Rockabilly, Rock'n'Roll
Rick Nelson: Ricky Nelson: Now Ricky's Name Change Is Official!
Profile and Interview by Alan Smith, NME, April 1962
'YOUNG WORLD' is probably the last disc by Ricky Nelson you'll see in the NME Charts – but don't panic. At 21 Ricky has no ...
Fats Domino: The Man Who Sang Rock Before Haley
Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, January 1963
HIS first million-seller was named after himself. Until last year he had more million-sellers than Elvis, who finally caught up with him after a hard ...
Everly Brothers, The: Phil And Don Everly Put Up A Fight
Report and Interview by Alan Smith, NME, June 1963
NOBODY could say the fortunes of the Everly Brothers have been at their highest just lately, but the boys are determined to put up a ...
Lonnie Mack: The Instrumental Influence and Hit Star
Profile by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, August 1963
BEAT instrumentals are probably at a higher degree of popularity in the States than ever before. Discs like 'Wipeout', 'Tips Of My Fingers', 'Pipeline', 'Hot ...
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, November 1963
THE OPENING night of the Duane Eddy/Little Richard/Shirelles tour was a lot better than most people expected at the Regal Edmonton, 2nd performance on Saturday. ...
Chuck Berry: Hammersmith Odeon, London, May 10th
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, July 1964
THE LONG-AWAITED visit of Chuck Berry to these islands came reality when he opened his tour at the Finsbury Empire on May 9th; I caught ...
Johnny Rivers Tries His Rhythm Here
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, February 1965
AFTER EIGHT years in and out of show business, Johnny Rivers has finally struck gold – In USA. During the last year he's been packing ...
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, March 1967
...especially it seems, at the Saville. Chuck Berry talks to RM's Norman Jopling for this in-depth interview ...
Chuck Berry: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, March 1967
Rockers Dominate Saville Again ...
Chuck Berry: Streatham Locarno, London
Live Review by Bill Millar, Soul Music Monthly, April 1967
I WOULD HAVE LIKED to have reviewed Chuck at the Savile Theatre, where initial audience reaction was such that his short-lived performance reached an all-time ...
Fats Domino & His Orchestra: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, May 1967
LEGENDS ARE built with comparative ease in the anonymity of a recording studio. And how easily such myths are destroyed in the harsh reality of ...
Elvis Presley to Make Personal Appearances
Report by Mike Jahn, New York Times, December 1968
ELVIS PRESLEY, with one eye to the increasing interest in old-style rock and the other to his decreasing income from movie roles, is making plans ...
Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, December 1968
"IF IT WEREN'T FOR the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song," said Carl Perkins with a comic dolefulness. He had just ...
Buddy Holly, Buddy Knox: Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox: Texas Buddies
Discography by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 1969
LIKE THE rest of society, pop music isn't fair. The most successful singers earn more than they know what to do with, and the majority ...
Who, The: Born to Sing The Blues
Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, June 1969
COLLECTORS of rhythm and blues music are doomed to perpetual frustration, as they witness one white singer after another plundering the culture they love. Occasionally, ...
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, June 1969
ROCK AND roll was the victory of regional locality over the world, of precise beliefs over general theory, of particular feelings over universal philosophies. ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Schaefer Music Festival, Central Park, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, July 1969
Jerry Lee Lewis Mixes Rock Styles In Schaefer Concert ...
Little Richard: Schaefer Music Festival, Central Park, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Post, August 1969
Little Richard Rouses Crowd At Central Park Rock Concert ...
MC5: Ronnie Hawkins: Ronnie Hawkins and Mr. Dynamo
Review by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, August 1969
RONNIE HAWKINS came down out of the Ozarks, and after gigging with Carl Perkins and Harold Jenkins (later Conway Twitty), he decided he wanted to ...
Sha Na Na: Sha-Na-Na: Sha-Na-Na (Buddah)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Fusion, November 1969
SHA-NA-NA has a cute stage show. They come out, dressed fit to kill in an assortment of gold lamé, black pants, white socks, t-shirts, etc., ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Start of It All
Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 1970
I PLAYED 'Great Balls Of Fire' to some college students last week. And while it played, and while they listened, I closed my eyes and ...
Elvis Presley: International Showroom, Las Vegas
Live Review by Ann Moses, NME, February 1970
KING ELVIS RULES VEGAS AGAIN. New songs and old in his act after his first night including 'Proud Mary', 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes', ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, February 1970
BOTH PIANO-PLAYING singers who started out singing rock and roll with Sam Phillips in Memphis and who have since moved into country and western, Jerry ...
Elvis Presley: Wagging His Tail In Las Vegas
Live Review by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, February 1970
ELVIS WAS SUPERNATURAL, his own resurrection, at the Showroom Internationale in Las Vegas last August. ...
Gene Vincent: Gene Vincent’s Greatest (Capitol); I’m Back And I’m Proud (Dandelion) and more
Review by Simon Frith, Rolling Stone, March 1970
GENE VINCENT was the most tortured of the Fifties rock stars. I only saw him in concert once and that was weird. He was in ...
Ronnie Hawkins: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, March 1970
Ronnie Hawkins on Fillmore Bill – Arkansan Shares Program With Stone the Crows ...
Interview by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, May 1970
I DIDN'T GET to see Little Richard at the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he followed Janis Joplin and revived his own legend, but when ...
Interview by Michael Lydon, Rock's Backpages Audio, September 1970
When Bo's not being a boxer, truck driver, gunslinger, lumberjack etc. he's being A Man - a husband and father, dealing with life in the USA. The Gunslinger tells Michael Lydon of record company rip-offs, dealin' with the po-lice and the very meaning of life itself.
File format: mp3; in 3 parts (plus introduction), total file sizes: 72.4meg, total interview length: 1h 20' 01" sound quality: **
Little Richard: The Rill Thing
Review by Joel Selvin, Rolling Stone, September 1970
AS INCREDIBLE AS IT may seem, Little Richard is as great as he says he is. His new album, the first in three years, is ...
