Jul 102008
Following some chronologic disqualifications and a few cases made for more underground or overlooked artists that fell on deaf ears, we were left with 7 or 8 main contenders for the Top 5 spots: Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Coasters, and to a lesser extent Carl Perkins.
We should have known better. An authority no less than The Monkees tried to settle perhaps the most controversial battle among the contenders. Check out the following clip, if there’s ever been any question how tightly the competition is stacked among ’50s piano-playing legends.
As always, Mod, we thank you for your service to this Hall and mankind in general. Think of the books that won’t have to be published, the Rolling Stone “list” special issues that won’t be cluttering up the newsstands, the PBS fundraising specials that will never need to be aired!
Now will you kindly update the Big Choice Poll? That “Once” thing is starting to remind me of your fascination with Alan Vega. Now *that* was a sorry period in the history of your moderation!
Does Jerry Lee have the palest bass player ever?
I’ll grant you that my number 5 contender, the Everly Brothers, might rightfully be left off the list (although personally I think they should be included just for their influence on the Beatles alone) but Bo Diddley doesn’t even make the top 8 contenders? That’s a shonde!
cdm, I think that like Fats, Bo suffers here for being just a little too much of a tweener. Even in those few short piano chips, it’s easy to note how Fats can do more with the piano than the others but his playing is a little more boogie woogie and just the slightest bit less minimalist rock and roll.
Face it: Fats and Bo both suffered from having little sex appeal.
The Mod says:
Face it: Fats and Bo both suffered from having little sex appeal.
I say: As opposed to that hottie Buddy Holly?
Whichever of Elvis, Little Richard or Jerry Lee Lewis was truly responsible for making it that rock stars couldn’t look like Bill Haley or the Big Bopper anymore probably deserved an extra point or two for Historical Impact, since this is presumably the exact point where Look became a key component of rock. For better or worse, had this not happened, the Guys Who Look Like Sgt. Carter From Gomer Pyle Era of rock ‘n roll might still be going today.
I’m sorry, Mr Mod. I’m sure Fat’s and Bo “got more chicken that we have ever seen.” There is a reason the Fat Man is always smiling.
If Fats Domino is in play then what about Ray Charles. He had some great songs in the fifties = What’d I Say and I’ve Got a Woman come to mind. Plus he was riding the white pony before anyone else, which set the trend for rockers everywhere for decades to come.
The chicken the Fat Man was smiling over was literal. That kind of chicken can provide joy in its own way. Trust me.
The Prophet, The People spoke. All I could do was to report the will of The People. Ray Charles got one vote – maybe a second-place vote at that. The People preferred Carl Perkins, for cryin’ out loud!
Link Wray?
The consensus about the top 4 was pretty strong, with Jerry Lee, Carl, Fats, and the Coasters in a virtual tie far below the leading vote getters. All the other nominees, like Link Wray, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Johnny Burnette, etc. (if we had more Townswomen Wanda Jackson’s name might have come up) are better suited to a Mojo article on the Top 50 Rock & Roll Artists of the 50s.
It’s funny that Bill Haley’s name didn’t come up until alex mentioned him today in the context of his Look.
The early comments in the original post seemed to imply that Ray Charles was off the table as something other/larger than “rock”, or I would have gone to bat for him.
The first Google Image search result you get for Bill Haley is a photo of Haley and Elvis next to each other, and I think it’s very telling about the direction in which rock was headed. It’s also oddly reminiscent of the Nixon/Elvis photo, with Haley in Nixon’s spot. Pretty interesting bookends for Elvis’ career.
Well, perhaps I didn’t understand the evaluation process.
No disrespect to the Killer but as far as his rock contributions, he was a one trick pony. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good trick and all but not worthy of inclusion in the top five.
Wanda Jackson is pretty straight forward Rockabilly, as is Johnny Brunette, and both of them have a few stand out songs and then a lot of interchangeable stuff.
I though that Ray Charles would be disqualified because he was more R&B.
Rumble is great and all but Link Wray lacked the impact to make it to the 5.
Then there’s Bo: Punk gets a whole lot of credit for breaking things down to the barest essentials and Bo did that right after the whole thing started by playing songs with just one chord and having a band with just a guitar, drums and a trash talking maraca player. And he pulled that song switching trick on live TV about 25 years before Elvis did, and had a lot more to lose by doing it.
His tone is fantastic, his songs are enduring, he created a great image, and an entire frigging beat!
