Rockabilly
Encyclopedia
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 music, dating to the early 1950s.

The term rockabilly is a portmanteau
Portmanteau word
A portmanteau or portmanteau word is a blend of two words or morphemes into one new word. A portmanteau word typically combines both sounds and meanings, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog. More generally, it may refer to any term or phrase that combines two or more meanings...

 of rock (from rock 'n' roll) and hillbilly
Hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...

, the latter a reference to the country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 (often called hillbilly music in the 1940s and 1950s) that contributed strongly to the style's development. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...

, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

. While there are notable exceptions, its origins lie primarily in the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

.

The influence and popularity of the style waned in the 1960s, but during the late 1970s and early 1980s, rockabilly enjoyed a major revival of popularity that has endured to the present, often within a rockabilly subculture
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...

.

Origins

There was a close relationship between the blues and country music from the very earliest country recordings in the 1920s. The first nationwide country hit was "Wreck of the Old '97", backed with "Lonesome Road Blues", which also became very popular. Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...

, the "first true country star", was known as the "Blue Yodeler", and most of his songs used blues-based chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...

s, although with very different instrumentation and sound from the recordings of his black contemporaries like Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson
"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues"....

 and Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...

.

During the 1930s and 1940s, two new sounds emerged. Bob Wills
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...

 and his Texas Playboys were the leading proponents of Western Swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...

, which combined country singing and steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...

 with big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

 jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 influences and horn section
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...

s; Wills's music found massive popularity. Recordings of Wills's from the mid 40s to the early 50s include "two beat jazz" rhythms, "jazz choruses", and guitar work that preceded early rockabilly recordings. Wills is quoted as saying "Rock and Roll? Why, man, that's the same kind of music we've been playin' since 1928!... But it's just basic rhythm and has gone by a lot of different names in my time. It's the same, whether you just follow a drum beat like in Africa or surround it with a lot of instruments. The rhythm's what's important."

After blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 artists like Meade Lux Lewis
Meade Lux Lewis
Meade Lux Lewis was a American pianist and composer, noted for his work in the boogie-woogie style. His best known work, "Honky Tonk Train Blues", has been recorded in various contexts, often in a big band arrangement...

 and Pete Johnson
Pete Johnson
Pete Johnson was an American boogie-woogie and jazz pianist.Journalist Tony Russell stated in his book The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, that "Johnson shared with the other members of the 'Boogie Woogie Trio' the technical virtuosity and melodic fertility that can make this the most...

 launched a nationwide boogie
Boogie-woogie (music)
Boogie-woogie is a style of piano-based blues that became popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but originated much earlier, and was extended from piano, to three pianos at once, guitar, big band, and country and western music, and even gospel. Whilst the blues traditionally depicts a variety...

 craze starting in 1938, country artists like Moon Mullican
Moon Mullican
Aubrey Wilson Mullican , known as Moon Mullican, was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. However, he also sang and played jazz, rock 'n' roll and the blues...

, the Delmore Brothers, Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...

, Speedy West
Speedy West
Wesley Webb West , better known as Speedy West, was an American pedal steel guitarist and record producer. He frequently played with Jimmy Bryant, both in their own duo and as part of the regular Capitol Records backing band for Tennessee Ernie Ford and many others...

, Jimmy Bryant
Jimmy Bryant
Jimmy Bryant was a prominent American session guitarist. He was billed as "The Fastest Guitar in the Country".-Biography:Ivy J. Bryant, Jr. was born in Moultrie, Georgia, the oldest of 12 children...

, and the Maddox Brothers and Rose
Maddox Brothers and Rose
The Maddox Brothers and Rose, known as America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band from the 1930s to the 1950s, consisted of four brothers, Fred, Cal, Cliff and Don Maddox, along with their sister Rose. Cliff died in 1949 and was replaced by brother Henry...

 began recording what was known as "Hillbilly Boogie
Boogie-woogie (music)
Boogie-woogie is a style of piano-based blues that became popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but originated much earlier, and was extended from piano, to three pianos at once, guitar, big band, and country and western music, and even gospel. Whilst the blues traditionally depicts a variety...

", which consisted of "hillbilly" vocals and instrumentation with a boogie bass line.

The Maddox Brothers and Rose were at "the leading edge of rockabilly with the slapped bass that Fred Maddox had developed". Maddox said, "You've got to have somethin' they can tap their foot, or dance to, or to make 'em feel it." After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the band shifted into higher gear leaning more toward a whimsical honky-tonk feel, with a heavy, manic bottom end - the slap bass of Fred Maddox.
"They played hillbilly music but it sounded real hot. They played real loud for that time, too..." The Maddoxes were also known for their lively "antics and stuff." "We always put on a show... I mean it just wasn't us up there pickin' and singing. There was something going on all the time." "...the demonstrative Maddoxes, helped release white bodies from traditional motions of decorum... more and more younger white artists began to behave on stage like the lively Maddoxes." Others believe that they were not only at the leading edge, but were one of the first Rockabilly groups, if not the first.

Zeb Turner
Zeb Turner
Zeb Turner was an American boogie-woogie songwriter and guitarist, and pioneer of rockabilly.He was born William Edward Grishaw in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States, and he renamed himself after a favorite piece of music, "The Zeb Turner Stomp"...

's February 1953 recording of "Jersey Rock" with its mix of musical styles, lyrics about music and dancing, and guitar solo, is another example of the mixing of musical genres in the first half of the 1950s.

Bill Monroe
Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...

 is known as the Father of Bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

, a specific style of country music. Many of his songs were in blues form, while others took the form of folk ballads, parlor songs, or waltzes. Bluegrass was a staple of country music in the early 1950s, and is often mentioned as an influence in the development of rockabilly.

The Honky Tonk
Honky tonk
A honky-tonk is a type of bar that provides musical entertainment to its patrons...

 sound, which "tended to focus on working-class life, with frequently tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness, alcoholism, and self-pity", also included songs of energetic, uptempo Hillbilly Boogie. Some of the better known musicians who recorded and performed these songs are: the Delmore Brothers, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Merle Travis
Merle Travis
Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon"...

, Hank Williams, Hank Snow
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...

, and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Curtis Gordon
Curtis Gordon
Curtis Gordon was an American rockabilly singer.Gordon was heavily influenced by Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, and Jimmie Rodgers as a child. He won a radio talent show as a teen and left high school to be the lead singer of his own band, which included fiddle player Jimmy Bryant...

's 1953 "Rompin' and Stompin' ", an uptempo hillbilly-boogie included the lyrics, "Way down south where I was born, They rocked all night 'til early morn', They start rockin', They start rockin' an rollin'."

Carl Perkins

Sharecroppers' sons Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...

 and his brothers Jay Perkins and Clayton Perkins, along with drummer W. S. Holland
W. S. Holland
W. S. "Fluke" Holland is a drummer who worked extensively with numerous rock and roll musicians, beginning with Carl Perkins, but became well known as the drummer in singer Johnny Cash's succession of backing bands: The Tennessee Three, The Great Eighties Eight, and The Johnny Cash Show Band...