Interview by James Johnson, NME, February 1971
SIXTY-FIVE year old blues-man Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, whose songs 'That's Alright Mama' and 'My Baby Left Me' were hits for Elvis Presley back in ...
Overview by Martin Hawkins, Record Mirror, May 1971
MUCH HAS been written recently about the influence of Sam Phillips' Memphis Sun label on rock 'n' roll, especially since its British releases of recent ...
Comment by Martin Hawkins, Record Mirror, July 1971
"DID YOU EVER HEAR A TENOR SAX, SWINGING LIKE A RUSTY AXE?" ...
Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley: What Have They Done To My Roots, Ma? Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, October 1971
WHEN JOHN LENNON ended a recent epistle to Mailbag with a line saying "LP Winner: I’d like Chuck Berry, please," he wasn’t joking. Modern rock ...
Everly Brothers, The: The Everly Brothers: Growing Apart
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1972
PHIL IS THE fastidious one. Don was happy to stay at another motel with a northern draught sweeping its gallery and cows grazing round the ...
Overview by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, January 1972
THERE'S A HOT SEAT in my house. Right by the record player. Victims are required to sit in it and hazard a guess at the ...
Everly Brothers, The: The Everly Brothers: Back In Favour
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, May 1972
JUST WHEN we were getting used to thinking of the Everly Brothers as a monument to a distant era they come up with Stories We ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, June 1972
THERE'S NOT TOO MANY of those greasy rockers still hanging around from their '50s heydaze good for much more than playing 50 tank towns a ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972
YOU CAN TELL this one is special from the beginning. The strings come in, but all of a sudden, there's an insistent, pounding drum driving ...
Little Richard: The Georgia Peach
Report and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, August 1972
OOOWEE, Lawd knows it was a bad night's work. According to the divine plan, the Wembley crowd should have been blowing kisses at the Georgia ...
Bo Diddley: Hey! Bo Diddley: The Man Whose Sexuality Was Too Much For America
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1972
Diddley Freak Charles Shaar Murray, in the presence of the main man... ...
Buddy Holly: A Rock & Roll Collection
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1972
I DON'T LIKE to be made a fool of. Last January the folks at Decca told me of their plans for an elaborate Buddy Holly ...
Rock and Roll Revival: Richard Nader's Lament
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1972
UNLESS YOU'VE actually heard it, you just can't appreciate how strange phonetically and otherwise, it sounds to hear a nasal 'Mr. Didduly. Telephone for Mr. ...
Elvis Presley: The Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1972
I'M GETTING pretty sick of all this talk about what a gross Tom Jones imitation Elvis has become. Baby fat and other people’s songs, indeed. ...
Rick Nelson: You're Not A Kid Anymore!
Retrospective and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, December 1972
ROCK AND ROLL was here to stay. We knew it in 1957, and Danny and the Juniors put it into song in 1958. But what ...
Chuck Berry: Green's Playhouse, Glasgow
Live Review by Tony Stewart, NME, January 1973
TONY STEWART REPORTS FROM GLASGOW OH THE FIRST BERRY CONCERT ...
Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore: Scotty Moore: The Man Who Launched A Thousand Licks
Interview by Norman Jopling, NME, January 1973
PEOPLE AROUND at the time Elvis first made it claim that guitarist Scotty Moore was the musician most responsible for "The Elvis Presley Sound". Moore ...
Fumble, Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Fumble and Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids
Review by Greg Shaw, Music World, February 1973
THE ROCK & roll revival is sure getting to be a pain in the ass. That's a tough admission for me to make, as I ...
Report and Interview by Charlie Gillett, NME, February 1973
CHUCK BERRY. To a fan, the name sparks off a warm smile. After that depending on how old he or she is, the first song ...
Chuck Berry part 2: How Many Comebacks?
Interview by Charlie Gillett, NME, February 1973
AS WE TALKED, Berry looked over a copy of Golden Decade Vol. 2 and ran his eye down the sleeve discography, commenting on some of ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: London Sessions (Mercury).
Review by Charlie Gillett, NME, March 1973
IN SOME ways, it hardly matters what this record sounds like. It's the idea that counts. If everything works out more or less to plan, ...
Chuck Berry's Influence on the UK R & B Scene
Essay by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, April 1973
'DING-A-LING' gave Chuck Berry his only British No 1 seventeen years after his first record release, 'Maybellene'. He had five Top Ten hits in the ...
Ruben and the Jets: Ruben & The Jets: For Real! (Mercury)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Music World, June 1973
AS DEBUTS GO, this is a competently performed, surely inoffensive first try, but it's not the oldies revamp its title implies. The problem is, it's ...
Charlie Feathers: The Minit-Stop
Report by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1973
SO THERE WE were in Memphis, at the rock writers' convention. First morning there I was awakened by a phone call, "Hey, Charlie Feathers is ...
Dale Hawkins: Oh Suzie: The Best Of Dale Hawkins
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, September 1973
YET ANOTHER priceless bargain from Phonogram. The way in which the rock and roll collectors are being catered for this year is excellent, Polydor have ...
Bo Diddley: The London Sessions (Chess)
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, September 1973
AFTER THE release of Golden Decade and Got Another Bag Of Tricks, which really put Bo in perspective, Chess undo all their sterling work by ...
Brenda Lee: Mmmmm…Sweet Nuthin's
Interview by Andrew Tyler, NME, October 1973
WESTCLIFF-ON-SEA, Monday: "To make the most of the things you were born with...Think Big." ...
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids
Profile and Interview by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, December 1973
YOU MIGHT FIND this hard to believe, but if it wasn't for a fifth of whiskey Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids probably wouldn't be ...
Book Excerpt by Michael Lydon, Boogie Lightning (Da Capo), 1974
Everything I know I taught myself.– Bo Diddley ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Staggers On
Report by John Morthland, Creem, March 1974
THE MAN from Mercury is nervous, very nervous. You can see it easily enough as he paces around Steve Cropper's TMI Studios in Memphis. Up ...