Can’t you people forgive him for not setting the piano on fire? Geez…
Hey, cdm — there’s bare essentials, and there’s bare essentials. Jeans and a T-shirt is different than underpants and hi-top chucks. I seriously don’t get this mania for Bo Diddley. I like him, I respect him — hell, I’ve *seen* him (and it was a sad thing) — but the notion that he’s somehow the great-grandfather of punk rock is absurd. If all it takes to get that medal pinned on your chest is a heaping helping of animality, then I can name dozens of people who were just as deserving.
Wow, the one guy who I though would have my back sticks a knife in it…
I would have thought you would have included Bo just on tone alone.
I didn’t say he was the great grandfather of punk, but I’ll defend the notion. I call your bluff: Start naming the other contenders.
Serious entries only. Don’t give me the shotgun approach so I have to explain why every one hit wonder who pulled some Crazy Man schtick isn’t the same thing as a real innovator.
Now ya’ll see that’s the great thing about this here discussion. What the funk is “rock-n-roll” in the fifties? There was what they called “race music” and there was the soft sounds of Perry Como, but when did it become “rock-n-roll”? When Alan Freed said so? What makes something like Fats Domino rock and roll and Ray Charles not? I could argue that Bo Diddley was the blues? This is an argument of biblical proportions. Hellfire and brimstone!
Jerry Lee Lewis rocks SOOOO much harder than Little Richard. I don’t know what planet you guys are on to think that this used car salesman of rock can even touch The Killer.
Watching him makes my sphincter clinch, in an unpleasant manner.
It became rock & roll when Elvis and Chuck and Buddy introduced white/country influences into R&B. On that basis you could exclude Little Richard. Even Fats had more country in his music than Richard.
Sammy, I love Jerry Lee, but are you sure you’ve heard the original Little Richard recordings on Specialty and not some later re-recordings?
The fact that rock and roll was only one part of what Ray Charles did: he also did gospel, blues, jazz and country. Fats did his one thing incredibly well — I have stated here before that Fats Domino, if nothing else, was probably the single most genial presence in the history of popular music — but it remains: he had one core sound, and he stuck with it. Ray Charles, on the other hand, was a polymath.
You can’t discount Little Richard for reasons that go beyond his music. Little Richard was the first major popular music figure to directly challenge “normal” sexuality (hell, the original lyrics to “Tutti-Frutti” were about buttsex!), and that’s been an element of much rock and roll ever since.
Mr. Maudlin, you know not of what you speak. While marrying your 14 year-old cousin is indeed very “rock” in a certain sense, listen to the original recording of “Lucille” and hang up the phone. That’s all you need to hear.
Hrrundi,
I take your silence as a complete and unconditional apology for your shabby treatment of Bo Diddley, and on behalf of myself, Bo Diddley’s estate, and rock fans everywhere, I accept it. It takes a big man to admit his shortcomings, even if he does so tacitly. Let the healing begin.
Townspeople, although I appreciate the continued bickering over the Final Results of our investigation, you were given ample opportunity to sort out the final selection and order. Your work was not for naught. I think we should all be proud of our conclusions. It was my understanding that you are The People and The People have spoken. Rock Town Hall’s Top 5 Rock ‘n Roll Artists of the ’50s are as follows (in order):
1. Elvis Presley
2. Buddy Holly
3. Chuck Berry
4. Little Richard
5. Jerry Lee Lewis
So it is written, so let it be done!
Now back to the bickering and hair splitting.
Did Ray Charles ever think of himself as a rock ‘n roller? I don’t know that he did, in which case I don’t think he should be shoved into this argument.
To a certain extent, Ray Charles seems to have thought of himself as an impurist when it came to the genre of his sounds, and he made remarks to that effect many times. Early in his career he got in trouble for using gospel stylings in blasphemous tunes, and in various ways he continued that genre bending for many years. His “country” records aren’t exactly country in anybody else’s sense, for instance.
Mr. Mod, I bow down to the list. The list is gospel. All hail the list. I will discuss this topic only from the guidelines of the list and always with the list in mind.
God Bless.
Top 5 Rock ‘n Roll Reversible Name Artists from the 50s:
Charles Ray
Holly Buddy
Richard Little
Lewis Lee Jerry
Jackson Wanda
Regards, Frank Chicken
Hey,
Thanks for the spread today and the tour of the studio. I think Mag is in love w/ one of your sons.
I gotta chime in on the 50’s stuff–Bo Diddley and Eddie Cochran are EASILY top 5. I won’t argue w/ the King, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry but Bo and Eddie are 1 and 2 in my book. Love, Pat.