, had been playing their music roughly ninety miles from Memphis. The Perkins Brothers Band, featuring both Carl and Jay on lead vocals, quickly established themselves as the hottest band on the cutthroat, "get-hot-or-go-home" Jackson, TN honky tonk circuit. Most of the requests for songs were for hillbilly songs that were delivered as jived up versions - classic Hank Williams standards infused with a faster rhythm. It was here that Carl started composing his first songs with an eye toward the future. Watching the dance floor at all times for a reaction, working out a more rhythmically driving style of music that was neither country nor blues, but had elements of both, Perkins kept reshaping these loosely structured songs until he had a completed composition, which would then be finally put to paper. Carl was already sending demos to New York record companies, who kept rejecting him, sometimes explaining that this strange new style of country with a pronounced rhythm fit no current commercial trend. That would change in 1955 after recording the song 'Blue Suede Shoes
Blue Suede Shoes
"Blue Suede Shoes" is a rock and roll standard written and first recorded by Carl Perkins in 1955 and is considered one of the first rockabilly records and incorporated elements of blues, country and pop music of the time...

' (recorded 19 December 1955). Later made more famous by Elvis Presley, Perkins' original version was an early rock 'n' roll standard.

Memphis

In the early 1950s there was heavy competition among Memphis area bands playing an audience-savvy mix of covers, original songs, and hillbilly flavored blues. One source mentions both local disc jocky Dewey Phillips and Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...

 as being influential. Scotty Moore
Scotty Moore
Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years...

 remembers that, "You could play...As long as you could play, say, the top eight or ten songs from country, pop, R&B. They didn't care what instruments you had, as long as people could dance."

The Saturday Night Jamboree

The Saturday Night Jamboree was a local stage show held every Saturday night at the Goodwyn Institute Auditorium in downtown Memphis, Tennessee in 1953-54. But of more historical significance was something that was going on backstage in the dressing rooms. Every Saturday night in 1953, the dressing rooms backstage were a gathering place where musicians would come together and experiment with new sounds - mixing fast country, gospel, blues and boogie woogie. Guys were bringing in new "licks" that they had developed and were teaching them to other musicians and were learning new "licks" from yet other musicians backstage. Soon these new sounds began to make their way out onto the stage of the Jamboree where they found a very receptive audience.

The Burnettes and Burlison

Younger musicians around Memphis, Tennessee were beginning to play a mix of musical styles. Paul Burlison, for one, was playing in nondescript hillbilly bands in the very early 1950s. One of these early groups secured a fifteen minute show on radio station KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas. The time slot was adjacent to Howlin' Wolf's and the music quickly became a curious blend of blues, country and what would become known as rockabilly music. In 1951 and 1952 the Burnettes (Johnny
Johnny Burnette
John Joseph "Johnny" Burnette was an American rockabilly musician. Along with his older brother Dorsey Burnette, and also a friend named Paul Burlison, Burnette was a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. He was the father of 1980s rockabilly singer Rocky Burnette.-Early life:Johnny Burnette...

 and Dorsey
Dorsey Burnette
Dorsey Burnette was an early Rockabilly singer. With his younger brother, Johnny Burnette, and a friend named Paul Burlison, he was a founder member of The Rock and Roll Trio.-Background and early career:Dorsey Burnett was born on December 28, 1932 to Willie May and Dorsey Burnett Sr...

) and Burlison played around Memphis and established a reputation for wild music. According to Burlison, "...when we started playing in 1951, we played an uptempo-style country beat with gospel, blues, and a little swing mixed in."

They played with Doc McQueen's Swing Band at the Hideaway Club but hated the type of music played by "chart musicians." Soon they broke away and began playing their energetic brand of rockabilly to small, but appreciative, local audiences. They wrote "Rock Billy Boogie," named after Johnny's new baby boy Rocky Burnette
Rocky Burnette
Rocky Burnette is an American rock and roll singer/musician and the son of rock and roll pioneer, Johnny Burnette. He is best known for his 1980 hit single "Tired of Toein' the Line."-Career:...

 and Dorsey's new son Billy, who were both born in 1953, while working at the Hideaway. Unfortunately for the Burnettes and Burlison, they didn't record the song until 1957.

The trio released "Train Kept A-Rollin" in 1956, listed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the top 500 rock songs of all time, having been covered by Aerosmith, the Yardbirds, and many others. Many consider this 1956 recording to be the first intentional use of a distortion guitar on a rock song, played by lead guitarist Paul Burlison.

Elvis Presley

Presley's first recording, a blues song titled "That's Alright Mama", was previously recorded in 1946 by Arthur Crudup
Arthur Crudup
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs such as "That's All Right" , "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later covered by Elvis Presley and dozens of other artists.-Career:Arthur Crudup...

. In this recording Presley married "black" and "white" genres to an extent that it was denied airplay on (white) country radio stations and (black) R&B stations, dismissed for being defined as both "black" and "white" music. Record Producer Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...

 was told by country deejays that Presley's "That's Alright Mama" was "black music" and lamented they would be "run out of town" for playing it. Similarly, R&B deejays categorized it as a (white) country song When the song was finally played by one rogue deejay, Dewey Phillips
Dewey Phillips
"Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips was one of rock 'n' roll's pioneering disk jockeys, along the lines of Cleveland's Alan Freed, before Freed came along.-Early life:...

, Presley's recording created so much excitement it was described as having waged war on segregated radio stations. "The Sun recordings were the first salvos in an undeclared war on segregated radio stations nationwide."

All of Presley's early records combined a blues song on one side and a country song on the other, but both sung in the same vein.

Presley's unique musical style rocketed him into the spotlight, and drew masses of followers: "But it's Presley's singing, halfway between a country western and a R&B rock 'n' roll style that has sent teenagers into a trance. Whether you like it or not, there will always be an Elvis Presley." (Helen McNamara, June 9, 1956 Issue Saturday Night Magazine)

Presley's first, historical recordings took place at Sun Records
Sun Records
Sun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27, 1952.Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash...

, a small independent label run by Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...

 in Memphis, Tennessee. The historical significance of these first Presley recordings and their impact on future musical artists is well exemplified by the actions of legendary musical artist Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, who is said to have gone to Sun Records and kissed the "x" where Elvis had stood to record his first recordings. Further stated by Dylan: "I thank God for Elvis Presley".

For several years, Phillips had been recording and releasing performances by blues and country musicians in the area. He also ran a service allowing anyone to come in off the street and for $3.98 (plus tax) record himself on a two-song vanity record. One young man who came to record himself as a surprise for his mother, he claimed, was Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

.

According to Phillips, “Ninety-five percent of the people I had been working with were black, most of them of course no name people. Elvis fit right in. He was born and raised in poverty. He was around people that had very little in the way of worldly goods.”

Presley made enough of an impression that Phillips deputized guitarist Scotty Moore
Scotty Moore
Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years...

, who then enlisted bassist Bill Black
Bill Black
William Patton "Bill" Black, Jr. was an American musician who is noted as one of the pioneers of rockabilly music. Black was the bassist in Elvis Presley's early trio and the leader of Bill Black's Combo....

, both from the Starlight Wranglers, a local western swing band, to work with the green young Elvis. The trio rehearsed dozens of songs, from traditional country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

, to "Harbor Lights
Harbor Lights
"Harbor Lights" is a popular song by Hugh Williams with lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy. This song was originally sung by Frances Langford in 1937 and was published again in 1950....

", a hit for crooner Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

 to gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

. During a break on July 5, 1954 Elvis "jumped up ... and started frailin' guitar and singin' "That's All Right, Mama" (a 1946 blues song by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup). Scotty and Bill began playing along. Excited, Phillips told them to “back up and start from the beginning.” Two or three takes later, Phillips had a satisfactory recording, and released “That’s All Right,” on July 19, 1954, along with an "Elvis Presley Scotty and Bill" version of Bill Monroe's waltz, Blue Moon of Kentucky
Blue Moon of Kentucky
"Blue Moon of Kentucky" is a waltz written in 1946 by bluegrass musician Bill Monroe and recorded by his band, The Blue Grass Boys. The song has since been recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley....