Texas Rock & Roll Spectacular!
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1974
WHILE THE AUSTIN scene is the current focus of national attention on Texas, we mustn't forget how truly vast that state is, both in size ...
Elvis Presley: Revolt Into Style
Essay by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, March 1974
ELVIS PRESLEY. The giant among giants, and yet also that strange kind of comic-book hero, Mr Reverso Man. ...
Live Review by Steven Rosen, Sounds, June 1974
PERHAPS AMERICA'S two most important musical artists took to the roads recently. Bob Dylan blazed a crosscountry tour which left followers and non-believers alike a ...
Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps: The Bop That Just Won't Stop
Review by Gene Sculatti, Zoo World, August 1974
FOR THE MOST PART, the continuing "rock 'n roll revival" phenomenon we've been witnessing these past 5 years is a pretty shabby affair. What with ...
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Country Music People, October 1974
Martin Hawkins looks at the career of a little known but much in demand artiste by record collectors ...
Review by Mick Farren, NME, October 1974
IF YOU WANTED to be crass you could say that the main features that made Buddy Holly a legend were that, first, he was the ...
Fumble, Rock Bottom: King's Road Theatre, London
Live Review by Max Bell, NME, December 1974
ON SUNDAY, at the ratty end of Chelsea, the King's Road Theatre opened its doors for a double bill of rock'n'roll; pretty disastrous it was ...
Buddy Holly: Never Mind The Lubbocks, Here’s Buddy Holly & The Crickets : 20 Greatest Hits
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, 1975
THE ROCK and roll of the ‘50s produced three incomparable all-rounders equally adept and influential as signers, composers and guitarists. ...
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Let It Rock, February 1975
And when I hear that double-eagle guitar Makes me think of Carl Perkins when he was a star,Makes me think I spent some of my ...
Elvis Presley: The Promised Land
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1975
IT HAS ALWAYS been accepted as an article of faith by ladies and gentlemen in the critical profession that Elvis Presley is not dead. ...
Chuck Berry: Chuck Has Been Leaving The Stage For 20 Years
Report by Bob Woffinden, NME, March 1975
They weren't complaining – they were awestruck ...
Eddie Cochran: The Very Best of Eddie Cochran (15th Anniversary Album)
Review by Mick Farren, NME, June 1975
I SUPPOSE WITH Showaddywaddy up in the singles chart with 'Three Steps to Heaven', and the 17-year-old version of 'C'mon Everybody' once again bubbling under ...
Little Richard: Lewisham Odeon, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, NME, July 1975
THE DEBUT DATE of Little Richard's UK tour at the half empty Lewisham Odeon was little short of a disaster. Possibly the person least to ...
Duane Eddy: Bailey's, Leicester
Live Review by Bob Fisher, NME, September 1975
YET ANOTHER rock 'n' roll legend is stalking the stages of the club circuit and on July 14 he trod the stage of Bailey's, Leicester. ...
Buddy Holly: The Legend Lives On
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, September 1975
"DEAR BUDDY, I have several records of yours and my favourite is 'Oh Boy'. Please send me a picture with your autograph." With the constant ...
Crickets, The: The Crickets: Back In Style
Review by Mick Farren, NME, October 1975
BUDDY HOLLY SO overshadowed The Crickets that one tends to forget that they went on to produce some very creditable work on their own after ...
Elvis Presley: Pictures Of Elvis
Review by Mick Farren, NME, December 1975
THERE CAN BE little doubt that the Elvis Presley Sun collection was a compilation of some of his finest work. ...
Bill Haley: A Piece of Gold in my Pocket
Profile by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1976
CLOSE TO his 50th birthday, Bill Haley seems to be in excellent repair. ...
Chuck Berry: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1976
IT IS MORE than 20 years since the world first laid startled eyes on a young man with a crouching gait and a skinny guitar ...
Everly Brothers, The: The Everly Brothers: Songs Our Daddy Taught Us
Review by Mick Farren, NME, March 1976
IN A QUIET sort of way, 1975 saw an Everly Brothers revival of sorts. Warner Brothers released their magnificent Walk Right Back With The Everlys, ...
Fats Domino: New Victoria Theatre, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, NME, April 1976
WHAT CAN I do? What can I say? How exactly can I prostrate myself? I guess there's no excuse for a rock critic who goes ...
Elvis Presley: Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles
Live Review by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, May 1976
DESPITE MEDICAL PROBLEMS Elvis Presley's show at the Long Beach Arena proved that he still has the voice and romantic quality that established him as ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: Well, Bless-uh Muh Soul, What's-uh Wrong With Me?
Essay by Mick Farren, NME, May 1976
WHEN AN artist hasn't produced anything of note for something like 14 years, the world begins to judge him on just about anything but his ...
Chuck Berry, 49, Denies Knowledge of the Previous 48
Interview by Mick Farren, NME, May 1976
Chuck (Crazy Legs) Berry, top ten contender for the title "King of rock and roll", has been referred to as the greatest black folk poet ...
Live Review by Steve Turner, NME, November 1976
THERE ARE some memories we have which are straightforward memories, but then there are other memories which are more like memories of memories and we're ...
Retrospective by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1977
HE DIDN'T LOOK like one of rock 'n' roll's crucial stars. Small, wiry, nervous even. The spotty face on the cover of his first album ...
Darts, The, Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis/The Darts: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, March 1977
"WANKER" "RUBBISH", "R o c k 'n' ROLLL!!!!!" screamed the frustrated bopper just behind my right eardrum. He wasn't the only one. A distinct rumble ...
Chuck Berry: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, May 1977
THERE'S NO BETTER indication of the pervasive and thorough influence of Chuck Berry than the fact that he could go almost anywhere and the chances ...
Elvis Presley: The King is Dead
Obituary by Philip Norman, Times, The, August 1977
ELVIS PRESLEY will be remembered as the first and the greatest exponent of Rock and Roll music, whose recordings of 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Hound Dog' ...
