Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family’s home in Pontiac, Michigan.
He served in the United States Army from 1946 to 1949 and subsequently played in a Detroit house band led by Billy Mitchell. He moved to New York in 1955 and worked as a sideman for Charles Mingus, Teddy Charles, Bud Powell and Miles Davis.
From 1960 to 1966 he was a member of the John Coltrane quartet, a celebrated recording phase, appearing on such albums as A Love Supreme. Following his work with John Coltrane, Jones led several small groups, some under the name The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. He recorded with both of his brothers during his career, jazz musicians Hank Jones and Thad Jones.
Elvin Jones kickin' back
Elvin Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan. By age two he said he knew he held a fascination for drums. He would watch the circus marching band parades go by his home as a boy, particularly fascinated by the drummers (sometimes wandering off for miles after the parade). Following his early passion, Elvin joined his high school’s black marching band, where he developed his foundation in rudiments. Jones began service in the United States Army in 1946. He was discharged in 1949, and returned home penniless. Jones said he borrowed thirty-five dollars from his sister when he got back to buy his first drumset.
Elvin began his professional career in 1949 with a short-lived gig in Detroit’s Grand River Street club. Eventually he went on to play with artists such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Wardell Gray. In 1955, after a failed audition for the Benny Goodman band, he found work in New York, joining Charles Mingus’s band, and releasing a record called J is for Jazz.
John Coltrane and Elvin Jones
In 1960, he joined with the classic John Coltrane Quartet, which also included bassist Jimmy Garrison and pianist McCoy Tyner. Jones and Coltrane often played extended duet passages. This band is widely considered to have redefined “swing” (the rhythmic feel of jazz) in much the same way that Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and others did during earlier stages of jazz’s development. He stayed with Coltrane until 1966. By that time, Jones was not entirely comfortable with Coltrane’s new direction and his polyrhythmic style clashed with the “multidirectional” approach of the group’s second drummer, Rashied Ali.
Elvin Jones
Jones remained active after leaving the John Coltrane group, and led several bands in the late sixties and seventies that are considered highly influential groups. Notable among them was a trio formed with saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Joe Farrell and (ex-Coltrane) bassist Jimmy Garrison, with whom he recorded the Blue Note album Puttin’ It Together. Jones recorded extensively for Blue Note under his own name in the late sixties and early seventies, with groups that featured prominent as well as up and coming greats. The two volume Live at The Lighthouse showcases a 21- and 26-year-old Steve Grossman and Dave Liebman, respectively. Other musicians of note who made significant contributions to Elvin’s music during this period were baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, tenor saxophonists George Coleman and Frank Foster, trumpeter Lee Morgan, bassist Gene Perla, keyboardist Jan Hammer and Jazz – World Music group Oregon.
Elvin Jones album "At This Point In Time"
Elvin Jones’ sense of timing, polyrhythms, dynamics, timbre, and legato phrasing brought the drumset to the foreground. Jones was touted by Life Magazine as “the world’s greatest rhythmic drummer”, and his free-flowing style was a major influence on many leading rock drummers, including Mitch Mitchell (whom Jimi Hendrix called “my Elvin Jones”) and Ginger Baker. He appeared as the villain Job Cain in the 1971 off-beat Western film Zachariah, in which he performed a drum solo after winning a saloon gunfight. In 1999, Jones worked with Our Lady Peace on their album Happiness…Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch. He was featured playing drums on the song “Stealing Babies”, which was also featured on their 2009 compilation album The Very Best of Our Lady Peace.
Elvin Jones "triplets"
Jones performed and recorded with his own group, the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, whose line up changed through the years. Sonny Fortune and Ravi Coltrane, John Coltrane’s son, both played saxophone with the Jazz Machine in the early 1990s, appearing together with Jones on In Europe on Enja Records in 1991. Jones, who taught regularly, often took part in clinics, played in schools, and gave free concerts in prisons. His lessons emphasized music history as well as drumming technique.
Elvin Jones died of heart failure in Englewood, New Jersey on May 18, 2004. He is survived by his first wife Shirley and his second, albeit common-law, wife Keiko (Elvin married Keiko before divorcing Shirley, meaning that legally he and Keiko were not married). Elvin Jones is survived by his son Elvin Nathan Jones of California and daughter Rose-Marie Rosie Nyberg of Sweden.
Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, his career faltered after Lewis married his young cousin, and he afterward made a transition to country music.
Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 2008 He was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2003, they listed his box set All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology number 242 on their list of “500 greatest albums of all time”.
Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilly
Lewis was born to the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, and began playing piano in his youth with his two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. His parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano. Influenced by a piano-playing older cousin Carl McVoy (who later recorded with Bill Black ‘s Combo), the radio, and the sounds from the black juke joint across the tracks, Haney’s Big House, Lewis created his style from black artists who were unable to play to white audiences, mixing rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, gospel, and country music, as well as ideas from established “country boogie” pianists like recording artists Moon Mullican and Merrill Moore. Soon he was playing professionally.
His mother enrolled him in Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas, secure in the knowledge that her son would now be exclusively singing his songs to the Lord. But Lewis daringly played a boogie woogie rendition of “My God Is Real” at a church assembly that sent him packing the same night. Pearry Green, then president of the student body, related how during a talent show Lewis played some “worldly” music. The next morning, the dean of the school called both Lewis and Green into his office to expel them both. Lewis said that Green shouldn’t be expelled because “he didn’t know what I was going to do.” Years later Green asked Lewis: “Are you still playing the devil’s music?” Lewis replied “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.”
Jerry Lee Lewis doing a whole lotta shakin'
After that incident, Lewis stopped performing religious music. He played at clubs in and around Ferriday and Natchez, Mississippi, becoming part of the burgeoning new rock and roll sound and cutting his first demo recording in 1954. He made a trip to Nashville around 1955 where he played clubs and attempted to drum up interest, but was turned down by the Grand Ole Opry as he had been at the Louisiana Hayride country stage and radio show in Shreveport. Recording executives in Nashville suggested he switch to playing a guitar.
Lewis traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in November 1956, to audition for Sun Records. Label owner Sam Phillips was away on a trip to Florida, but producer and engineer Jack Clement recorded Lewis’ rendition of Ray Price’s “Crazy Arms” and his own composition “End of The Road”. During December 1956, Lewis began recording prolifically, both as a solo artist and as a session musician for such Sun artists as Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.
Jerry Lee Lewis relaxing at the piano
His distinctive piano playing can be heard on many tracks recorded at Sun during late 1956 and early 1957, including Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox”, “Your True Love”, “You Can Do No Wrong”, and “Put Your Cat Clothes On”, and Billy Lee Riley’s “Flyin’ Saucers Rock’n'Roll”. Until this time, rockabilly had rarely featured piano, but it proved a highly influential addition and rockabilly artists on other labels soon also started working with pianists.
On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley dropped in on Phillips to pay a social visit while Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks with Lewis backing him on piano. Johnny Cash was also there watching Perkins. The four started an impromptu jam session, and Phillips left the tape running. These recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived, and have been released on CD under the title Million Dollar Quartet (see image here). Tracks also include Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Paralyzed”, Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”, Pat Boone’s “Don’t Forbid Me” and Presley doing an impersonation of Jackie Wilson (who was then with Billy Ward and the Dominoes) on “Don’t Be Cruel”.
1957 Sun Records single for "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
Lewis’ own singles (on which he was billed as “Jerry Lee Lewis and his Pumping Piano”) advanced his career as a soloist during 1957, with hits such as “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire”, his biggest hit, bringing him to national and international fame, despite criticism for the songs’ overtly sexual undertones which prompted some radio stations to boycott them. In 2005, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
According to several first hand sources, including Johnny Cash, Lewis himself, who was devoutly Christian, was also troubled by the sinful nature of his own material, which he firmly believed was leading himself and his audience to hell. This aspect of Lewis’s character was depicted in Waylon Payne’s portrayal of Lewis in the 2005 film Walk the Line, based on Cash’s autobiographies.
Jerry Lee Lewis playing with his heel
Lewis would often kick the piano bench out of the way to play standing, rake his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic accent, sit down on the keyboard and even stand on top of the instrument. His first TV appearance, in which he demonstrated some of these moves, was on The Steve Allen Show on July 28, 1957, where he played the song “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On”. He is also reputed to have set a piano on fire at the end of a live performance, in protest at being billed below Chuck Berry.
His dynamic performance style can be seen in films such as High School Confidential (he sang the title song from the back of a flatbed truck), and Jamboree. He has been called “rock & roll’s first great wild man” and also “rock & roll’s first great eclectic.” Classical composer Michael Nyman has also cited Lewis’ style as the progenitor of his own aesthetic.