, a country standard.

Presley's Sun recordings feature his vocals and rhythm guitar, Bill Black’s percussive slapped bass, and Scotty Moore on an amplified guitar. Slap bass
Slapping
In music, the term slapping is often used to refer to two different playing techniques used on the double bass and on the bass guitar.-Double bass:...

 had been a staple of both Western Swing and Hillbilly Boogie since the 1940s. Commenting on his own guitar playing, Scotty Moore said, "All I can tell you is I just stole from every guitar player I heard over the years. Put it in my data bank. An' when I played that's just what come out."

Scotty Moore described their first session, resulting in the recording of "That's Alright Mama": "We were taking a break and, all of sudden, Elvis started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool. Then Bill Black picked up his bass and began acting the fool too, and I started playing with them. Sam had the door to the control room open, and stuck his head out and said, 'What are you doing?' We said, 'We don't know'. He said, 'Well, back up. Try to find a place to start, and do it again'. So we kinda talked it over and figured out a little bit what we were doin'. We ran it again, and of course Sam is listenin'. 'Bout the third or fourth time through, we just cut it. It was basically a rhythm record. It wasn't any great thing. It wasn't Sam tellin' him what to do. Elvis was joking around, just doing what come naturally, what he felt."

Some have claimed that the sound of “That’s Alright” was not entirely new, "It wasn't that they said 'I never heard anything like it before.' It wasn't as if this started a revolution, it galvanized a revolution. Not because Elvis had expressed something new, but he expressed something they had all been trying to express." Sam Phillips indicated that for him it was a new sound, saying "It just broke me up". And many echo the sentiment that it was a sound like no other they had heard: "When I first heard Elvis singing "That's Alright Mama". The time just stood still. It knocked my socks off." --Ramon Maupin 

Nobody was sure what to call Presley's music, so Elvis was described as “The Hillbilly Cat” and “King of Western Bop.” Over the next year, Elvis would record four more singles for Sun. Rockabilly recorded by artists prior to Presley can be described as being in the long-standing country style of Rockabilly. Presley's recordings are described by some as quintessential rockabilly for their true union of country and R&B, which can be described as the true realization of the Rockabilly genre. In addition to the fusion of distinct genres, Presley's recordings contain some traditional as well as new traits: “nervously up tempo” (as Peter Guralnick
Peter Guralnick
Peter Guralnick is an American music critic, writer on music, and historian of US American popular music, who is also active as an author and screenwriter. He has been married for over 45 years to Alexandra...

 describes it), with slap bass, fancy guitar picking, lots of echo, shouts of encouragement, and vocals full of histrionics such as hiccups, stutters, and swoops from falsetto to bass and back again.

By the end of 1954 Elvis asked D.J. Fontana, who was the underutilized drummer for the Louisiana Hayride
Louisiana Hayride
Louisiana Hayride was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American music...

, "Would you go with us if we got any more dates?" Presley was now using drums, as did many other rockabilly performers; drums were then uncommon in country music. In the 1955 sessions shortly after Presley’s move from Sun Records to RCA, Presley was backed by a band that included Moore, Black, Fontana, lap steel guitarist Jimmy Day, and pianist Floyd Cramer
Floyd Cramer
Floyd Cramer was an American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the "Nashville sound." He popularized the "slip note" piano style where an out-of-tune note slides effortlessly into the correct note...

. In 1956 Elvis acquired vocal backup via the Jordanaires.

Bill Haley

In 1951, a western swing bandleader named Bill Haley
Bill Haley
Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".-Early life and career:...

 recorded a version of "Rocket 88
Rocket 88
"Rocket 88" is a rhythm and blues song that was first recorded at Sam Phillips' recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, on 3 March or 5 March 1951...

" with his group, the Saddlemen. Considered one of the earliest recognized rockabilly recordings, it was followed by versions of "Rock the Joint
Rock the Joint
"Rock the Joint", also known as "We're Gonna Rock This Joint Tonight", is a boogie song recorded by various proto-rock and roll singers, notably Jimmy Preston and early rock and roll singers, most notably Bill Haley...

" in 1952, and original works such as "Real Rock Drive" and "Crazy Man, Crazy
Crazy Man, Crazy
"Crazy Man, Crazy" was the title of an early rock and roll song first recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets in April 1953. It is notable as the first recognized rock and roll recording to appear on the national American musical charts, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Juke Box chart for the week...

", the latter of which reached #12 on the American Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 chart in 1953.

On April 12, 1954, Haley with his band (now known as Bill Haley and His Comets) recorded "Rock Around the Clock
Rock Around the Clock
"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954...

" for Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 of New York City. When first released in May 1954, "Rock Around the Clock" made the charts for one week at number 23, and sold 75,000 copies. A year later it was featured in the film Blackboard Jungle
Blackboard Jungle
Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school. It is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter.-Plot:...

, and soon afterwards it was topping charts all over the world and opening up a new genre of entertainment. "Rock Around the Clock" hit No. 1, held that position for eight weeks, and was the #2 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 1955. The recording was, until the late 1990s, recognized by Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

 as having the highest sales claim for a pop vinyl recording, with an "unaudited" claim of 25 million copies sold.

Rock 'n' roll, an expansive term coined a couple years earlier by DJ Alan Freed, had now been to the pop mountaintop, a position it would never quite relinquish.

Bill Flagg

Maine native, and Connecticut resident Bill Flagg
Bill Flagg
Bill Flagg is an American country and rockabilly singer, who was the first to use the term, rockabilly.- Childhood and youth :...

 began using the term rockabilly for his combination of rock 'n' roll and hillbilly music as early as 1953 He cut several songs for Tetra Records in 1956 and 1957. "Go Cat Go" went into the National Billboard charts in 1956, and his "Guitar Rock" is cited as classic rockabilly.

Janis Martin on The Old Dominion Barn Dance Show

In 1953 at the age of 13 Janis Martin
Janis Martin
Janis Darlene Martin was an American rockabilly and country music singer. She was one of the few women working in the male-dominated rock and roll music field during the 1950s and one of country music's early female innovators...

 was developing her own proto-rockabilly style on WRVA's Old Dominion Barn Dance, which broadcast out of Richmond, VA. Although Martin performed mostly country songs for the show, she also did songs by Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 singers Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...

 and LaVern Baker
LaVern Baker
LaVern Baker was an American rhythm and blues singer, who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were "Tweedlee Dee" , "Jim Dandy" , and "I Cried a Tear" .-Early life:She was born Delores LaVern Baker in Chicago, Illinois...

, as well as a few Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...

 songs. "The audience didn't know what to make of it. They didn't hardly allow electric instruments, and I was doing some songs by black artists—stuff like Ruth Brown's 'Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean.'

Cash, Perkins, and Presley

In 1954, both Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

 and Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...

 auditioned for Sam Phillips. Cash hoped to record gospel music, but Phillips immediately nixed that idea. Cash did not return until 1955. In October 1954 Carl Perkins and “The Perkins Brothers Band” showed up at the Sun Studios. Phillips recorded Perkins’s original song Movie Magg, which was released early March 1955 on Phillips's Flip label, which was all country.

