbre of electric guitar, blue notes and slides in voice and guitar, backbeat of the drum, form derived from twelve-bar blues iii. Explosive tempo with clarity of text iv. Story featuring cars and sex appeal, implied class distinctions and cars as a status symbol v. Berry’s trademarks: 1. Arresting instrumental introduction for unaccompanied electric guitar 2. Relentless intensity produced by a very fast tempo 3. Very loud volume level 4. Formal and stylistic elements strongly related to earlier rhythm and blues music 5. Witty lyrics clearly enunciated and designed to appeal to the lifestyle and aspirations of a young audience d. Form i. Based on twelve-bar blues ii. Verses remain on tonic chord throughout 1. Focuses attention on lyrics

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2. Pace of lyrics slowed down for choruses; reinforces an effect of expansion e. The Song/Recording i. Song is the recording: ultimate, most important source material 1. Culture of rock ’n’ roll centered on records a. Baby boomers went to hear rock ’n’ roll stars perform hits they already knew from the records they heard and bought b. American bandstand: singers appeared without accompanying bands and lip-synched their songs while the records played in the background i. Sheet music was an afterthought ii. Prominent, unsyncopated bass line; more suggestive of country music Early Rock ’n’ Roll Stars on the R&B Side a. Three most prominent African Americans to be identified with the new music i. Chuck Berry 1. Wrote records that became explicit celebrations of American teenage culture and its music 2. “Roll over Beethoven” (1956): praises rhythm & blues at the expense of classical music 3. “School Days” (1957): drudgery relieved by an afterschool trip to the “juke joint” 4. “Rock and Roll Music” (1957): articulates the virtues of its subject 5. “Johnny B. Goode” (1958): pop musicians influenced by Chuck Berry: who’s who of rock starts from the 1960s and beyond a. Influential on three fronts i. Brilliantly clever lyricist and songwriter ii. Fine rock ’n’ roll vocal stylist iii. Pioneering electric guitarist ii. Little Richard 1. “Little Richard” (Richard Wayne Penniman) (b. 1932): singer, songwriter, boogie-woogie influenced pianist, and cultivator of a deliberately outrageous performance style that appealed on the basis of its strangeness, novelty, and sexual ambiguity 2. Hit the pop charts in 1956: “Tutti-Fruitti”: nonsensical song based on twelve-bar blues a. Uninhibited shouting style with falsetto whoops and accompanied with a pounding band 3. Rock ’n’ roll movies in which he appeared, 1956‒1957: Don’t Knock the Rock, The Girl Can’t Help It, Mister Rock ’n’ Roll a. Heavily made up, hair in enormous pompadour, played the piano while standing and gyrating wildly: epitomized the abandon celebrated in rock ’n’ roll lyrics

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b. Strong influence on later performers: Jerry Lee Lewis, the Beatles, American Creedence Clearwater Revival c. Ambiguity of sexual identity: image of David Bowie, Elton John, Prince 4. Listening Guide: “Long Tall Sally” a. Music and Lyrics credited to Enotris Johnson, Richard Penniman, and Robert Blackwell; performed by Little Richard and unidentified band; recorded 1956 b. Built on twelve-bar blues, adapted to reflect the more traditionally pop-friendly format of verse-chorus i. Simple but effective formal arrangement iii. Fats Domino 1. Antoine “Fats” Domino (b. 1928): singer, pianist, and songwriter, who was an established presence on the rhythm & blues charts for several years by the time he scored his first large-scale pop breakthrough with “Ain’t It a Shame” in 1955 and ultimately became the second best-selling artist of the 1950s a. Mainstream success: market catching up with Domino; no significant stylistic difference between his earlier rhythm & blues hits and his rock ’n’ roll best-sellers b. Born in New Orleans, grew up in rich and diverse musical traditions c. Strongest influences: i. Professor Longhair (born Henry Roeland Byrd) (1918‒1980): rhythm & blues pianist ii. Jump-band style of trumpeter Dave Bartholomew (who later became Domino’s arranger, producer, and songwriting partner) d. Recorded a number of standards: strong links to traditions i. 1956 “Blueberry Hill”: Tin Pan Alley tune that became Domino’s most popular record 1. Tin Pan Alley crooning and uninflected urban diction replaced with Domino’s rhythmically accented, full-throated singing in his characteristic New Orleans accent Early Rock ’n’ Roll Stars on the Country Side a. Elvis Presley: biggest rock ’n’ roll star to come from the country side of the music world. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi i. Listening Guide: original version written and performed by Junior Parker (no chart appearance, released 1953); cover version performed by Elvis Presley (number 11 country and western, released 1955). 1. Elvis Presley’s recording

