Rock 'n Roll

ROCK 'N ROLL MUSIC

Rock ‘n roll music emerged as the popular music of the day by the mid-1950’s. Its background is a blend of rhythm and blues and country and western music. Jazz and the big band sound was popular in the 1940’s, but by the 1950’s, a new-found affluence among working class people brought about an interest in a new and simpler sound which would appeal particularly to young people. With the advent of the electric guitar in the late 1940’s and its increased use in country and blues music, the creation of this new and appealing sound was imminent. The first rock’n roll musicians would be Elvis Presley, Little Richard (Richard Penniman) and Bill Haley, who began recording in the United States in 1953. The release of Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ in 1955, which was a very popular new song, is believed to be the launching of the new sound, which was referred to as ‘bop’ music. In 1956, a disc jockey from Cleveland, Ohio, called Alan Freed christened the new music as ‘rock ‘n roll’. Musicians such as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Fats Domino, were soon to follow. Rockabilly was a form of rock ‘n roll which blended the rocking guitar sound with a hillbilly beat.

Rock’n roll started in Britain in 1956, with Tommy Steele’s recording of ‘Rock With The Cave Man’ in November of that year. Tommy was soon followed by many other singers such as Billy Fury and Cliff Richard. A band from Liverpool, known as the Quarrymen, would ultimately become the Beatles, the group that would dominate popular music in the 1960’s. Rockabilly music was extremely popular in Britain and very young singers were starting to emerge. The Brothers Gibb, later to become the Bee Gees, began as child rock ‘n rollers in the late 1950’s. Peter Frampton, who was born in South London, the same area in which Rockin' Oliver! takes place, was playing electric guitar with a rock 'n roll group at age 10 at this time also. Rock ‘n roll was an expression of the newly-found affluence of the working people and the rebellion of young people against what they considered to be rigid and outdated ideas of their parents’ generation. However, the 1950’s were still an era of innocence and family togetherness. Rockin’ Oliver! is a salute to that era and the realization of the kind of society which Charles Dickens would have dreamed of.

A 1950's era rock 'n roll band


1950's child rock 'n roll singer Larry Collins - similar to Rockin' Oliver