On this day in 1985 Big Joe Turner died.  Sadly, he is little remembered today but he had a huge influence on the growth of Rock and Roll.

Born in 1911 Turner performed from 1920 until 1980.  A Blues shouter he played with or on the same bill as many wonderful musicians such as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Wynonie Harris.  He recorded throughout his career but found real fame in the ’50s.  Moving away from Jazz and Blues he was a pioneer of rock and roll.  He is best remembered for writing and recording “Shake Rattle and Roll”.  His, original version was a hit but eclipsed by Bill Haley’s version.  BH’s version removed all the innuendoes of the original (Elvis used the original lyrics) and was not as raw and powerful as Turner’s.

More hits followed notably; “Well All Right,” “Flip Flop and Fly,” “Hide and Seek,” “Morning, Noon and Night,” and “The Chicken and the Hawk”.  His influence has been hailed by many people including the NME when reporting his death in 1985 they referred to him as “the grandfather of rock and roll.

Later in his life he returned to Jazz and Blues performing until 1980.  He died of a heart attack.

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On this day in 1955 one of the all time rock classics was recorded by Carl Perkins at Sun Records in Memphis. It later went on to reach number 2 in the US and number 10 in the UK. It has been covered by loads of artists including Elvis (also a Sun Recording artist) and John Lennon.

He had a very poor upbringing. The son of a sharecropper in Tiptonville Tennessee he started working in the cotton fields at the age of 6. He would often finish his school day and then work for several hours in the fields. This upbringing made him resilient and exposed him to Southern Gospel music, whether during regular worship on Sundays or while working in the fields as the black workers sang in the fields.

In what now seems to be almost trite his first guitar was home made cigar box and broom handle affair made by his dad. He learnt to play being taught by a 60 year old John Westbrook a fellow field worker who Carl referred to as “Uncle John”. The African American played Gospel and blues and instilled a love of music into a willing Carl.

Later the family moved to Madison County and so closer to Memphis and more musical influences. From the age of 14 Carl and his brother played in local bars (while still having day jobs in the fields). Gradually, his repertoire and confidence grew. In 1954 he auditioned for the great Sam Phillips of Sun Records. Later Phillips would say of Carl “I knew that Carl could rock and in fact he told me right from the start that he had been playing that music before Elvis came out on record… I wanted to see whether this was someone who could revolutionize the country end of the business.”

Records followed but the great success was “Blue Suede Shoes” recorded on this day in 1955 (or on 19th December depending on who you believe. Carl’s immortality was assured.

Perkins was the son of poor sharecroppers near Tiptonville, Tennessee.[3] He grew up hearing Southern gospel music sung by whites in church, and by black field workers when he started working in the cotton fields at age six. During spring and autumn, the school day would be followed by several hours of work in fields. During the summer, workdays were 12–14 hours,

1955, Carl Perkins recorded ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ at Sun Studios in Memphis. The rock ‘n’ roll classic became a US No.2 & UK No.10 hit for Perkins in 1956, and has been covered by many acts including Elvis Presley and John Lennon.

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“I’ll regret this day as long as I live. I guess lots of people were waiting for this kind of thing to happen. It’s getting where I can’t even leave the house without something happening to me.” (The New York Post, October 19, 1956)

So said Elvis after having an altercation with a Petrol station (gas station for those of you in the USA) on this day in 1956.

Elvis had pulled up to have a smell of petrol coming from his car checked and a crowd had grown round him, people asking for autographs and just plain gawking. The petrol station owner was not amused, no one was buying petrol. He asked Elvis to go away. Elvis stayed so Edd Hopper (the owner) slapped him upside his head. Elvis threw a punch and then an employee of the station Aubrey Brown joined in. The cops arrive and all 3 were arrested. Presley was bailed later in the day. Hopper and Brown were eventually fined $25 and $15 respectively.