Obituary by Martin Hawkins, Country Music Review, October 1977
WHILE NOT wishing to add to the enormous number of narratives, eulogies and gutter press 'exposes' which have appeared in print in recent weeks, it ...
Review by John Tobler, ZigZag, October 1977
THERE'S MORE similarity between these two albums than the fact that they've both got 'Red Hot' on 'em. They're the opposite ends of the rockabilly ...
Robert Gordon, Link Wray: Robert Gordon and Link Wray: Robert Gordon with Link Wray
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, October 1977
ROBERT GORDON with Link Wray recaptures the one elusive quality so often missing from music of the '70s: feeling. This is trickier than it seems ...
Robert Gordon, Link Wray: Robert Gordon: Robert Gordon With Link Wray
Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, October 1977
FOR SOME odd reason Private Stock don't want you to know that Robert Gordon used to be with those CBGB specials Tuff Darts. Richard Robinson ...
Mac Curtis: A History of Mac Curtis
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1978
ONE THING YOU should know straight away. It might look like it, but Mac Curtis, one of the better-known and best remembered rockabilly singers, ...
Robert Gordon, Link Wray: Robert Gordon with Link Wray: A Modern Elvis And The Missing Link
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, February 1978
LINK WRAY finishes off his instrumental street opera, 'Rumble', with an amphetamine-psychosis, note-tumbling-after-note run worthy of any guitar army hero, clambers up from his bent-knee, ...
Darts, The: The Darts: Gaumont Cinema, Southampton
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, May 1978
CLIFF WHITE CRIPPLES THE STARS! (No. 3 in an exciting, if tasteless, new series) ...
Profile and Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, September 1978
AS MENTIONED in fab Zigzag 85, this is a feature of their very own concerning Matchbox, who I dubbed the best British rock 'n' roll ...
Duane Eddy, Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis, Duane Eddy: Live in Margate
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, November 1978
WHEN A promoter carts a journalist and photographer off to the opening night of a European tour he obviously wants to get a suitably rave ...
Mack Allen Smith: The Last Of The Great Unknowns
Profile by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, January 1979
MARTIN HAWKINS searched the Mississippi delta and found Mack Allen Smith ...
Conway Twitty: Rockabilly Brought On Conway's Country Success
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Country Music People, April 1979
ONCE, on a visit to America, I ate a cheeseburger in a Twitty Burger fast-food restaurant. The owner of this restaurant chain was Conway Twitty, ...
Bill Haley: The Guardian Of Rock 'N' Roll
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, April 1979
MARCH 1979, and rock king Bill Haley's in town, almost a quarter of a century since he recorded 'Rock Around The Clock', and 22 years ...
Sleepy LaBeef: Rockabilly's Tower Of Power
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, May 1979
IF WALT DISNEY had decided to make an animated cartoon of the rock 'n' roll story he would have needed a rockabilly character, and I ...
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, May 1979
Robert Gordon: The Roxy, Los Angeles ...
Cramps, The: The Cramps: Tales Of American Gothick
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, June 1979
THE TITLE OF the film escapes me, but the scene itself has remained indelibly stained on my brainplate for all of nine years. A strange ...
Billy Lee Riley: Red Hot Riley
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, July 1979
The volcanic music of Billy Lee Riley never quite erupted; Martin Hawkins tells how the talent remains hot. ...
Alex Chilton, Cramps, The, Tav Falco's Panther Burns: The Cramps' Big Break
Report and Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, September 1979
"Give Me Memphis, Tennessee..." ...
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, September 1979
ROGER SCOTT, Britain's only disc-jockey (no, that's not a misprint – it's a fact) put this into what they call "heavy rotation" last week. It ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Gospel According to Jerry Lee
Interview by Nick Tosches, Country Music, October 1979
DRESSED LIKE A side-street gambler from the days when chrome was chrome, Jerry Lee Lewis sits in the dressing-room of the Palomino Club, holding loosely ...
Buddy Holly: The Complete Buddy Holly
Review by Bill Millar, Melody Maker, December 1979
NO PROBLEM here. Charly’s compendium of Ronnie Hawkins Toronto out-takes isn’t released until next month (I checked) and, however might the music, their oft-reissued Jerry ...
Charlie Gracie: Amazing Gracie
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, New Kommotion, 1980
BY THE TIME I got into rock'n'roll, Charlie Gracie was already a folk memory dimly recalled from a performance on Stars From Blackpool and a ...
Eddie Cochran: 20th Anniversary Album (Liberty)**
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, May 1980
PHIL SPECTOR, for one, is of the opinion that Colonel Parker used to hypnotise Elvis into singing rhinoceros shit like 'Viva Las Vegas' and 'Girls ...
Cramps, The: The Cramps: Songs The Lord Taught Us (IRS)
Review by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, September 1980
TO TRASH THE trashiest, that was the Cramps' initial challenge to the burgeoning punk scene. Lux Interior threw down the gauntlet in 'Garbage Man', snarling ...
Stray Cats, The: On The Tiles With The Stray Cats
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, December 1980
Your storyteller: MARK COOPER (MA, DFC, VD and Private Bar) ...
Rockabilly: Was this the purest style in rock?
Retrospective by Bill Millar, History of Rock, The, 1981
A DEFT, HARD-DRIVING BLEND of country, gospel and blues, rockabilly was performed mainly by white artists who traded legitimate country backgrounds for a short-lived but ...
In The Farms And On The Forecourts: The Short-Lived Heyday Of Rockabilly
Retrospective by Bill Millar, History of Rock, The, 1981
THE FIRST RECORDED example of rockabilly proper can be traced to the moment in July 1954 when Elvis Presley cut an old blues by Arthur ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: How The Devil's Music Possessed Jerry Lee Lewis
Retrospective by Nick Tosches, History of Rock, The, 1981
THERE HAVE been only two figures of mythic dimension in the history of rock'n'roll. First and foremost was Elvis Presley, the guileless star-god who rendered ...
