It's true that there is nothing new in rock, only creative amalgamations of what has gone before.
This is true in the 21st century, with the reworking of New Wave and Garage Rock, but it was also true 50 years ago with the birth of rock and roll.
Prior to the mid '50s popular music was roughly split into blues, country, and rhythm and blues. Rhythm and blues, in turn, was created by the secularization of gospel. For example, Ray Charles' career defining "I Got a Woman" was originally "Jesus is All the World to Me."
Black and white musicians in the South began to interact. When you add frenetic hillbilly to boogie-woogie piano, soul shouters and the electrified guitar, rockabilly is the natural result.
Add the charisma of Elvis, the pop appeal of "Rock Around the Clock", the guitar dominance of Chuck Berry and the wild antics of Jerry Lee Lewis (he has to be the first punk) and you have all the ingredients of a national teenage movement.
It's hard to imagine what it would have been like to be 16 in 1955 and hear this music for the first time in conservative America. Elvis is the new black and white minstrel, and Jerry Lee gives hope to 14 year old girls everywhere by eventually marrying one.
Here are our picks for the Top Ten Rockabilly tracks:
1. "Hound Dog" (try the original Big Mama Thornton Version)
2. "Tutti Frutti" - Little Richard (precursor to Glam?)
3. "Matchbox" - Carl Perkins
4. "Summertime Blues" - Eddie Cochran (by the way, have you heard the Blue Cheer hard rock version?)
5. "Great Balls of Fire" - Jerry Lee Lewis (and check out the Black Oak Arkansas version)
6. "Johnny B. Goode" - Chuck Berry (even Led Zeppelin covered it)
7. "Blue Suede Shoes" - Carl Perkins
8. "Susie Q" - Dale Hawkins (and CCR and the Stones)
9. "Rave On" - Buddy Holly
10. "Chantilly Lace" - Big Bopper
by Paul Rhodes