All in all, not much of a fight and not much to make a fuss over. However, Elvis being Elvis the news of this minor altercation was featured in the national press. Rock hysteria was pretty new at the time and so was the feeding frenzy of the media. The judge said to Elvis “In the future you should take into consideration that you have a large following and should cooperate fully with business people in order to avoid disruptions.” Elvis said that he would, and left the court surrounded by young women. (Not a bad job being a rock star, there are certainly upsides)

This was not the end of Elvis being involved in altercations. November 1956 saw Elvis in a minor bar brawl over a woman, 1957 Elvis pulled a gun on a Marine in a dispute about a women. Something of a pattern developing there.

It would seem that Elvis was something of a scrapper when he was younger but there is nothing to suggest that he was a thug. being involved in fights would appear to be a reflection of the less than affluent area that was home to the young Elvis.

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On this day in 1958 “Hound Dog” by Elvis exceeded 3 million sales in the US alone.

His was the 3rd record to sell more than 3 million copies in the States. Any Idea of what the other 2 were?

While you think about it here a clip of Elvis.

Worked it out yet?

The first 2 records to exceed 3 million sales in the USA were;

White Christmas, Bing Crosby

(I know a particularly dreadful clip….)

The other song to sell more than 3 million copies?

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Gene Autrey

If you dare here it is……………………

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On this day in 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis released Great Balls of Fire on the Sun record label.

One of the great pioneers of rock and roll Lewis came from a poor familly in Ferriday, Louisiana. He bagan playing piano while young with two of his cousins. His passion for the [iano was such that his parents raised a mortgage to buy him his own piano (thank god they did, god bless ‘em).

Lewis was expelled from his school (Southwest Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas) into which his mother had enrolled him in the hope that he would learn to play “godly” music. He was expelled for playing “worldly” music. Years later he was asked by an old school friend if he was still playing the Devil’s music. His reply, “Yes, I am. But you know it’s strange, the same music that they kicked me out of school for is the same kind of music they play in their churches today. The difference is, I know I am playing for the devil and they don’t.”

His style came from what he heard on the radio and from the rythms he heard in the local black joints. In those days black musicians could not play for white audiences in the main and the white kids were ready for this rebellious, liberating music. He went to Sun Records in Memphis for an audition but Sam Phillips was away. Even so it did not take Phillips’ engineer, Jack Clement, to recognise his talent. Signed to Sun Lewis began working on session backing all the greats on the Sun label including, Elvis, Carl, Perkins and Johnny Cash among others. His distinctive piano playing can be heard on many tracks recorded at Sun during late 1956 and early 1957, including Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox”.

A great talent later lost to rock when he moved into country music after the scandal of his marriage to his young cousin Lewis helped start what we all enjoy to this day. As someone has said all we dio is to build on the shoulders of giants that went before, Lewis is one of thos giants.

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On this day in 1956 RCA Victor announced a huge number of advance orders for “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley.

Only a couple of days ago it was the anniversary of Emile Berliner inventing the gramophone. In 1956 the record company that he co-founded with Eldridge Johnson was going from strength to strength.

These days, of course, RCA is part of Sony BMG. The history is somewhat contorted but, briefly;

In the ’80s RCA bought 50% of Arista. General Electric bought RCA in ‘86 (selling its interest in the RCA/Ariola International back to Bertelsmann the owner of Ariola). The RCA/Ariola International entity was renamed Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG). GE meanwhile closed all RCA entities ‘cept for a NBC. So, BMG was the only RCA game in town. They also resurrected RCA Victor for Rock music.

While RCA had acts like The Eurythmics on its books it also produced a number of successful albums of shows on Broadway.

in 2004 BMG merged with Sony to produce ‘Sony BMG’. Interestingly, RCA once owned NBC now RCA was in a group once owned by NBC’s rival CBS, Columbia Records.

2008 saw BMG being bought out by Sony and Sony BMG became Sony Music Entertainment.

There, told you it was simple!

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On this day in 1974 the man who wrote That’s All Right covered so famously by Elvis died.

Arthur Big Boy Crudup was born in Mississippi in 1905. He became a blues singer and made his way to Chicago. He did not really do too well there as he was living in a packing crate when he was discovered by record producer Lester Melrose. Although he could barely make a living working solo in Chicago melrose saw something in Crudup. he introduced Crudup to Tampa Red and signed him to RCA Victor’s Bluebird Label.