Carl Perkins: 'Blue Suede Shoes'
Profile by Colin Escott, History of Rock, The, 1981
One song rocketed Carl Perkins to stardom ...
The Sweetheart Years: The Dilemmas Of Sex And Romance In Fifties Rock
Essay by Cynthia Rose, History of Rock, The, 1981
The screen door slams/Mary's dress waves/Like a vision she dances across the porch/As the radio plays/Roy Orbison singin' for the lonely/That's me and I love ...
Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis: The Million Dollar Quartet
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, June 1981
WE USUALLY think of Elvis Presley simply stepping into Sun Studios in Memphis, in answer to Sam Phillips' call, and walking out a few days ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, September 1981
ABUSIVE IS THE only word to describe the audience the last time Robert Gordon was in Detroit as part of a some-thought-smart/some-thought-not-so-smart double bill with ...
Stray Cats, The: The Stray Cats: Gonna Ball (Arista)
Review by Richard Cook, NME, November 1981
FOR A trio so preoccupied with a style summed up in a quiff. The Stray Cats can make a pretty mean music. With tough-baby roller ...
Retrospective by Bill Millar, History of Rock, The, 1982
TEX-MEX, A PHRASE commonly used to describe the rock’n’roll of such artists as Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox, has nothing whatever to do with Mexican ...
Big Bopper, The: Big Bopper: The Singing Texas DJ Who Rocked Over The Airwaves
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, History of Rock, The, February 1982
J.P. RICHARDSON, the self-styled 'Big Bopper', was one of the true characters of Southern rock'n'roll. ...
Special Feature by Nick Tosches, Penthouse, March 1982
IT WAS 3 O'CLOCK in the morning and the master bedroom of Graceland was still. Elvis Presley lay in his blue cotton pajamas dreaming. ...
Blasters, The: Blasters: The Blasters
Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, May 1982
PLAY IT on mono and it could be 1956, just play it once and you could find yourself buying a gross of Brylcreem, a shipment ...
Stray Cats, The: Stray Cats: Cooneybilly
Live Review by Van Gosse, Village Voice, August 1982
Stray Cats: Roseland Ballroom, NYC ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: The New Deal Origins of Rock 'n' Roll
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, December 1982
EACH YEAR, on August 16, the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, Memphis State University hosts a memorial service and seminar in his honor. ...
Roy Orbison: The One With The Glasses
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Country Music Extra, Spring 1982
ROY ORBISON has a classic Country-music pedigree. He was born in Texas, lives near Nashville and formed his first Country band while still in his ...
Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore: Scotty Moore
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983
THERE CAN BE few more graphic illustrations of the fact that rock'n'roll music is no longer some here-today-gone-tomorrow speck of lint in the wind than ...
Morells, The, Meteors, The: The Meteors: Wreckin’ Crew (I-D); The Morells: Shake And Push (Borrowed)
Review by Cynthia Rose, NME, 1983
LIKE THE bourbon and Benzedrine which fuelled it, rockabilly never really fades from popularity despite its repressive formula, but it often seems to suffer the ...
Blasters, The: The Blasters: Non-Fiction (Slash)
Review by Cynthia Rose, NME, July 1983
OVER THE past three years, white American music’s been getting a real recharge from several California couples: John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, Chip ...
Stray Cats, The: The Stray Cats: Rant 'n Rave (Arista)
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, September 1983
THAT BRIAN Setzer and his Stray Cats set out to become the perfectly sculpted and exquisitely meaningless rockstar icons of their dreams could never be ...
Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell: Robert "Bumps" Blackwell
Interview by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages Audio, October 1983
Songwriter and producer 'Bumps' Blackwell looks back at his illustrious career in pop and R&B: on Sam Cooke and 'You Send Me', Specialty Records and the West Coast indie scene, and at great length about his major discovery Little Richard.
File format: mp3; file size: 41.3mb, interview length: 45' 08" sound quality: ****
Interview by Ellen Sander, Rock's Backpages Audio, October 1983
Te 'Runaway' man on the trials and tribulations of being a still-creative musician on the "oldies" circuit; songwriting; working with Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Dave Edmunds; and his insecurities and struggle with alcohol.
File format: mp3; file size: 50.5mb, interview length: 55' 11" sound quality: ***
Stray Cats, The: The Stray Cats: Out Of The Litter Box & Into The Fire!
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, December 1983
WHAT HAPPENS when you try to domesticate the Stray Cats? ...
Roy Hall: Tracks of 'The Hound'
Profile by Martin Hawkins, Goldmine, March 1984
IF YOU think Commander Cody invented the country-boogie piano solo as a filler for his albums, then you never heard Roy Hall. This man was ...
Little Richard speaks, part 1 (1985)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 1985
Little Richard on the demonic nature of Rock'n'Roll of which, nonetheless, he is King; on how he came out of the American South; on Otis Redding and much more. Hear him sing!
File format: mp3 File size: 26.3mb Interview length: 28 minutes 47 seconds Sound quality: ****
Little Richard speaks, part 2 (1985)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, March 1985
Mr Penniman on God, Gospel, Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll. Phew!
File format: mp3 File size: 21.5mb Interview length: 23 minutes 30 seconds Sound quality: ****
Cramps, The: The Cramps: Pet Cemetery
Interview by Mat Snow, NME, January 1986
HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, Los Angeles, may well be the freakiest street in the Western World. ...
Cramps, The: The Cramps: The Curse Of Elvis
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, February 1986
It's exploitation-a-go-go as THE CRAMPS surf back from the dead to keep a date with EDWIN POUNCEY in downtown Los Angeles. ...
Cramps, The: The Cramps: A Date With Elvis
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, February 1986
THE CRAMPS' rampant gurning and soft-focus sleaze has been shaped into an institution of sorts. Transcending and fusing tribal instincts – goth's dumb brooding and ...
Little Richard: "I Am The Rill Thang!"
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, December 1986
GOOD GOSH A-MIGHTY...it's Little Richard. A little fuller in the face, a little thicker in the waist, but there he is in a Mayfair Hotel ...