Presley’s second and third records were not as successful as the first. The fourth release in May 1955 Baby, Let’s Play House peaked at #5 on the national Billboard Country Chart. The Sun label correctly lists “Gunter” (Arthur) as the song writer, a song which he recorded in 1954. In 1951 Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold , known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more...

 recorded a song titled I Want to Play House with You by Cy Coben that sounds nothing like the Arthur Gunter song recorded by Elvis.

Cash returned to Sun in 1955 with his song Hey, Porter
Hey, Porter
"Hey, Porter" is a song by Johnny Cash. It was recorded in September 1, 1954 and released as a single in July the following year.-Origins:Cash wrote the song while on his way home from a four year stint in the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Landsberg, Germany, and as such felt elated...

, and his group the Tennessee Three
Tennessee Three
The Tennessee Three was the backing band for country music and rockabilly singer Johnny Cash for nearly 25 years, until Cash's reorganizing of the group and naming it The Great Eighties Eight in 1980....

, who became the Tennessee Two before the session was over. This song and another Cash original, Cry! Cry! Cry! were released in July. Cry! Cry! Cry! managed to crack Billboard's Top 20, peaking at No. 14.

In August Sun released Elvis’s versions of “I Forgot to Remember to Forget
I Forgot to Remember to Forget
"I Forgot to Remember to Forget" is a country song written by Stan Kesler and Charlie Feathers. It was recorded at Sun Studio on July 11, 1955, by Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and Johnny Bernero on drums, and released on August 20, 1955, along with "Mystery Train"...

” and "Mystery Train
Mystery Train
"Mystery Train" is a song written by Junior Parker and Sam Phillips. It was first recorded in Phillip's Memphis Recording Service and Sun Records at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee in 1953. Raymond Hill plays tenor sax and Matt Murphy plays lead guitar with Bill Johnson on piano, Pat Hare on...

". “Forgot...”, written by Sun country artists Stan Kesler and Charlie Feathers
Charlie Feathers
Charles Arthur "Charlie" Feathers was an influential American rockabilly and country music performer.-Biography:...

, spent a total of 39 weeks on the Billboard Country Chart, with five of the those weeks at the #1 spot. “Mystery Train”, with writing credits for both Herman Little Junior Parker and Sam Phillips, peaked at #11.

Through most of 1955, Cash, Perkins, Presley, and other Louisiana Hayride performers toured through Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Sun released two more Perkins songs in October: “Gone, Gone, Gone” and “Let the Jukebox Keep on Playing”.

Scotty Moore commented on the different roles of Elvis and Perkins, "Carl was a nice-looking big hunk, like out in the cornfield type. Elvis was more like an Adonis
Adonis
Adonis , in Greek mythology, the god of beauty and desire, is a figure with Northwest Semitic antecedents, where he is a central figure in various mystery religions. The Greek , Adōnis is a variation of the Semitic word Adonai, "lord", which is also one of the names used to refer to God in the Old...

. But as a rockabilly, Carl was the king of that."

1955 was also the year in which Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

’s hillbilly influenced Maybellene
Maybellene
"Maybellene" is a song recorded by Chuck Berry, adapted from the traditional fiddle tune "Ida Red" that tells the story of a hot rod race and a broken romance. It was released in July 1955 as a single on Chess Records of Chicago, Illinois. It was Berry's first single release and his first hit...

reached high in the charts as a crossover hit, and Bill Haley and His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...

Rock Around the Clock
Rock Around the Clock
"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954...

was not only #1 for 8 weeks, but was the #2 record for the year.
Rock ‘n’ Roll in general, and rockabilly in particular, was at critical mass
Critical mass (sociodynamics)
Critical mass is a sociodynamic term to describe the existence of sufficient momentum in a social system such that the momentum becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth....

 and the next year, Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel and Don't Be Cruel would top the Billboard Charts as well.

1956: Rockabilly goes national

In January 1956 three new classic songs by Cash, Perkins, and Presley were released: "Folsom Prison Blues
Folsom Prison Blues
"Folsom Prison Blues" is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music artist Johnny Cash. The song combines elements from two popular folk genres, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash would continue to use for the rest of his career...

" by Cash, and "Blue Suede Shoes
Blue Suede Shoes
"Blue Suede Shoes" is a rock and roll standard written and first recorded by Carl Perkins in 1955 and is considered one of the first rockabilly records and incorporated elements of blues, country and pop music of the time...

" by Perkins, both on Sun; and "Heartbreak Hotel
Heartbreak Hotel
"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American rock and roll musician Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. His first number-one pop record, "Heartbreak Hotel" topped Billboards Top 100 chart, became his first...

" by Presley on RCA. Other rockabilly tunes released this month included See You Later Alligator
See You Later Alligator
"See You Later, Alligator" is the title of an iconic rock and roll song of the 1950s.Originally entitled "Later Alligator", the song, based on a 12-bar blues chord structure , was written by Louisiana songwriter Robert Charles Guidry and first recorded by him under his professional name "Bobby...

 by Roy Hall
Roy Hall
Roy Hall is an American football wide receiver for the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League. He was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the fifth round of the 2007 NFL Draft...

 and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On by the Commodores (no relation to the '70s Motown group).

Perkins's "Blue Suede Shoes" sold 20,000 records a day at one point, and it was the first million-selling country song to cross over to both rhythm and blues and pop charts. On February 11, Presley appeared on the Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show
Stage Show
Stage Show was a popular music variety series on American television originally hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Produced by Jackie Gleason, the CBS-TV show included the first national television appearances by Elvis Presley.The series began as a...

for the third time, singing "Blue Suede Shoes" and “Heartbreak Hotel.” He performed “Blue Suede Shoes” two more times on national television, and “Heartbreak Hotel” three times throughout 1956. Both songs topped the Billboard charts.

Perkins first performed "Blue Suede Shoes" on television March 17 on Ozark Jubilee
Ozark Jubilee
Ozark Jubilee is the first U.S. network television program to feature country music's top stars, and was the centerpiece of a strategy for Springfield, Missouri to challenge Nashville, Tennessee as America's country music capital...

, a weekly ABC-TV program. From 1955 to 1960, the live national radio and TV show from Springfield, Missouri
Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...

 featured Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...

 and Wanda Jackson
Wanda Jackson
Wanda Lavonne Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and 60s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers and a pioneering rock and roll artist...

 and guests included Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...

 and other rockabilly artists.

Sun and RCA weren’t the only record companies releasing rockabilly music. In March Columbia released "Honky Tonk Man
Honky Tonk Man (song)
"Honky Tonk Man" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Johnny Horton. It was released in March 1956 as his debut single, reaching #9 on the U.S. country singles charts...

" by Johnny Horton, King put out "Seven Nights to Rock" by Moon Mullican, Mercury issued "Rockin’ Daddy" by Eddie Bond, and Starday released Bill Mack's “Fat Woman”. Carl Perkins, meanwhile, was involved in a major automobile accident on his way to appear on national television.

Two young men from Texas made their record debuts in April 1956: Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...

 on the Decca label, and, as a member of the Teen Kings, Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

 with “Ooby Dooby" on the New Mexico/Texas based Je-wel label. Holly's big hits would not be released until 1957. Janis Martin
Janis Martin
Janis Darlene Martin was an American rockabilly and country music singer. She was one of the few women working in the male-dominated rock and roll music field during the 1950s and one of country music's early female innovators...

 was all of fifteen years old when RCA issued a record with “Will You, Willyum” and the Martin composed “Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll”, which sold over 750,000 copies. King records issued a new disk by forty-seven year old Moon Mullican: “Seven Nights to Rock” and “Rock 'N' Roll Mr. Bullfrog”. Twenty more sides were issued by various labels including 4 Star, Blue Hen, Dot, Cold Bond, Mercury, Reject, Republic, Rodeo, and Starday.

