Posts by tag
R&B
Hank Ballard And The Midnighters never quite made big league status. But alongside cutting a rug on the 50s scene, they had several fondly recalled hits for Syd Nathan’s Federal…
Leaving his blues-influenced rock behind, His Hand In Mine was the first of Elvis’ gospel albums… but was this new sound what his fans wanted? Words by Douglas McPherson When…
Sam Cooke, soul’s first true superstar, blazed a trail that still burns bright… Here Vintage Rock revisits Hit Kit – an indispensable collection of his early hits. Sam Cooke’s A…
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson is best remembered as a 70s funk artist, but back in the 50s, as a teenager called Young John Watson, he cut one of the most extraordinary…
Vintage Rock charts the creation of Route 66, an enduring Bobby Troup-penned R&B classic covered by Chuck Berry and The Rolling Stones and written in tribute to the most iconic…
In 1955 The Platters soared to fame with their iconic ballad Only You, here Vintage Rock charts the career of the most successful Black group of the 1950s and talk…
In our lowdown on Fats Domino, we look at how his New Orleans sound was a cornerstone of early rock’n’roll… John Peel liked to argue that rock’n’roll should feel scary…
Sixty-five years ago, Berry Gordy – a former boxer and failed record store owner – launched the label that would become Motown. We trace its funky first five years, which…
Their recorded output was limited, but for a short period Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers electrified the 1950s rockin’ scene… Some argue that Why Do Fools Fall In Love is…
One of the most covered songs of the 1950s, Ain’t That A Shame was a breakout hit for Pat Boone – but Fats Domino’s original remains the definitive version… It…