For anyone in their mid-teens in the mid-5Os, and into music, it had to be rock'n'roll - American rock'n roll. There was no British equivalent to the sound. In the UK, it was Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Platters, Alan Freed, Radio Luxembourg, Voice Of America.
It's no secret that Chuck Berry's songs are rock & roll standards, covered by more musicians than can be counted. That poses something of a problem for Ace's Rock & Roll Music! The Songs of Chuck Berry, a 2017 entry in their ongoing Songbook series. Where other collections in this line provide some kind of revelation about the composer, these songs are so well-known through their constant covers that having 24 songs collected on one disc doesn't stand as a testament to the composer; anybody paying attention to rock & roll music knows that Chuck Berry was a formidable writer.
Chuck Berry fanatics, your ship has come in, and it’s the Queen Mary — or maybe we should call it the Queen Maybellene. As you’d expect from the Bear Family label, which specializes in gargantuan reissues, this 16-CD, 396-song box doesn’t simply span Berry’s career, it embraces virtually every musical note the man has ever issued. You’ll find all of his released album tracks and singles, starting with an obscure 1954 recording and including everything from the Chess, Mercury and Atco labels, plus every surviving alternate take. Also here are five CDs’ worth of concert performances from 1956 to 1972.
For anyone in their mid-teens in the mid-5Os, and into music, it had to be rock'n'roll - American rock'n roll. There was no British equivalent to the sound. In the UK, it was Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Platters, Alan Freed, Radio Luxembourg, Voice Of America. If the right people get to know about this and hear the quality, this will sell and sell.
“Rhythm & Blues Goes Rock & Roll volumes one to five from Atomicat Records looks at Caucasian cover-rockers from America and Australia. The musicians are from differing music backgrounds and covered R&B songs in their own style. The music within My Baby Left Me is sourced from the golden years of 1955 through to 1963, from labels large and small. Every album contains twenty-eight songs, and each album ends like Rock ‘n’ Roll evenings of the past, with a love song. The album is stuffed full of cover-rockers, with numerous artists being mostly unknown, but not lacking in star quality. The albums are perfect for collectors who wish to own a more diverse range of songs, and those who enjoy dancing.”
Rock & roll music scholars debate when the genre really began and which artist produced its first recording. But critics can agree that the music which defined a generation had its roots in the blues and rhythm & blues artists of the 1940s. Many of those early artists were African Americans who saw their songs recorded by young white musicians who liked their music so well they thought they wrote it. Setting aside the important issues of copyright piracy and musical equities, the kaleidoscope of contributors to the rock & roll idiom makes for interesting listening. This CD is part of a series that goes back to those days in the 1940s before rock & roll had a name and started a cultural revolution. This volume focuses on the year 1948, when an avalanche of great music was released, all bearing the throbbing beat that was to characterize the music later called rock & roll…
The year was 1947: World War II was over and there was music in the air, with Frank Sinatra making teenagers swoon. On other airways, primarily black radio stations, another, earthier music was being played which would become the foundation for what is now called rock & roll. Back then it was called the blues and rhythm & blues, and its voices had names like Wynonie Harris, Willie Dixon, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Among its musicians were Big Bill Broonzy, Hosea Sapp, and Thunder Smith. This CD is part of a series that chronicles the history of this music that was to have such an impact on rock & roll. This volume collects some of the great hits of 1947, when many baby boomers were born, who would go on to become the major supporters of the idiom…
This CD is part of a comprehensive study of the early influences of rock & roll. The blues and rhythm & blues sound created by African American artists, as well as a few crossover Anglo musicians, in the late '30s, '40s, and the '50s, laid the foundation for what was to become rock & roll. It was a sound characterized by a throbbing drumbeat and sensual notes on piano and horns, often with lyrics to match its earthy quality. Volume six collects some notable recordings of the year 1950, just before the big rock & roll explosion caused by artists such as Bill Haley & His Comets and Elvis Presley. The compilation makes clear the great musical debt these artists, who became rich and famous, owed to earlier artists, many of whom remained poor and obscure…