1950s

Billboard Magazine (browse 1950s)

Billboard top songs of the year (year end charts)

Marv Golberg’s r&b articles

Elvis Presley discography

1952

• Alan freed’s Moondog Coronation Ball
• Alan Freed archives (press coverage)

1954

• Alan Freed’s WJW Cleveland Moondog radio show (4/6/54)

1955

• Rock ‘n’ Roll Revue (dir. by Joseph Kohn), live at the Apollo Theater
• Rhythm and Blues Revue, live at the Apollo Theater (Lionel Hampton, Cab Calloway, Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner)
• Lttle Richard
  • Tutti Frutti (from Don’t Knock the Rock); cover by Pat Boone
  • Little Richard on Pat Boone
• Chuck Berry
  • Johnny B. Goode w/Julian Lennon (1986)
  • Johnny B. Goode w/Bruce Springsteen (1995)
• Billboard
  • Track the term  rock ‘n’ roll
    • January 15, 1955; January 29, 1955; February 4, 1955
  • “Battle Looming for R&B Artists” (7/16/55)
  • Fats Domino’s “Ain’t It A Shame” entered chart, behind Pat Boone (7/16/55); on the R&B chart that week
• Life
  • “Rock ‘n’ Roll: A Frenzied Teen-Age Music Craze Kicks Up a Big Fuss” (4/18/1955)
• Elvis Presley
  • “Elvis Presley’s Archivist on the Heartbreak of Tapes Trashed by RCA” (Vanity Fair, 8/2017)
• Blackboard Jungle: Trailer, full movie
• Variety, 1955. “Houston’s ‘Wash-Out-the-Air Comm.’ Knocks 26 R&B Tunes Out of Box.” (August 24): 51, 55

1956

• Rock, Rock, Rock (dir. Will Price, with Alan Freed, Chuck Berry)
• Shake, Rattle, and Rock! (with Fats Domino, Joe Turner)
• Basin Street Revue (at the Apollo Theater, with Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington)
• Little Richard, “Ready Teddy” and “She’s Got It” (The Girl Can’t Help It, 1956)
• Elvis Presley on tv
  • Dorsey Brothers
    • January 28, “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” “I Got a Woman, We’re Goin’ to Town”
  • Milton Berle show
    • April 3, “Heartbreak Hotel“
    • June 5, “Hound Dog,” “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You“
  • Ed Sullivan
    • September 9, “Love Me Tender,” “Ready Teddy“
    • October 28, “Hound Dog” (longer clip)
    • January 26, 1957, “Don’t Be Cruel“
    • Elvis and the Ed Sullivan Show
  • “Don’t Be Cruel” (Oct. 27, 1956)
    • R&B charts; C&W charts;  Pop charts
  • 45rpm label and BMI credits
    • “That’s All Right Mama” composer credit (Arthur Crudup, 1954): 45rpm disc; BMI registration
    • “Don’t Be Cruel”/”Hound Dog”,  BMI composer credits
  • Bieber first artist to top R&B and Country charts the same week? (Jan. 15, 2020: Forbes; Billboard)
• TV’s 10 Years of Progress (Sep. 1956, Billboard)

1957

• Nat King Cole Show with 11-year-old Billy Preston, “Blueberry Hill“

1958

• Richie Valens
  • “La Bamba” (Spanish lyrics and English translation)
  • “Ooh! My Head!” (Go, Johnny, Go!, 1959)

1959

• Tielman Brothers, “Rollin Rock” (Dutch East Indies band; from Indonesia, moved to the Netherlands)

Gospel

• Sister Rosetta Tharpe
  • “Up Above My Head” (1960s; guitar solo at 1:20)

MISC

• Elvis and Racism
  • Elvis and African Americans (video compilation)
  • Elvis and the Black Community
  • Elvis and Racism: The Ultimate and Definitive Guide
  • “Why I Stopped Hating Elvis” (Todd “Stereo” Williams, clatl.com, 8/20/2012); The Truth about Elvis, and the History of Racism in Rock (dailybeast.com, 6/18/2016)
  • Elvis rumor: snopes.com; Ferris State. U.
  • Boston Globe, “Suspicous Minds” (Wesleyan access only; if direct link doesn’t work, log onto Olin’s Indexes and Databases and click on Factiva, then try link again)
  • Chuck D on Elvis line in “Fight the Power” (“Chuck D Explains Why Suing Notorious B.I.G. was Stupid,” HiphopDX, 3/9/2012)
  • Singer Jackie Wilson on Elvis (Pittsburgh Post Gazette 2002)
  • Elvis Lives (TV Special, 2002) (33:07 Chuck D; 34:15 B. B King)
  • Otis Blackwell
    • “All Shook Up” (BMI composer credits)
    • “Just How Much Did Elvis Learn from Otis Blackwell?” (Village Voice 1976)
    • NY Times obituary
    • Otis Blackwell on David Letterman Show (1984)
  • Muhammad Ali speaks at Elvis Memorial Service (1985)
    • Muhammad Ali (PBS documentary)
      • Muhammad Ali Refuses the Vietnam War Draft — PBS
    • Muhammad Ali Refuses Induction, Opposing Vietnam War — April 28, 1967 (from The Boys Who Said No!)
    • Muhammad Ali on David Frost show (broadcast December 13, 1968; 2:20 on being drafted)
    • Muhammad Ali debates on the Vietnam War (David Susskind, 1968) (6:15 on Black Power; 8:15 David Susskind opening)
• Nuclear bomb testing: Camp Desert Rock, Nevada (1951-57); The Atom Soldier (1955 US Army documentary; detonation 23:00; decontamination and effects of radiation 25:22);  “Nevada’s Hidden Ocean of Radiation” (LA Times); “Nuclear Testing and Downwinders“; Gallery of US Nuclear Tests; About Fallout (1963 documentary)
• Dick Clark and Payola (Life magazine, 1960)
• Indian Elvis
• The Trial of Chuck Berry (J. P. Robinson, 2019)
  • The Mann Act (pbs)
• “A Brief History of Little Richard Grappling with His Sexuality and Religion,” (Billboard, 10/9/2017)