In April and May, 1956, The Rock and Roll Trio
The Rock and Roll Trio
The Rock and Roll Trio was the name of a rockabilly group which was formed in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1950s. They were also known as "Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio" and the "Johnny Burnette Trio". The members of the Trio were Dorsey Burnette, his younger brother Johnny, and a...

 played on the Ted Mack
Ted Mack (television host)
Ted Mack , born as William Edward Maguiness, was the host of Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour on radio and television....

’s TV talent show
Original Amateur Hour
The Original Amateur Hour is an American radio and television program. The show was a continuation of Major Bowes Amateur Hour which had been a radio staple from 1934 to 1945. Major Edward Bowes, the originator of the program and its master of ceremonies, left the show in 1945 and died the...

 in New York City. They won all three times and guaranteed them a finalist position in the September supershow.

Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...

 and His Blue Caps’ recording of "Be-Bop-A-Lula
Be-Bop-A-Lula
"Be-Bop-A-Lula" is a rockabilly song first recorded in 1956 by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps.-Origins of the song:The writing of the song is credited to Gene Vincent and his manager, Bill "Sheriff Tex" Davis. There is evidence that the song was started in 1955, when Vincent was recuperating from...

" was released on June 2, 1956, backed by "Woman Love." Within twenty-one days it sold over two hundred thousand records, stayed at the top of national pop and country charts for twenty weeks, and sold more than a million copies. These same musicians would have two more releases in 1956, followed by another in January 1957.

"Queen of Rockabilly" Wanda Jackson's first record came out in July, "I Gotta Know" on the Capitol label; followed by "Hot Dog That Made Him Mad" in November. Capitol would release nine more records by Jackson, some with songs she had written herself, before the 1950s were over.

The first record by Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...

 came out on December 22, 1956, and it featured the song “Crazy Arms” which had been a #1 hit for Ray Price
Ray Price (musician)
Ray Price is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music...

 for twenty weeks earlier in the year, along with “End of the Road”.
Lewis would have big hits in 1957 with his version of Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On, issued in May, and "Great Balls Of Fire
Great Balls of Fire
"Great Balls of Fire" is a 1957 song recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie Jamboree. It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer...

" on Sun.

Although Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...

 records were released beginning in April 1957, his first hit record (#8) was "Believe What You Say", released in March 1958.

Additional performers and information

There were thousands of musicians who recorded songs in the rockabilly style. An online database lists 262 musicians with names beginning with "A". And many record companies released rockabilly records. Some enjoyed major chart success and were important influences on future rock musicians.

Sun also hosted performers, such as Billy Lee Riley
Billy Lee Riley
Billy Lee Riley was an American rockabilly musician, singer, record producer and songwriter. His most memorable recordings included "Rock With Me Baby," and "Red Hot".-Biography:...

, Sonny Burgess
Sonny Burgess
Albert Austin "Sonny" Burgess is an American rockabilly guitarist and singer....

, Charlie Feathers
Charlie Feathers
Charles Arthur "Charlie" Feathers was an influential American rockabilly and country music performer.-Biography:...

, and Warren Smith
Warren Smith (singer)
Warren Smith was an American rockabilly and country music singer and guitarist.-Biography:Smith was born in Humphreys County, Mississippi to Iola and Willie Warren Smith, who divorced when he was young...

. There were also several female performers like Wanda Jackson
Wanda Jackson
Wanda Lavonne Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and 60s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers and a pioneering rock and roll artist...

 who recorded rockabilly music long after the other ladies, Janis Martin, the female Elvis Jo Ann Campbell
Jo Ann Campbell
Jo Ann Campbell is an American pop singer.Campbell began attending music school at the age of four, and won many honors as a drum majorette at Fletcher High School...

, and Alis Lesley
Alis Lesley
Alis Lesley is a former American rockabilly singer, once billed as "the female Elvis Presley."Lesley was born Alice Lesley in Chicago, Illinois on April 20, 1938. Her family later moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she attended Phoenix Junior College. She majored in television and radio, and began...

, who also sang in the rockabilly style. Mel Kimbrough -"Slim", recorded "I Get Lonesome Too" and "Ha Ha, Hey Hey" for Glenn Records along with "Love in West Virginia" and "Country Rock Sound" for Checkmate a division of Caprice Records.

Gene Summers
Gene Summers
Gene Summers is an American rock/rockabilly singer and entertainer. Some of his classic recordings include "School of Rock 'n Roll", "Straight Skirt", "Nervous", "Gotta Lotta That", "Twixteen", "Alabama Shake" and his biggest-selling single "Big Blue Diamonds"...

, a Dallas native and Rockabilly Hall of Fame
Rockabilly Hall of Fame
The Rockabilly Hall of Fame was established on the internet on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relative to the artists and personalities involved in this pioneering American music genre....

 inductee, released his classic Jan/Jane 45s in 1958-59. He continued to record rockabilly music well into 1964 with the release of "Alabama Shake". In 2005, Summers' most popular recording, School of Rock 'n Roll
School of Rock 'n Roll
"School Of Rock 'n Roll" is a song composed by James McClung in 1958 and published by Song Productions, BMI the same year. It was originally recorded by Gene Summers and his Rebels, a rockabilly band from Dallas, Texas and was first released in February, 1958 by Jan Records #11-100...

, was selected by Bob Solly and Record Collector
Record Collector
Record Collector is the United Kingdom's longest-running monthly music magazine. It distributes both within the UK and worldwide. It started in 1979.-The early years:...

 Magazine as one of the "100 Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Records".

Tommy Sleepy LaBeef
Sleepy LaBeef
Sleepy LaBeef is an American rockabilly musician.LaBeef stands 6' 7" tall and was given the nickname "Sleepy" from the appearance of his eyes. Born in Arkansas, he was raised on a melon farm and moved to Houston when he was 18...

 (LaBeff) recorded rockabilly tunes on a number of labels from 1957 through 1963. Rockabilly pioneers the Maddox Brothers and Rose
Maddox Brothers and Rose
The Maddox Brothers and Rose, known as America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band from the 1930s to the 1950s, consisted of four brothers, Fred, Cal, Cliff and Don Maddox, along with their sister Rose. Cliff died in 1949 and was replaced by brother Henry...

, both as a group, and with Rose as a solo act, added onto their two decades of performing by making records that were even more rocking. However, none of these artists had any major hits and their influence would not be felt until decades later

In the summer of 1958 Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the...

 had a chart topping hit with "Summertime Blues
Summertime Blues
"Summertime Blues" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American rockabilly artist Eddie Cochran. It was written in the late 1950s by Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart. Originally a single B-side, it was released in August 1958 and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on...

". Cochran's brief career included only a few more hits, such as "Sitting in the Balcony" released in early 1957, "C'mon Everybody
C'mon Everybody
"C'mon Everybody" is a 1958 song by Eddie Cochran and Jerry Capehart, originally released as a B-side. In 1959 it peaked in the UK at No. 6 in the singles chart, and, thirty years later, in 1988, the track was re-issued there and became a No. 14 hit. In the United States the song got to No. 35 on...

" released in October 1958, and "Somethin' Else" released in July 1959. Then in April 1960 - while touring with Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...

 in the U.K. - their taxi crashed into a concrete lamp post killing Eddie at the young age of 21. The grim coincidence in this all was that his posthumous UK number one hit was called "Three Steps to Heaven
Three Steps to Heaven (song)
"Three Steps to Heaven" is a 1960 single by Eddie Cochran. It became a posthumous UK number-one hit for Cochran following his death in a car crash. In the US it didn't reach the Billboard Hot 100...

