Elvis Presley didn’t invent rock ‘n’ roll, nor was he its
first star, although there is a common belief that both things are true. In a way, they are true because the phrase “rock
‘n’ roll” and Presley’s name became nearly synonymous in the minds of most
Americans by the end of 1956, when rock and roll music had begun to overtake
the music charts.
As early as 1951, Cleveland, Oho, disc jockey Alan Freed
coined the phrase “rock and roll,” long before Elvis arrived on the scene, and
several other rock ‘n’ roll artists scored major hit records before Elvis did. In 1954, Billy Haley and His Comets recorded
a hit cover version of Big Joe Turner’s “Shake Rattle and Roll,” albeit
somewhat sanitized, and racked up three more Billboard top 20 hits in the following year, including “(We’re
Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” in 1955, Haley’s only number one hit. It was actually released a year earlier as
the B-side of Haley’s “Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)”, but caught
public attention when it was heard over the opening and closing credits in the
film “Blackboard Jungle,” which hit theaters in March 1955. By May, the song was a major hit and many of
that generation’s teenagers remember it as the first rock ‘n’ roll record they
heard or danced to, as it played over and over on juke boxes across the United
States. In July, Fats Domino’s “Ain’t
That a Shame” reached number 10, while Pat Boone’s cover version hit number 1
at the same time and, by August, Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” reached number
5. That was a year after Elvis had recorded
his first songs for Sun Records, including his genre-busting up-tempo versions
of “That’s All Right” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” which attracted only
regional attention. Neither ever reached
Billboard’s top forty, but are still
regarded as among the most important moments in the birth of rock and roll. It was in those sessions that Elvis distilled
all the forms of music he had absorbed since childhood – country & western,
gospel, blues, and R&B – into something completely new. At first called rockabilly, it was later
reshaped into something new that became known as rock ‘n’ roll, which was
dominated by Elvis’ voice and image in its formative years.
Those earlier rock ‘n’ roll hits were pop chart aberrations
among the greater number of mainstream hits of the period, which featured older
artists from an earlier era like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Patti Page, The
Fontaine Sisters, and popular novelty songs, including several different
versions of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett.”
Hit rock songs remained the exception through much of 1956 as well –
until Elvis began his meteoric rise through that spring and summer. His switch from Sun to RCA Records and its
vastly broader distribution and promotion capabilities, coupled with the
sensation he created in his first national television appearances, translated
into a quantum jump in Billboard hits. Between the release of “Heartbreak Hotel” in
March and the end of the year Elvis charted ten top twenty hits, five of them
reaching number one and another peaking at number 2. These included the two-sided blockbuster
“Hound Dog”/“Don’t Be Cruel,” which remained at number one for a staggering
eleven weeks, a record that stood until the 1990s.
Although other rock & roll artists charted that year as
well, they were still outnumbered by older acts and none ever came close to Elvis’
level of dominance, which contributed to the blending of the Presley name with
image with rock ‘n’ roll music, making them nearly inseparable at the time. By 1957, in the wake of Elvis’ one-man
revolution the previous year, the charts saw a significant shift toward rock
& roll with number one hits by The Platters, Pat Boone, Paul Anka, Jimmie
Rodgers, Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, The Crickets (with Buddy Holly), and
Elvis himself. Although Perry Como and
Andy Williams also reached the top of the charts, their music was now in the
minority as rock ‘n’ roll surged forward.
The trend continued in the years that followed and it had all begun with
Elvis, who remained the single most iconic symbol of the music and the lighting
rod for all the controversy that surrounded it.
Elvis also was a more dynamic performer and singer than other new rock
stars who swept onto the charts in his wake.
Although his uninhibited performing style would soon be curtailed and
Elvis tamed to some degree, his vocal expressiveness, passion and the power he
brought to his songs, whether performed live or on records, could not be
suppressed or matched.
Elvis put his own unique brand on this new music and came to
personify what became popularly known as rock 'n' roll the moment he bolted
onto the national scene. He became a one-man vanguard who redefined popular
music and those who followed him were part of an irreversible march that he
started. So, Elvis didn’t “invent” rock
and roll, but he was its most important and influential founding father and came to define the music. John Lennon confirmed how much every rock
star owes to the King when he said “Before Elvis there was nothing.”
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Channeling Elvis: How Television Saved the
King of Rock ‘n’ Roll is available from Amazon in the U.S. http://tinyurl.com/mhyaouz &
the U.K.: http://tinyurl.com/kyolbnm
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