Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat (after bands from Liverpool and nearby areas beside the River Mersey) is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll (mainly Chuck Berry guitar style and the midtempo beat of artists like Buddy Holly), doo-wop, skiffle and R&B. The genre provided many of the bands responsible for the British Invasion of the American pop charts starting in 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, including the format of the rock group around lead, rhythm and bass guitars with drums. The Beat Of The Pops - excellent selection of beat tracks.
The liner notes written by Kirk Silsbee tell a tale easily as intriguing as the fine music on this CD. Producer Lester Koenig asked Teddy Edwards to assemble a large ensemble of lesser known jazz musicians from Los Angeles to record originals and new arrangements of standards. Those players had difficulty with the somewhat tricky charts, and because they were not up to the highest standards, the project was mutually agreed upon to be scrapped. Nearly 35 years later, Ed Michel came upon the tapes, assessed that the feeling and spirit in them was good enough, and had them cleaned up by editing in alternate takes spliced by audio computer to enhance the originally imperfect sessions…
The recorded legacy of Elvis Presley continues to be discovered by new generations that never saw him or heard him perform live. It's hard to appreciate that he started so much of what we take for granted now in popular music. Until 1956, the teenagers of suburban America, and the rest of the world, had to endure ditties by Rosemary Clooney and Perry Como but everything was about to be tossed upside down. On January 28 on a cold night in New York, Elvis took America by storm as he appeared on CBS-TV's Stage Show hosted by Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey. On February 4 for his second appearance he sang a song that literally changed the world of popular music "Heartbreak Hotel". Its unique sound and style literally blew everything before it away while at the same time inducing the blueprint for everything that was to come; by April, it would be #1 on Billboard.
Weighing in at a hefty 34 tracks, this is the most exhaustive Swinging Blue Jeans anthology available…