".

Rockabilly music enjoyed great popularity in the United States during 1956 and 1957, but radio play declined after 1960. Factors contributing to this decline are usually cited as: The 1959 death of Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...

 {along with Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....

 and the Big Bopper
The Big Bopper
Jiles Perry "J. P." Richardson, Jr. also commonly known as The Big Bopper, was an American disc jockey, singer, and songwriter whose big voice and exuberant personality made him an early rock and roll star...

}, the induction of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 into the army in 1958, and a general change in American musical tastes. The style remained popular longer in England, where it attracted a fanatical following right up through the mid 1960s.

Rockabilly music cultivated an attitude that assured its enduring appeal to teenagers. This was a combination of rebellion, sexuality, and freedom—a sneering expression of disdain for the workaday world of parents and authority figures. It was the first rock ‘n’ roll style to be performed primarily by white musicians, thus setting off a cultural revolution that is still reverberating today.

As late as 1980, rockabilly still made it to the top of the charts with Queen's single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979, the track featured on their 1980 album The Game, and also appears on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits...

", the song considered as a mark of Freddie Mercury's admiration of Elvis's music.

Use of the term rockabilly

In an interview that can be viewed at the Experience Music Project
Experience Music Project
The EMP Museum is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington...

, Barbara Pittman
Barbara Pittman
Barbara Pittman was one of the few female singers to record at Sun Studio. As a young teenager she recorded some demos of songs for others. Pittman's most popular recordings include "I Need A Man" on the Sun label and "Two Young Fools In Love", released on Sam Phillips' International label...

 states that, "It was so new and it was so easy. It was a three chord change. Rockabilly was actually an insult to the southern rockers at that time. Over the years it has picked up a little dignity. It was their way of calling us hillbillies."

Although the term was in common use even before the Burnettes wrote "Rock Billy Boogie", one of the first written uses of the term "rockabilly" was in a June 23, 1956 Billboard review of Ruckus Tyler's "Rock Town Rock". Three weeks earlier "rockabilly" was used in a press release describing Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula".

The first record to contain the word "rockabilly" in a song title was issued in November 1956, "Rock a Billy Gal".

Recording techniques

Slapback, slapback echo, flutter echo, tape delay echo, echo, and reverb are some of the terms used to describe one particular aspect of rockabilly recordings.

The distinctive reverberation on the early hit records such as "Rock Around The Clock" (April 12, 1954 released May 15) by Bill Haley & His Comets was created by recording the band under the domed ceiling of Decca's studio in New York, located in a former ballroom called The Pythian Temple. It was a big, barn-like building with great echo. This same facility would also be used to record other rockabilly musicians such as Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...

 and The Rock and Roll Trio
The Rock and Roll Trio
The Rock and Roll Trio was the name of a rockabilly group which was formed in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1950s. They were also known as "Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio" and the "Johnny Burnette Trio". The members of the Trio were Dorsey Burnette, his younger brother Johnny, and a...

.

In Memphis Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...

 used various techniques to create similar acoustics at his Memphis Recording Services Studio. The shape of the ceiling, corrugated tiles, and the setup of the studio were augmented by “slap-back” tape echo which involved feeding the original signal from one tape machine through a second machine. The echo effect had been used, less subtly, on Wilf Carter Victor records of the 1930s, and in Eddy Arnold's 1945 "Cattle Call".

According to Cowboy Jack Clement, who took over production duties from Sam Phillips, "There's two heads; one records, and one plays back. The sound comes along and it's recorded on this head, and a split second later, it goes to the playback head. But you can take that and loop it to where it plays a split second after it was recorded and it flips right back into the record head. Or, you can have a separate machine and do that.. if you do it on one machine, you have to echo everything." In more technical terms a tape delay and a 7-ips, instead of the more advance 15-ips.
The recordings were thus an idealized representation of the customary live sound.

When Elvis Presley left Phillips’ Sun Records and recorded Heartbreak Hotel
Heartbreak Hotel
"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American rock and roll musician Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. His first number-one pop record, "Heartbreak Hotel" topped Billboards Top 100 chart, became his first...

 for RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

, the RCA producers placed microphones at the end of a hallway to achieve a similar effect.

A comparison of rockabilly versions of country songs shows that while form, lyrics, chord progressions and arrangements are simplified and with sparser instrumentation, a fuller sound was achieved by more percussive playing i.e. subdivisions of the beat receive more emphasis. Tempos were increased, texts are altered with deletions, additions, more intense, flamboyant loose singing, along with variation in melody from verse to verse.

Influence on the Beatles and the British Invasion

The first wave of rockabilly fans in Britain were called Teddy Boys because they wore long, Edwardian
Edwardian period
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era...

-style frock coat
Frock coat
A frock coat is a man's coat characterised by knee-length skirts all around the base, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The double-breasted style is sometimes called a Prince Albert . The frock coat is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back, and some features...

s, along with tight black drainpipe trousers
Trousers
Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...

 and brothel creeper
Brothel creeper
Creepers or brothel creepers are a type of shoe.They found their beginnings in the years following World War II, as soldiers based in the deserts in North Africa wore suede boots with hardwearing crepe soles because of the climate and environment...

 shoes. By the early 1960s, they had metamorphosed into the rockers
Rocker (subculture)
Rockers, leather boys or ton-up boys are a biker subculture that originated in the United Kingdom during the 1950s. It was mainly centered around British cafe racer motorcycles and rock and roll music....

, and had adopted the classic greaser look of T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....

s, jeans, and leather jackets to go with their heavily slicked pompadour
Pompadour (hairstyle)
Pompadour is a tall style of men's haircut which takes its name from Madame de Pompadour.There are Latin variants of the hair style more associated with European and Argentine tango fashion trends and occasionally with late 20th century musical genres such as rockabilly and country.The pompadour...

 haircuts. The rockers loved 1950s rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 artists such as Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...

, and some British rockabilly fans formed bands and played their own version of the music.

The most notable of these bands was the Beatles. When John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

 first met Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

, he was impressed that McCartney knew all the chords and the words to Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the...

’s "Twenty Flight Rock
Twenty Flight Rock
"Twenty Flight Rock" is a song originally performed by Eddie Cochran in the 1956 film comedy The Girl Can't Help It, and released as a single in 1957. Cochran's biographer notes Cochran was granted a co-writer credit, but no royalties, a standard ego-salving arrangement between publishers and...

". As the band became more professional and began playing in Hamburg, they took on the Beatle name (inspired by Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...

’s Crickets
The Crickets
The Crickets are a rock & roll band from Lubbock, Texas, formed by singer/songwriter Buddy Holly in the 1950s. Their first hit record was "That'll Be the Day", released in 1957....

) and they adopted the black leather look of Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...

. Musically, they combined Holly’s melodic pop sensibility with the rough and rocking sounds of Vincent and Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...

. When the Beatles became worldwide stars, they released versions of three different Carl Perkins songs; more than any other songwriter outside the band.

Long after the band broke up, the members continued to show their interest in rockabilly. In 1975, Lennon recorded an album called "Rock 'n' Roll
Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)
Rock 'n' Roll is a 1975 album of late 1950s and early 1960s songs covered by John Lennon. Recording the album was problematic and spanned a year. Though critically derided, it reached #6 in both the United Kingdom and the United States.-History:...