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, November 1987
CLIFF IS PERPLEXED. He is attempting to curl his upper lip into a smouldering sneer but the flesh is not willing. "I can't do it." ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1987
Little Richard, on the 'phone, talks about race, religion, Good Works, the original giants of rock'n'roll, and Prince and Michael Jackson
File format: mp3 File size: 20.3mb Interview length: 22 minutes 13 seconds Sound quality: **
Gene Vincent: Born To Be A Rolling Stone (Topline Records)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, December 1987
TO SEE JUST how far a former great rock and roller can sink, check out the 12 pieces of aural excrement that comprise Gene Vincent's ...
Roy Orbison: The Big O 1936-1988
Obituary by Mark Cooper, Observer, The, December 1988
Chubby and shaded, Roy Orbison made a generation weep in pleasurable misery, says MARK COOPER ...
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, July 1989
BORN TO ROCK, the first album from rockabilly legend Carl Perkins in quite some time, is a respectable if not an especially remarkable work. ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, August 1989
New York great Dion DiMucci talks about the golden years, the sound of NYC, and addiction and recovery.
File format: mp3; file size: 33.8mb, interview length: 36' 57" sound quality: ***
Jerry Lee Lewis: Live At the Star Club (Bear Family)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, November 1989
WHAT IS IT about Jerry Lee Lewis that so fascinates us and makes us love a character so inherently unlovable? He only had a handful ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, December 1989
Ten fingers, 88 keys, 569 days – the rise and fall of Jerry Lee Lewis. ...
Little Richard: The Specialty Sessions
Review by Andy Gill, Q, February 1990
THOUGH HE RECORDED for several other labels in his career, the few years that Little Richard spent with Art Rupe's Specialty Records were to provide ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Who The Hell Does Jerry Lee Lewis Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, February 1990
THE ODDEST COUPLE are sitting side by side on the sofa. Bar the obvious – common conquered "drinking problems" – the two would seem to ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer: The Mercury Years
Review by Nick Tosches, Spin, March 1990
I'M SITTING there in Dennis Quaid's house, this white thing on La Sombra, last spring, a few months before that stiff Great Balls of Fire ...
Bill Justis: Raunchy By Choice
Retrospective by Colin Escott, Goldmine, June 1990
THE ONSLAUGHT of rock 'n' roll and its impact on the music scene brought forth some strange new converts. Few stranger than Bill Justis. Few ...
Wanda Jackson: Rockin' in the Country (Rhino)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, August 1990
THE PROBLEM WITH Wanda Jackson is her conviction, or more precisely her lack of it. She was a died-in-the-wool country weeper until she met ...
Ronnie Hawkins: The Best of Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (Rhino)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, September 1990
I’M CONVINCED that Ronnie Hawkins’ name has been kept alive in rock literature for over 30 years, not because of anything he actually did ...
Various Artists: The Sun Story Vols 1 & 2
Review by Johnny Black, Q, February 1991
Sun compiled. Historic and musically satisfying – even without Elvis. ...
Bill Haley & His Comets: The Decca Years And More
Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Goldmine, April 1991
TO A CONTEMPORARY listener already mystified by '50s rock 'n' roll. Bill Haley might be the greatest mystery of all. Elvis's success is easy to ...
Bill Haley: Indisputably The First
Retrospective by Colin Escott, Goldmine, April 1991
It was, as writer Nick Tosches observed, "one of the first instances of a white boy really getting down to the art of hep." ...
Little Richard: Bumps Blackwell and Little Richard: 'Tutti Frutti'
Interview by John Pidgeon, Record Hunter, May 1991
Written by: Dorothy La Bostrie and Richard PennimanProduced by: Bumps BlackwellRecorded in: New Orleans in September 1955 ...
Ronnie Hawkins, Band, The: AUDIO: Ronnie Hawkins (1991)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1991
The Hawk recalls rockin' out of Canada with his teenage Hawks - road stories, show business sharks and wild times, taking in Roulette's Morris Levy, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and, of course, ex-Hawks The Band.
File format: mp3; in 3 parts, total file sizes: 81mb, total interview length: 1h 18' 25" sound quality: ***
Charlie Feathers: He Forgot To Remember To Forget
Interview by Robert Gordon, Q, November 1991
THE REBEL INN is on Highway 78, once a major thoroughfare linking Mississippi cottonland to the delta's big city of Memphis. The old motel's neon ...
Elvis Presley: The King Of Rock'n'Roll: The Complete '50s Masters
Review by Mat Snow, Q, August 1992
FROM US postage stamps to academic treatises like Greil Marcus's Dead Elvis which ponders how a rock singer ends up as apple-pie as Abe Lincoln, ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis - The 50s
Review by Mark Sinker, Wire, The, September 1992
PERHAPS THE most unexpected thing about RCA/BMG's Presley-project is how unexpected so much of it is. ...
Everly Brothers, The: The Everly Brothers: Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers On Warner Bros.
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Warner Bros., September 1993
SUPPOSEDLY, it was the richest deal in the history of the record business when it was announced in November 1959. ...
Duane Eddy: Twangin' from Phoenix to L.A. (Bear Family)
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Bear Family Records, 1994
LET'S NOT TALK about guitarists who can play circles around other guitarists, or about which famous picker influenced which other famous picker. ...
Billy Fury: Halfway to Paradise
Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin Books), 1994
BILLY FURY, Britain's only authentic rock'n'roll singer, wrote most of his own material but had his most outstanding commercial success with big ballads like 'Halfway ...
Chuck Berry: The Poet of Rock'nRoll (Charly)
Review by David Sinclair, Q, September 1994
A colossally influential talent in his prime and a painful embarrassment in his decline, Chuck Berry has bequeathed a musical legacy that is like the ...
Cliff Richard, Shadows, The: Move it! The Butch Rock 'n' Roll Explosion
Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 1995
FOR MOST PEOPLE OF 40 AND UNDER, British pop begins with The Beatles: this is the view that has been encouraged by rock writers ever ...