His first recording session was in 1941. In some ways the start of his recording career which promised so much delivered so little. After each recording session he would have to return to the labour camp to get work to get enough money to live.

His records were selling but where were the royalties? He sued Melrose, but with no result. In the early 50s he even stopped recording altogether. Then, his songs were taken up by Presley. Surely, his fortunes would change now? Not a bit of it.

Still no royalties. So in 1971 he sued to get his hands on his royalties again. This time a cheque for $60,000 was written, but it was never signed………….

He was dead 3 years later, a poor man. The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll, whose songs helped send Elvis to stardom, whose songs were recorded by so many rock artists died an honoured but poor man.

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Jan 8th was a significant day for Elvis, he was born on this day in 1935, Jan 8th 1945 he was given his first guitar, Jan 8th 1955 he released his 3rd single. Not too shabby.

So January 8th was not a bad day for Elvis, or for us music lovers as it also saw the birth of Bowie (1947), Shirley Bassey (1937), (the Dame is 10 years younger than the Dame?) and Bill Graham in 1931.

ON the other hjand January 8th has provide some lows as well. Yoko Ono released “Approximately Infinite University” in 1973.

‘Nuff Said (One for the older readers)

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On this day in 1956 Elvis was involved in a fist fight.  He had stopped at a petrol station in Memphis to get some petrol and was mobbed by teenagers.  The petrol station manager wanted him to go away so that he could start selling petrol again.  Tempers became frayed and the owner, Ed Hopper, hit Elvis on the head (You should not mess with a rock star’s hair!).  Elvis, in turn, hit him in the eye.  Hopper’s assistant, Aubrey Brown, went to help his boss and got much the same.

Ed Hopper brought charges but they were thrown out of court 4 days later as all the fans confirmed that Elvis did not start the fight.  Hopper and his 6′4″ assistant were fined, and promptly sacked by the petrol station owner.

Three days after the petrol station episode Elvis went to the movies.  Surprise, surprise, he was mobbed, again.  This time the only damage was to Elvis’ car.

Perhaps Elvis should have realised that he could not just go out in public without attracting a crowd….  Only a month later Elvis was attacked again.  This time by Louis Balint.  His beef with Elvis was that his wife carried a photo of Elvis in her purse.  Balint was fined for assault but as he was destitute he was sent to jail instead.

All in all, quite an eventful week for Elvis.   Towards the end of the week Elvis got a his first letter from the draft board……………

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On This Day in 1965 the Beatles were on their second US tour. Brian Epstein was able to arrange a visit to meet Elvis in his Bel-Air home. The visit lasted some 4 hours and while Col Tom Parker an Epstein played pool the Fab Four and The Hips told stories and chatted. They also jammed together. Want a copy of that recording? Well, tough luck no one thought to turn a tape recorder on!

Here is an excerpt from the book The Beatles Anthology talking about meeting Elvis.

PAUL We met Elvis Presley at the end of our stay in L.A. We’d tried for years to, but we could never get to him. He was our greatest idol, but the styles were changing in favor of us. He was a pretty powerful image to British people. You’d look at photos of him doing American concerts, and the audience would not even be jumping up and down. We used to be amazed, seeing them sitting in the front row – not even dancing.

JOHN LENNON : When I first heard “Heartbreak Hotel,” I could hardly make out what was being said. It was just the experience of hearing it and having my hair stand on end. We’d never heard American voices singing like that. They’d always sung like Sinatra who enunciated well. Suddenly, there’s this hillbilly hiccuping with echo and all this bluesy background going on. We didn’t know what the hell Presley was singing about or Little Richard or Chuck Berry. It took a long time to work out what was going on. To us, it just sounded like great noise.

PAUL We tried many times to meet Elvis, Colonel Tom Parker, his manager would just show up with a few souvenirs, and that would have to do us for a while. We didn’t feel brushed off we felt we deserved to be brushed off. After all, he was Elvis, and who were we to dare to want to meet him? But we finally received an invitation to go round and see him when he was making a film in Hollywood.

