Had this rumbling around my brain for a while, was going to post it, then forgot about it...(and even when I did remember I stuck it in the wrong category...!!)

Anyway, love it or hate it...you've certainly heard of it...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4796696

I like it.

A less likely R&R star is hard to imagine, but times change hey ?  ;D

That's very interesting, Paul!  8)

I love it! Though...IMHO...Rock has gone from alright, to great, to alright, to sh*t...for the most part... ::)

I wonder if Bill Haley was still alive,would he still be making more music? ???


Howard

Not to nitpick, but rock 'n roll didn't begin with Bill Haley. It began in the late 40's and early 50's with black artists like Big Joe Turner (who actually wrote "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and whose version is superior to Haley's), Johnny Otis, and Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, just to name a few. Haley deserves his place in history for bringing rock 'n roll out of the underground and into the consciousness of mainstream white America (and I'm not denying that "Rock Around The Clock" is a great rock 'n roll song), but it is a shame that the true inventors of rock 'n roll--the black R & B artists of that era--aren't as well-known as they deserve to be.

AL-B hit the nail on the head for me...that's very much the way I feel about Bill Haley & The Comets. I wasn't around at the time but they always came across to me as the acceptable, sanitised face of rock'n'roll that was dished up the American public of the 50s.

Give me Little Richard or Jerry Lee Lewis anyday over Bill Haley. Elvis, Carl Perkins or even Buddy Holly surely had more street-cred than Bill?

Both of you guys are correct.....in fact Haley's song was actually Rock-A-Billy..... good but nor Rock and Roll. Gee by the Crows is the first certified R and B song to hit the charts and become a national hit. Because of the confusion about just what R and R was it's actually hard to tell just what song was the first R and R to become a hit. Being a Doo Wop and R and B fan I couldn't tell you if there really was a true R and R song turned out in the 50s unless you list songs sung by the likes of Pat Boone and The McGuire Sisters.

Both of you guys are correct.....in fact Haley's song was actually Rock-A-Billy..... good but nor Rock and Roll. Gee by the Crows is the first certified R and B song to hit the charts and become a national hit. Because of the confusion about just what R and R was it's actually hard to tell just what song was the first R and R to become a hit. Being a Doo Wop and R and B fan I couldn't tell you if there really was a true R and R song turned out in the 50s unless you list songs sung by the likes of Pat Boone and The McGuire Sisters.
I think rock 'n roll is hard to define because it means so many things to different people. To me, it's an attitude. It's about playing your guts out and singing from the BALLS. Not to pick on you or anything, hoogbest, but how on earth do you consider Pat Boone as being rock 'n roll?
Pat Boone was the safe, non-threatening Ivy league good-guy alternative to Elvis' swingin' pelvis. Have you ever heard Boone's version of Little Richard's "Tutti Fruitti?" It's by far the worst example of cleaned up, sanitized, parental-approved white-bread rock 'n roll. When you hear Little Richard's version it's like Armageddon. The band is slamming away, the sax is wailing, and Little Richard is screaming so hard you swear his NUTS ARE ABOUT TO EXPLODE. THAT'S rock 'n roll. Pat Boone on the other hand, is just standing there in a nice suit and tie, with his right hand up in the air snapping his fingers and gently tapping his foot; and very politely crooning his way through the song. It's DISGUSTING!!!

You were describing R & B......R & R is what white bread singers presented as their interpretation of R & B so it would be acceptable to the "Powers That Be". An example is Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti", clearly R & B and Pat Boone's cover which was clearly R & R. I wrote in my first reply it would be difficult to differentiate between the two but if you listen to it AND observe it there is no doubt which is which!

You were describing R & B......R & R is what white bread singers presented as their interpretation of R & B so it would be acceptable to the "Powers That Be". An example is Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti", clearly R & B and Pat Boone's cover which was clearly R & R. I wrote in my first reply it would be difficult to differentiate between the two but if you listen to it AND observe it there is no doubt which is which!
Ok, I apologize, I misunderstood you. :) (But we can both agree that Pat Boone SUCKS!)

No need to apologize.....we're all in this thing together! YESSSSSSS Pat Boone was an embarrassment to all R & B devotees everywhere, not to mention we small amount of Doo Wop lovers who couldn't get our kind of music played anywhere.  We had to attend live R & B shows to see and hear our heros like the 5 Satins, The Moonglows and The Heartbeats.  Finally we discovered how and where to buy these records PLUS we found the stations that played them like WLAC out or Nashville,TN., a 50,000 watt flame thrower that in the PM could push R & B AND Doo Wop right through your bedroom's little radio and turn that corner of your world into your own private Doo Wop show!

No need to apologize.....we're all in this thing together! YESSSSSSS Pat Boone was an embarrassment to all R & B devotees everywhere, not to mention we small amount of Doo Wop lovers who couldn't get our kind of music played anywhere.


Oh, granted...Pat couldn't sing a convincing uptempo number in his life, but to be fair to the man, his precise handling of a 'big ballad' was a joy!

The main thrust of this thread was basically just to mark the 50th anniversary of the recording of 'that' record...sure, there were many, many records released prior to then which were more in the style of 'RnB' (or whatever it was called), but "RATC' was the first to prick the public's (and more importantly, the record companies') awareness and purse-strings...

Nice to see passing mention of 'Gee' by The Crows...unbelievably, this was issued here in the UK in 1954 (heaven knows who they thought was going to buy a copy!), and is to this day one of our most valuable commercial releases ever (on 45 it 'officially' sold 12 copies!!)...to get one of those today would set you back about around US$ 5,000...!!

No need to apologize.....we're all in this thing together! YESSSSSSS Pat Boone was an embarrassment to all R & B devotees everywhere, not to mention we small amount of Doo Wop lovers who couldn't get our kind of music played anywhere.  We had to attend live R & B shows to see and hear our heros like the 5 Satins, The Moonglows and The Heartbeats.  Finally we discovered how and where to buy these records PLUS we found the stations that played them like WLAC out or Nashville,TN., a 50,000 watt flame thrower that in the PM could push R & B AND Doo Wop right through your bedroom's little radio and turn that corner of your world into your own private Doo Wop show!
That must've been really cool to be alive during that era. I really like a lot of 50's music. What groups did you see live, and which show was the best one you went to?