Orioles, "It's Too Soon to Know" (Jubilee)
Channeling the Ink Spots—but not quite—the amateur Orioles, with their shoe store clerk songwriter and manager, Deborah Chessler, had the only R&B-to-pop crossover in the latter half of 1948, an early sign of things to come.
Johnnie Ray, "Cry" (Okeh)
Johnnie Ray, "Cry" (Okeh)
In this 1951 Mitch Miller production of a song written by night watchman, Churchill Kohlman, with a performance one critic called a "lacerating threnody," an unknown Johnnie Ray was transformed overnight into what Down Beat labeled "the phenom of the music-record business of the second half of the century."
Les Paul and Mary Ford, "How High the Moon" (Capitol)
Les Paul and Mary Ford, "How High the Moon" (Capitol)
With elaborate and painstaking overdubbing, Les Paul and Mary Ford elevated gimmickry to art as exemplified in this public favorite, which rode the top chart position for nine weeks in 1951.
Peggy Lee, "Lover" (Decca)
Peggy Lee, "Lover" (Decca)
Peggy Lee and arranger Gordon Jenkins teamed up for this desperately fevered rendition of the Rodgers and Hart standard. Despite her former Capitol records colleague, Ella Mae Morse's, public rebuke ("she must be kidding"), Lee's record sold more than a million copies in the summer of 1952.
Don Howard, "Oh Happy Day" (Essex)
Don Howard, "Oh Happy Day" (Essex)
Eighteen-year-old Don Howard, recording in his parents' garage, "kicked off a shocked reaction" in the industry with this decidedly amateur effort that nevertheless impressed many hundreds of thousands of young record buyers in 1952.
Chords, "Sh-Boom" (Cat)
Chords, "Sh-Boom" (Cat)
Originally a throw-away B-side for the Chords' cover of Patti Page's "Cross Over the Bridge," this 1954 track by a group of young black singers from the Bronx (accompanied by New York session pros) made a top-ten showing on the pop charts, much to the astonishment of industry insiders, including label head Ahmet Ertegun.
Bill Haley and the Comets, "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" (Decca)
Bill Haley and the Comets, "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" (Decca)
Thanks to its appearance in the film, Blackboard Jungle in 1955, this boisterous track—produced by veteran jazz producer, Milt Gabler—became an emblem of youthful rebellion expressed in the voice of a thirty-year-old country singer who, along with the rest of the band and the country at large, was swept up in a musical groundswell beyond anyone's control.
Platters, "Only You (And You Alone)" (Mercury)
Platters, "Only You (And You Alone)" (Mercury)
The sweetest of the early rock and roll stars, the Platters, with songwriter Buck Ram providing a living connection to past pop tradition, demonstrated that the new music was not to be defined by its big beat alone.
Elvis Presley, "Hound Dog" (RCA Victor)
Elvis Presley, "Hound Dog" (RCA Victor)
Working in a top New York studio operated by one of the industry's premier corporations—home to Toscanini, Ellington, Rubinstein, and Gillespie—this piece of proto-punk racket, which may as well have issued from some indie garage, landed Presley at the top of pop, R&B, and country charts in 1956.
Chuck Berry, "Rock and Roll Music" (Chess)
Chuck Berry, "Rock and Roll Music" (Chess)
Rock and roll was an emergent concept in 1957 when Chuck Berry delivered this musicology lesson in the form of a hit single blending multiple styles and song forms epitomizing the new music's essentially eclectic nature.
Shirelles, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (Scepter)
Shirelles, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (Scepter)
The singers and the songwriter/arranger (Carole King) were all women on this 1960 number-one single, as was the label owner (Florence Greenberg), challenging the rock and roll boys club and ushering into the pop mainstream a massive new wave of young female energy and attitude.