Billy Fury: Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache
Retrospective by Bob Stanley, MOJO, February 1995
"There's only ever been two English rock 'n' roll singers – Johnny Rotten and Billy Fury." – Ian Dury, 1978 ...
El Vez: Greetings From Graciasland: El Vez
Report and Interview by Paul Gorman, MOJO, May 1995
TAKE A LIBERAL DOSE of Chicano consciousness and apply it to fully-realised musical pastiche, and what do you have? El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, no ...
Elvis Presley: Long Live The King!
Overview by Johnny Black, Q, June 1995
Most insist that Elvis Presley died on August 16 1977. Yet some say that not only is The Memphis Flash alive, but that they've seen ...
Book Excerpt by Colin Escott, 'Tattooed on their Tongues' (Schirmer), 1996
JAMES BURTON CRADLES a dark red 1953 Telecaster. The finish is cracked in a few places and the fretboard is worn, but it's got ...
Elvis Presley: Sweet Movements Of A Hillbilly Hellion
Essay by Robert Gordon, Cleveland Ballet Company (official program), 1996
THERE ARE CINDER block joints you can still go to in Memphis, wooden shacks in Mississippi, places that are out of the way and not ...
Buddy Holly: Maria Elena Holly
Interview by Philip Norman, Daily Express, 1996
MARIA ELENA Holly was robbed of her shy, brilliant young husband by an Iowa snowstorm almost 42 years ago. But she believes he has never ...
Book Review by Tom Graves, Washington Post, The, June 1996
RECORD PRODUCER Sam Phillips, who owned the tiny Sun record label in Memphis, has been hounded for years by journalists and biographers about his decision ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: New Daisy Theater, Memphis
Live Review by Robert Gordon, MOJO, December 1996
JERRY LEE LEWIS turned 61 and his seventh wife, Kerrie, threw him a party on Beale Street in his adopted hometown of Memphis. But Beale ...
Bo Diddley: His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1997
TO PARAPHRASE the titles of two of the 20 Bo Diddley nuggets contained on His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection , you can't judge ...
Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1997
The lost prophet of heavy metal remembers his early days, his legendary hit 'Rumble', being ripped-off by his own brother and keepin' on rockin'.
File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 47.9mb, total interview length: 52' 19" sound quality: * (phone interview)
Everly Brothers, The, Don Everly: An Everly Brother In Winter: Walkin' Right Back with Don Everly
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Escott, 'Tattoed on their Tongues' (Schirmer), 1998
WHEN ROCK 'N' ROLL ARRIVED, it triggered a three-alarm anxiety attack in Nashville. Many hoped that they would wake up one morning to find ...
Eddie Cochran: Somethin' Else - The Fine Lookin' Hits of Eddie Cochran
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Razor & Tie Records, 1998
EDDIE COCHRAN was truly Somethin' Else. He had the look. He had the talent. He had the attitude. He played guitar - really played guitar. ...
Jimmy Bowen and Jim Jerome: Rough Mix (Simon & Schuster)
Book Review by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, January 1998
JIMMY BOWEN is the music-biz sharpie who made Nashville's country industry what it is today -- a multi-billion-dollar-generating machine. For that, he's both loved and ...
Obituary by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, February 1998
CATS ARE SUPPOSED to have nine lives. Rockabilly cat Carl Perkins had at least three. The first got spent in '56. As Perkins was driving to ...
Dale Hawkins: Rockabilly Hipster Dale Hawkins Returns
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, October 1998
DALE HAWKINS'S FIRST HIT launched two of the greatest careers in rootsy American rock. But not without a left-field nudge from famed record producer Jerry ...
Gene Vincent: A Record Collector's Guide To Gene Vincent
Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 1999
IT WAS IAN DURY, himself the creator of some of the greatest records of his era, who hit the nail on the head, in one ...
Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley: Hey Conductor You Must: Rock'n'Roll Iconoclasm In America
Essay by Richard Riegel, Loose Palace, Spring 2000
2006 Author's note: I wrote the following piece in the summer of 1993 on assignment for Rob O'Connor's Throat Culture magazine, after I had suggested ...
Crickets, The: The Crickets: In Style with the Crickets
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Bear Family Records, 2001
IT WASN'T AN ORIGINAL name; there was another group called the Crickets that had dented the Rhythm 'n' Blues charts a few years earlier, but ...
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, March 2001
"I FIRST HEARD IT sitting in an armchair in our living room. 1957. I was 12. My sister Annetta, who's four years older, had bought ...
Blasters, The: The Blasters: Testament: The Complete Slash Recordings
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Rhino Records, 2002
CRUNCH THE NUMBERS, run the marketing templates and when you get down to it, it just doesn't compute that the six-year life span of the ...
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, 'Rockbilly Boogie' (Bear Family), 2002
IT'S STRANGE, THE TRICKS that history plays. Johnny Burnette, now dead almost forty years, would never have guessed that his legendary status would not be ...
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, May 2002
A PERFORMER who personifies rock'n'roll, Louisiana's Jerry Lee is 'The Killer' – the wildman of the piano and the provider of a zillion headlines. ...
Elvis Presley: Today Tomorrow & Forever
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, July 2002
LET'S BE honest: this, once again, is Elvis Presley '56-'77 squeezed into five exhilarating, and at times exasperating hours. There are two major differences this ...
Elvis Presley: He Made Old Men's Blues Sound Young: Remembering Elvis
Comment by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, August 2002
WE REMEMBER his ignominious end, and the cavalcade of white Cadillacs driving through Memphis for his funeral 25 years ago this month, but mostly the ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis 30 # 1 Hits (RCA)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Blender, Fall 2002
The King is gone, but he's not forgotten: Thirty classics from the best singer who ever lived. Period. ...
Don & Dewey: Dewey Terry 1937-2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
ROCK’N’ROLL PIONEER Dewey Terry (65) died of a brain tumor on May 11 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He had been ...