", featuring versions of rockabilly hits and a cover photo showing him in full Gene Vincent leather. About the same time, Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

 had a hit with a version of Johnny Burnette
Johnny Burnette
John Joseph "Johnny" Burnette was an American rockabilly musician. Along with his older brother Dorsey Burnette, and also a friend named Paul Burlison, Burnette was a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. He was the father of 1980s rockabilly singer Rocky Burnette.-Early life:Johnny Burnette...

’s "You’re Sixteen." In the 1980s, McCartney recorded a duet with Carl Perkins, and George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

 played with Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

 in the Traveling Wilburys
Traveling Wilburys
The Traveling Wilburys were an English–American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, accompanied by drummer Jim Keltner...

. In 1999, McCartney released Run Devil Run
Run Devil Run
Run Devil Run is the eleventh solo studio album by Paul McCartney, released in 1999. It features covers of both familiar and obscure 1950s rock and roll songs, along with three new McCartney songs written in the same style...

; his own record of rockabilly covers.

The Beatles were not the only British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...

 artists influenced by rockabilly. The Rolling Stones recorded Buddy Holly’s "Not Fade Away
Not Fade Away (song)
"Not Fade Away" is a song credited to Buddy Holly and Norman Petty and first recorded by Holly's band The Crickets in Clovis, New Mexico, on May 27, 1957...

" on an early single. The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

, despite being mod favourites, was started as a Teddy Boy band (the High Numbers) and covered Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the...

’s "Summertime Blues
Summertime Blues
"Summertime Blues" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American rockabilly artist Eddie Cochran. It was written in the late 1950s by Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart. Originally a single B-side, it was released in August 1958 and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on...

" on their Live at Leeds
Live at Leeds
Live at Leeds is The Who's first live album, and is the only live album that was released while the group were still recording and performing regularly. Initially released in the United States on 16 May 1970, by Decca and MCA and the United Kingdom on 23 May 1970, by Track and Polydor, the album...

album. Even heavy guitar heroes such as Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

 and Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...

 were influenced by rockabilly musicians. Beck recorded his own tribute album to Gene Vincent's guitarist Cliff Gallup
Cliff Gallup
Clifton E. "Cliff" Gallup was an American electric guitarist, who played rock and roll in the band Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps in the 1950s.-Biography:...

, Crazy Legs
Crazy Legs (album)
Crazy Legs is a studio album by Jeff Beck and the Big Town Playboys, released on June 29, 1993. The recording is an album of Gene Vincent songs...

, and Page’s band, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

, offered to work as Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

’s backing band in the 1970s. However, Presley never took them up on that offer. Years later, Led Zeppelin's Page and Robert Plant
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...

 recorded a tribute to the music of the 1950s called The Honeydrippers: Volume One
The Honeydrippers: Volume One
The Honeydrippers: Volume One is an EP released on 24 September 1984, by a band led by rock singer Robert Plant. The project originated when Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegün wanted to record an album of his favourite songs from the 1950s. Plant was chosen because Ertegün had seen his...

.

Rockabilly revival

The Elvis 1968 "Comeback" and acts such as Sha Na Na
Sha Na Na
Sha Na Na is an American rock and roll group. The name is taken from a part of the long series of nonsense syllables in the doo-wop hit song "Get a Job", originally recorded in 1957 by the Silhouettes....

, Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....

, Don McLean
Don McLean
Donald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...

, Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...

 and the Everly Brothers; the film American Graffiti
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...

and television show Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....

created curiosity about the real music of the 1950s, particularly in England, where a rockabilly revival scene began to develop from the 1970s in record collecting and clubs. The most successful early product of the scene was Dave Edmunds
Dave Edmunds
David 'Dave' Edmunds is a Welsh singer, guitarist and record producer. Although he is primarily associated with Pub rock and New Wave, and had numerous hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s style rock and roll.-Early bands:As a teenager Edmunds first...

, who joined up with songwriter Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...

 to form a band called Rockpile
Rockpile
Rockpile were a British rock and roll group of the late 1970s and early 1980s, noted for their strong rockabilly and power pop influences, and as a foundational influence on new wave...

 in 1975. They had a string of minor rockabilly-style hits like “I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock ‘n’ Roll)
I Knew the Bride
"I Knew the Bride " is a song written by Nick Lowe and first popularized by Dave Edmunds. It was released on Edmunds's 1977 album Get It and a year later in a live version by Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop for a compilation released by Stiff Records.Lowe performed the song during a Stiff...

.” The group became a popular touring act in Britain and the US, leading to respectable album sales. Edmunds also nurtured and produced many younger artists who shared his love of rockabilly, most notably the Stray Cats
Stray Cats
Stray Cats are an American Rockabilly band formed in 1980 by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer , upright bassist Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia and the U.S...

.

The Cramps
The Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...

 rose out of the punk scene at the New York club CBGB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...

, combining primitive and wild rockabilly sounds with lyrics inspired by old drive-in horror movies in songs like “Human Fly” and “I Was a Teenage Werewolf.” Lead singer Lux Interior's energetic and unpredictable live shows attracted a fervent cult audience. Their “psychobilly
Psychobilly
Psychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, trashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly...

” music influenced The Meteors
The Meteors
The Meteors are an English psychobilly band formed in 1980. Originally from London, England, they are often credited with giving the psychobilly subgenre—which fuses punk rock with rockabilly—its distinctive sound and style...

 and Reverend Horton Heat. The Polecats
The Polecats
-Career:The Polecats are a rockabilly band formed in 1977 in North London. The original line-up was Tim Worman , Martin "Boz" Boorer, , Phil Bloomberg, , and Chris Hawkes , who originally played under the name "Cult Heroes." Finding difficulty persuading promoters to book them on the rockabilly...

, from North London, were originally called The Cult Heroes, couldn't get any gigs at rockabilly clubs with a name that sounded "punk", so the original drummer Chris Hawkes came up with the name Polecats. Tim Polecat and Boz Boorer
Boz Boorer
Boz Boorer is a British guitarist and producer most known for his work founding the new wave rockabilly group, The Polecats, and later for his work as a co-writer, guitarist and musical director with Morrissey.-The Polecats:The band "Cult Heroes" was formed in 1977 by Tim Worman , Boz...

 started playing together in 1976, they hooked up with Phil Bloomberg and Chris Hawkes at the end of 1977. The Polecats played rockabilly with a punk sense of anarchy and helped revive the genre for a new generation in the early '80s.

The Stray Cats were the most commercially successful of the new rockabilly artists. The band formed on Long Island in 1979 when Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...

 teamed up with two school chums calling themselves Lee Rocker
Lee Rocker
Lee Rocker is an American rockabilly double bass player. He is the son of the classical clarinetists Stanley Drucker and Naomi Drucker. His sister Roseanne is a country music singer-songwriter...

 and Slim Jim Phantom
Slim Jim Phantom
Slim Jim Phantom is the drummer for Stray Cats. Alongside band mates Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker, he spearheaded the neo-rockabilly movement of the early 1980s.-Biography:...

. Attracting little attention in New York, they flew to London in 1980, where they had heard that there was an active rockabilly scene. Early shows were attended by the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

 and Dave Edmunds, who quickly ushered the boys into a recording studio. The Stray Cats had three UK Top Ten singles to their credit and two bestselling albums. They returned to the USA, performing on the TV show “Fridays” with a message flashing across the screen that they had no record deal in the States. Soon EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 picked them up, their first videos appeared on MTV, and they stormed up the charts stateside. Their third LP, Rant ‘N’ Rave with the Stray Cats, topped charts across the USA and Europe as they sold out shows everywhere during 1983. However, personal conflicts led the band to break up at the height of their popularity. Brian Setzer went on to solo success working in both rockabilly and swing styles, while Rocker and Phantom continued to record in bands both together and singly. The group has reconvened several times to make new records or tours and continue to attract large audiences live, although record sales have never again approached their early Eighties success.

Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens, also known as "Shaky" is a platinum selling Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter who holds the distinction of being the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s . His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, although it was not until 1980 that he saw...

 was a Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 singer who gained fame in the UK portraying Elvis in a stage play. In 1980, he took a cover of The Blasters
The Blasters
The Blasters are a rock and roll music group formed in 1979 in Downey, California, by brothers Phil Alvin and Dave Alvin , with bass guitarist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman. Phil Alvin explained the origin of the band's name: "I thought Joe Turner’s backup band on Atlantic records – I had...

’ “Marie Marie” into the UK Top 20. His hopped-up versions of songs like “This Ole House
This Ole House
"This Ole House" is a popular song written by Stuart Hamblen, and published in 1954.-Background:Hamblen was supposedly out on a hunting expedition when he and his fellow hunter, actor John Wayne, came across a tumbledown hut in the mountains, many miles from civilization...

” and “Green Door
Green Door
" Green Door" is a 1956 popular song with music composed by Bob Davie and lyrics written by Marvin Moore. The lyrics describe a nondescript establishment, with a green door, behind which "a happy crowd" play piano, smoke and "laugh a lot", and inside which the singer is not allowed.-Possible...

” were giant sellers across Europe. Shakin’ Stevens was the biggest selling singles artist of the 1980s in the UK and No 2 across Europe, outstripping Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

, and Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

. Despite his popularity in Europe, he never became popular in the US. In 2005, his greatest hits album topped the charts in England.

Jason & the Scorchers
Jason & the Scorchers
Jason & the Scorchers, originally Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, are a Cowpunk / Country rock band formed in 1981 and led by singer/songwriter Jason Ringenberg....

 combined heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

, Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

, and Hank Williams to create a punk influenced style of rockabilly, often labelled as alt-country or cowpunk
Cowpunk
Cowpunk or Country punk is a subgenre of punk rock and New Wave that began in the UK and California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It combines punk rock or New Wave with country music, folk music, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style...

. They achieved critical acclaim and a following in America but never managed a major hit.

The revival was related to the “Roots Rock
Roots rock
Roots rock is a term now used to describe rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid sub-genres from the later 1960s including country rock and Southern rock, which have been seen as responses to the...

” movement, which continued through the 1980s, led by artists like James Intveld
James Intveld
James Intveld is a Los Angeles rockabilly musician, actor, composer, director. Intveld provided the vocals for the eponymous title character in John Waters' Cry-Baby, and sung "Let's Go Sexin'" in Waters' 2004 movie, A Dirty Shame.-Early work:...

, who later toured as lead guitar for The Blasters
The Blasters
The Blasters are a rock and roll music group formed in 1979 in Downey, California, by brothers Phil Alvin and Dave Alvin , with bass guitarist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman. Phil Alvin explained the origin of the band's name: "I thought Joe Turner’s backup band on Atlantic records – I had...

, the Beat Farmers
Beat Farmers
The Beat Farmers were a cowpunk band who formed in San Diego, California, in August 1983, and enjoyed a cult following throughout the 1980s and early 1990s before the premature death of lead singer and drummer Country Dick Montana...

, The Paladins
The Paladins
The Paladins are a roots rock/rockabilly band from San Diego, California. Founded in the early 1980s by guitarist Dave Gonzalez and his high school friend and double bass player Thomas Yearsley, they have recorded nine studio albums and built a reputation as one of America's hardest-working live...

, Del-Lords, Long Ryders, The Last Wild Sons, The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds are an American, Grammy-nominated Blues rock band, formed in 1974.-Career:After performing for several years in the Austin, Texas blues scene, the band won a recording contract with Takoma/Chrysalis Records, and later on signed with Epic Records.Their first two albums,...

, Los Lobos
Los Lobos
Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...

, The Fleshtones
The Fleshtones
The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York formed in 1976.- 1976-1979 :The Fleshtones were formed in 1976 in Whitestone, New York by Keith Streng and Marek Pakulski The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York formed in 1976.- 1976-1979 :The...

, Del Fuegos, and Barrence Whitfield and the Savages
Barrence Whitfield
Barrence Whitfield is an American soul and R&B vocalist and best known as the singer of Barrence Whitfield and the Savages in the 1980s.-Life and career:...

. These bands, like the Blasters, were inspired by a full range of historic American styles: blues, country, rockabilly, R&B, and New Orleans jazz. They held a strong appeal for listeners who were tired of the commercially-oriented MTV-style technopop and glam metal
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...

 bands that dominated radio play during this time period, but none of these musicians became major stars.

In 1983, country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...

 singer Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

 recorded a rockabilly album titled "Everybody's Rockin'
Everybody's Rockin'
Everybody's Rockin' is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released in 1983. The album was recorded with the Shocking Pinks , and features a selection of rockabilly songs . Running 25 minutes, it is Young's shortest album...

". The album was not a commercial success and Young was involved in a widely publicized legal fight with Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...

 who sued him for making a record that didn't sound "like a Neil Young record." Young made no further albums in the rockabilly style. During the 1980s, a number of country music stars scored hits recording in a rockabilly style. Marty Stuart
Marty Stuart
John Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...

’s “Hillbilly Rock
Hillbilly Rock (song)
"Hillbilly Rock" is the title of a song written by Paul Kennerley and recorded by American country music artist Marty Stuart. It was released in March 1990 as the third single and title track from the album Hillbilly Rock. The song reached #8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks...

” and Hank Williams, Jr.
Hank Williams, Jr.
Randall Hank Williams , better known as Hank Williams, Jr. and Bocephus, is an American country singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern rock, blues, and traditional country...

’s “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight
All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight
"All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" is a song written and recorded by country music performer Hank Williams, Jr.. It was released in October 1984 as the second single from his 1984 album Major Moves. It peaked at number ten on the country music charts...

” were the most noteworthy examples of this trend, but they and other artists like Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....

 and the Kentucky Headhunters charted many records with this approach.

Aspects of the revival that were not part of the original era include: music at deafening levels, women with tattoos, and enthusiasm over fashion.

Rockabilly Hall of Fame

The original Rockabilly Hall of Fame
Rockabilly Hall of Fame
The Rockabilly Hall of Fame was established on the internet on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relative to the artists and personalities involved in this pioneering American music genre....

 was established by Bob Timmers on March 21, 1997 to present early rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 history and information relative to the original artists and personalities involved in this pioneering American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 music genre. Headquartered in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

.

In 2000, an International Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame Museum was established in Jackson, TN.

See also

  • List of Rockabilly musicians
  • Psychobilly
    Psychobilly
    Psychobilly is a fusion genre of rock music that mixes elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres. It is one of several subgenres of rockabilly which also include thrashabilly, trashabilly, punkabilly, surfabilly and gothabilly...

  • Gothabilly
    Gothabilly
    Gothabilly , is one of several music and cultural subgenres of rockabilly. The name is a portmanteau word that combines gothic and rockabilly. The earliest known use of the word gothabilly was by The Cramps in the late 1970s, to describe their blend of somber, rockabilly-influenced punk rock...

  • Punkabilly
  • Hellbilly
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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