GEORGE HARRISON Meeting Elvis was one of the high-lights of the tour. It was funny, because by the time we got near his house we’d forgotten where we were going. We were in a Cadillac going round and round along Mulholland, and we’d had a couple of “cups of tea” in the back of the car. It didn’t really matter where we were going – it’s like the comedian Lord Buckley says, “We go into a native village and take a couple of peyote buds, we might not find out where we is, but we’ll sure find out who we is.” Anyway, we were just having fun, we were all in hysterics. (We laughed a lot. That’s one thing we forgot about for a few years – laughing. When we went through all the lawsuits, it looked as if everything was bleak, but when I think back to before that, I remember we used to laugh all the time.) We pulled up at some big gates and someone said, “Oh yeah, we’re going to see Elvis,” and we all fell out of the car laughing, trying to pretend we weren’t silly, just like a Beatles cartoon.

JOHN It was very exciting, we were all nervous as hell, and we met him in his big house in L.A. – probably as big as the one we were staying in, but it still felt like “big house, big Elvis.” He had lots of guys around him, all these guys that used to live near him (like we did from Liverpool, we always had thousands of Liverpool people around us, so I guess he was the same.) And he had pool tables! Maybe a lot of American houses are like that, but it seemed amazing to us. It was like a nightclub.

RINGO STARR I was pretty excited. We were lucky because it was the four of us and we had each other to be with. The house was very big. We walked in, and Elvis was sitting down on a settee in front of the TV. He was playing a bass guitar, which even to this day I find very strange. He had all his guys around him, and we said, “Hi, Elvis.” He was pretty shy, and we were a little shy, but between the five of us we kept it rolling. I felt I was more thrilled to meet him than he was to meet me.

PAUL He showed us in. He just looked like Elvis – we were all major fans, so it was hero worship of a high degree. He said, “Hello, lads – do you want a drink?” We sat down and watched telly, and he had the first remote any of us had ever seen. You just aimed it at the telly and – wow! That’s Elvis! He was playing Charlie Rich’s “Mohair Sam” all evening – he had it on a jukebox.

JOHN He had his TV going all the time, which is what I do; we always have TV on. We never watch it – it’s just there with no sound on, and we listen to records. In front of the TV, he had a massive amplifier with a bass plugged into it, and he was up playing bass all the time with the picture up on the TV. So we just got in there and played with him. We all plugged in whatever was around, and we played and sang. He had a jukebox, like I do, but I think he had all his hits on it. But if I’d made as many as him, maybe I’d have all mine on.

PAUL That was the greatest. Elvis was into the bass, So there I was, “Well, let me show you a thing or two, El…” Suddenly he was a mate. It was a great conversation piece for me. I could actually talk about the bass, and we sat around and just enjoyed ourselves. He was great. Talkative. Friendly and a little bit shy. But that was his image. We expected that, we hoped for that.

JOHN At first we couldn’t make him out. I asked him if he was preparing new ideas for his next film and he drawled, “Ah sure am. Ah play a country boy with a guitar who meets a few gals along the way, and ah sing a few songs.” We all looked at one another. Finally Presley and Colonel Parker laughed and explained that the only time they departed from that formula – for Wild in the Country – they lost money.

PAUL She came in, and I got this picture of her as a sort of a Barbie doll – with a purple gingham dress and a gingham bow in her very beehive hair, with lots of makeup. We all said hello, and then it was, “Right, lads, hands off – she’s going.” She didn’t stay long. I can’t blame him, although I don’t think any of us would have made a pass at her. That was definitely not on – Elvis’s wife, you know! That was unthinkable – she didn’t need to be put away quite so quickly, we thought.

GEORGE I don’t remember even seeing Priscilla. I spent most of the party trying to suss out from the gang if anybody had any reefers. But they were uppers and whiskey people. They weren’t really into reefer smoking in the South.

JOHN It was nice meeting Elvis. He was just Elvis, you know? He seemed normal to us, and we were asking about his making movies and not doing any personal appearances or TV. I think he enjoys making movies so much, We couldn’t stand not doing personal appearances, we’d get bored – we get bored quickly. He says he misses it a bit.We never talked about anything else – we just played music. He wasn’t bigger than us, but he was “the thing.” He just wasn’t articulate, that’s all.

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