a. 1954: came to the attention of Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, a small independent label in Memphis that specialized in country and rhythm &blues recordings b. Formed a band called the Starlite Wranglers with i. Scotty Moore (1931‒2016): electric guitar ii. Bill Black (1926‒1965): string bass c. Series of recordings with an R&B cover version on one side and a country song on the other i. Last record before Elvis signed with RCA Victor and became a national celebrity: cover version of “Mystery Train” 2. Original version: Herman “Little Junior Parker” (1927 ‒1971): singer, songwriter, and harmonica player who achieved some success with his rhythm & blues band Little Junior’s Blue Flames a. Recorded “Mystery Train” for Sam Phillips’s Sun Label i. Song received little attention at the time of its release 3. Two versions: synergy between rhythm and blues and country music that led to rock ’n’ roll a. Composition credited to Parker and Phillips i. Original version: strophic twelve:-bar blues with one harmonic irregularity: some strophes begin on the subdominant chord rather than the tonic, so that the first two four-bar phrases are harmonically identical 1. Darkly evocative of rural blues and rhythm & blues traditions 2. Train: favorite subject and image for country blues singers a. “chugging” rhythm to convey sense of train’s momentum 3. Parker’s band: typical R&B; electric guitar, acoustic bass, piano, drums, saxophone ii. Cover version: less a traditional cover and more a reconceptualization of the song 1. Presley conveys sense of intensity, excitement, and enthusiasm a. Much faster tempo b. Little attempt at naturalistic evocation of train c. Band makeup: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, drums

2. Alterations: internal structuring of words and music 3. Rhythmic arrangement is highly irregular; extends phrases 4. Emphasis of common elements to form a style that sounded “blacker” than any other white singer in the postwar era 5. More aggressive and “raw” than original version ii. 1955: RCA Victor bought out Presley’s contract from Sun 1. Consciously tried to turn the “hillbilly cat” into a mainstream performer without compromising his appeal to teenagers iii. Manager Colonel Thomas Parker made sure Presley appeared repeatedly on television variety shows and Hollywood films iv. Producer Chet Atkins ensured that Presley’s records were made in a popfriendly style 1. Television performance: denounced as vulgar because of his hip:shaking gyrations; shows attended by hordes of screaming fans 2. Records: astronomical sales; biggest-selling solo recording artist of any period and style v. Established rock ’n’ roll as an unprecedented mass-market phenomenon vi. Graceland: his home in Memphis, now a museum vii. Listening Guide: “Don’t Be Cruel” 1. Music and lyrics by Otis Blackwell and Elvis Presley; performed by Elvis Presley, vocal and guitar, with the Jordanaires and backing instrumentalists; recorded 1956 2. Presley’s biggest hit; it topped the charts for 11 weeks 3. Based on twelve-bar blues a. Voice heavy with blues—derived and country inflections b. “hiccupping” effect—associated with rockabilly singers c. Strong backbeat throughout: derived from rhythm & blues d. Repeated electric guitar figure: reminiscent of western swing 4. Reverb: electronically produced by engineers at RCA to emulate the distinctive (low-tech) slap-back echo sound of Presley’s earlier recordings with Sun Records 5. Backing vocal group: sweetening sound rooted in white gospel music a. Established mainstream pop style, often used in recordings for the mass market i. Contrasts to indies; rawer, more basic sound 6. Other side of single was Presley’s version of “Hound Dog” b. Buddy Holly

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i. Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley) (1936‒1959): Clean-cut, lanky, and bespectacled singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the 1950s who, along with his band, the Crickets, recorded influential hits like “That’ll Be the Day” and made frequent use of double-tracking 1. Opposite of Presley’s intense, aggressive, suggestively sexual stage persona ii. “That’ll Be the Day” (1957): combined elements of country, rhythm and blues, and mainstream pop 1. Vocal style: country twang, hiccups, expressive blue notes 2. Crickets’ instrumental lineup: two electric guitars (lead and rhythm), bass, and drums a. Holly’s lead guitar playing: active, riff-based, hard-edged in a way that reflected the influence of Chuck Berry 3. Structured like a typical pop song: alternating verses and choruses of eight bars each a. Instrumental break: twelve-bar blues iii. Career cut short by a plane crash at age 22, which also killed Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper iv. Double-tracking: technique in which two nearly identical versions of the same vocal or instrumental part are recorded on top of one another, foregrounding that part so that it seems to come right out of the speaker at the listener Box 8.2: The Electric Guitar a. Electric guitar: elevation of the instrument to the position of centrality was one of the most significant effects on popular music b. Development of the instrument i. Guitar found mainly in popular music that originated in the South 1. Acoustic guitar was difficult to use in large dance bands and difficult to record ii. 1920s: engineers began to experiment with electronically amplified guitars iii. 1931: Electro String Instrument Company (Rickenbacker) introduced the first commercially produced electric guitars 1. Called “frying pans” because of their distinctive round bodies and long necks iv. Mid-1930s: Gibson Company introduced a hollow-body guitar with new type of pickup: magnetic plate or coil attached to the body of the guitar, which converts the physical vibrations of its strings into patterns of electric energy 1. Charlie Christian: African American guitarist who introduced the guitar i...