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, August 2003
IN THE early ’80s, some called Rank and File "cowpunks" – others called them just plain revolutionary. ...
Cramps, The: The Cramps: Basic Instinct
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Holdship, MOJO, September 2003
For the last 30 years The Cramps have remained the wildest rock'n'roll double act on the planet, a potent cocktail of lewd rockabilly, primeval fuzz ...
Elvis Presley: Sam Phillips: Rock'n'Roll Evangelist
Obituary by Andria Lisle, MOJO, September 2003
For Sam Phillips rock'n'roll was a religion And, boy, did he spread the gospel. ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: The First Sun Sessions
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, January 2004
IT WAS A QUIET WEEK in Memphis. Monday, January 4, 1954. Everyone easing into the new year. Nobody paid any attention when, around lunchtime, a ...
Review by Gillian G. Gaar, Goldmine, January 2004
THE UNDERLYING theme of 2nd To None, the 'sequel' to 2002's wildly successful 30 #1 Hits, is a bit hard to pin down. #1 Hits ...
Al Kooper: Al’s Big Deal/Unclaimed Freight
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, February 2005
Unsung hero's anthology of solo work and collaborations ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Natural Born Killer: Jerry Lee Lewis
Profile by Robert Gordon, Playboy, February 2005
IT'S A DECEMBER NIGHT and despite the chill, Jerry Lee Lewis wears flip flops, green and blue plaid pajama bottoms, and a loose nylon jacket ...
Bill Haley: Jim Dawson: Rock Around the Clock - The Record that Started the Rock Revolution
Book Review by Steven R Rosen, Denver Post, June 2005
DID HOLLYWOOD create rock 'n' roll? That sounds like a strange, ridiculous and even offensive question to anyone who likes rock and all its musical ...
Yesterday Once More: Digging the Fifties Revival in the 1970s
Retrospective by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 2006
ANY GOOD STUDENT of pop-music history knows what happened in the 1970s: The broken bricks from the aesthetic street-fights of the '60s were scooped up ...
Elvis Presley: Rediscovering the joy in the sad story of Elvis
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, May 2006
NO POP ICON ever came to a sadder or less regal end than the once gorgeous, gaudy "King" of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley. When ...
Essay by Tim Riley, Rock's Backpages, November 2006
LONG BEFORE "POST-MODERN" became pure jargon, Buddy Holly put quotes around his "normalcy" to disarm rock machismo. ...
Wanda Jackson: Hard-Headed Woman
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, February 2007
WANDA JACKSON was the original Riot Grrrl. In the late '50s, she shook, rattled and roared next to Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and boyfriend ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Last Wild Man Of Rock 'N Roll Standing
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Sunday Times, February 2007
The six wives, the shootings, the arrests, the addictions – Jerry Lee Lewis was the original wild man of rock'n'roll. And at 71, he still ...
Bill Haley and His Comets: 'Rock Around The Clock'
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, backonthetracks.com, July 2007
12 April 1954: At Decca Records' Pythian Temple Studio, New York City, Bill Haley and His Comets record 'Rock Around The Clock' and 'Thirteen Women'. ...
Gene Vincent: Born To Be A Rollin' Stone The Challenge Sessions 1966-68
Sleevenotes by Tim Tooher, Rev-Ola Records, July 2007
SOMETIMES THE BEST things in life are the simplest things. Gene Vincent kept things simple. He had no airs and graces. No pretensions. He sang ...
Comment by Jonh Ingham, mog.com, August 2007
EVERY YEAR a bunch of new noisy kids will tell you rock and roll is a young man's game. At 72 and still The King, ...
Chuck Berry: Hail, Hail, Chuck Berry!
Essay by Jonh Ingham, Jonh Ingham's Blog, October 2007
"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."– John Lennon ...
Sleevenotes by Todd Everett, Bear Family Records, 2008
THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME – the list of performers, not the museum in Cleveland – has often generated its share of controversy; ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, June 2008
American pioneer of rock'n'roll who influenced the Beatles and the Rolling Stones ...
Buddy Holly: Down the Line: Buddy Holly
Retrospective by Mark Kemp, Texas Music, January 2009
WHEN THE FIRST gentle notes ring from Buddy Holly's acoustic guitar on his cover of Mickey & Sylvia's 'Dearest', you could swear it was recorded ...
Buddy Holly: Why Buddy Holly will never fade away
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, January 2009
ON A BASIS OF simply counting heads, rock music surpasses even film as the 20th century's most influential art form. By that reckoning, there is ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, February 2009
Co-founder of the Cramps, exponents of trash culture and 'psychobilly' music ...
Freddy Cannon: Boom Boom Rock 'n' Roll: The Best of Freddy Cannon (Shout Factory)
Review by Steven R Rosen, blurt-online.com, February 2009
HERE'S THE MOST amazing music-trivia factoid in a long time, courtesy of the liner notes to Boom Boom 24-song greatest-hits collection: Mick Jagger acknowledges he ...
Bobby Charles, the Inventor of Swamp Pop and Songwriter Supreme
Obituary by John Broven, Now Dig This, February 2010
WITH ROCK 'N' roll exploding in austerity-ridden England in the mid-1950s, there was one hip phrase that stood out from the rest: "See you later ...
Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, April 2010
NECESSITY, THEY say, is the mother of invention, and no-one knows that better than Alvin Stardust. ...
Retrospective and Interview by John Broven, Now Dig This, July 2010
WHEN BOBBY Charles recorded 'Later Alligator' for Chess at Cosimo Matassa's J. & M. Studio in New Orleans in autumn 1955, he was not only ...
Sleevenotes by Todd Everett, Bear Family Records, 2011
PAT BOONE, WHO GOT HIS START before rock and roll was invented, remarked in 2008 that he had issues with the fact that he hadn't ...
Orion, Elvis Presley: Not Elvis, BUT….
Retrospective by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, August 2012
FIRST, THERE WAS you-know-who. Or at least up until thirty-five years ago there was. ...
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