Myra Gale Brown (Lewis) and her husband and cousin Jerry Lee Lewis
Lewis’ turbulent personal life was hidden from the public until a May 1958 British tour where Ray Berry, a news agency reporter at London’s Heathrow Airport (the only journalist present), learned about Lewis’ third wife, Myra Gale Brown. She was Lewis’ first cousin once removed and only 13 years old. (Brown, Lewis, and his management all insisted she was 15). Lewis was nearly 23 years old. The publicity caused an uproar and the tour was canceled after only three concerts.
The scandal followed Lewis home to America, and as a result, he was blacklisted from radio and almost vanished from the music scene. Lewis felt betrayed by numerous people who had been his supporters. Dick Clark dropped him from his shows. Lewis even felt that Sam Phillips had sold him out when the Sun Records boss released “The Return of Jerry Lee”, a bogus “interview” cut together by Jack Clement from excerpts of Lewis’ songs, which made light of his marital and publicity problems. Only Alan Freed stayed true to Jerry Lee Lewis, playing his records until Freed was removed from the air because of payola allegations.
Jerry Lee Lewis was still under contract with Sun Records, and kept recording, regularly releasing singles. He had gone from $10,000 a night concerts to $250 a night spots in beer joints and small clubs. He had few friends at the time whom he felt he could trust. It was only through Kay Martin, the president of Lewis’ fan club, T. L. Meade, (aka Franz Douskey) a sometime Memphis musician and friend of Sam Phillips, and Gary Skala, that Lewis went back to record at Sun Records.
The second incarnation of Sun Studios, located at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, TN
By this time, Phillips had built a new state-of-the-art studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, thus abandoning the old Union Avenue studio where Phillips had recorded B. B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Lewis, Johnny Cash and others, and also opened a studio in Nashville. It was at the latter studio that Lewis recorded his only major hit during this period, a rendition of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say” in 1961. In Europe other updated versions of “Sweet Little Sixteen” (September 1962 UK) and “Good Golly Miss Molly” (March 1963) entered the Hit Parade. On popular EPs, “Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes”, “I’ve Been Twistin’”, “Money” and “Hello Josephine” also became turntable hits, especially in nascent discothèques. Another recording of Lewis playing an instrumental boogie arrangement of the Glenn Miller Orchestra favorite “In the Mood”, was issued on the Phillips International label under the pseudonym of “The Hawk,” but disc jockeys quickly figured out the distinctive piano style, and this gambit failed.
Jerry Lee Lewis retrospective on Smash Records
Lewis’ Sun recording contract ended in 1963 and he joined Smash Records, where he made a number of rock recordings that did not further his career.
His popularity recovered somewhat in Europe, especially in the UK and Germany, during the mid-1960s. A concert album, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1964), recorded with The Nashville Teens, is widely considered one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes: “Live at the Star Club is extraordinary, the purest, hardest rock & roll ever committed to record.”
Lewis has been married six times.
Jerry Lee Lewis and his 6th wife, Kerrie McCarver
His first marriage, to Dorothy Barton, lasted for 20 months, from February 1952 to October 1953 although there is some question that Lewis may have married Barton earlier than 1952. In a 1978 People magazine interview Lewis stated “I was 14 when I first got married. My wife was too old for me; she was 17.” His second marriage to Jane Mitchum was of dubious validity because it occurred 23 days before his divorce from Barton was final. They were married for four years, from September 1953 to October 1957. They had two children. He then married Myra Gale Brown in December 1957. She was his third cousin twice removed, and thirteen at the time of the marriage. This marriage caused a scandal which destroyed his career for a decade. They had two children and divorced in December 1970 after 13 years of marriage. His fourth marriage was to Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, and ended when she drowned in the swimming pool at their home. They were married for 12 years, from October 1971 to August 1983, and had one child. His fifth wife was Shawn Stephens. This marriage ended with her death from a drug overdose. They were married for three months, from June to August 1984. His sixth marriage was to Kerrie McCarver, with whom he had one child. This marriage lasted 20 years and ended in divorce in 2004.
Jerry Lee Lewis performing in the film, "High School Confidential!"
Lewis has had six children (two have no information known to be published). In 1962, his son Steve Allen Lewis drowned in a swimming pool accident when he was three, and in 1973, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr., was killed at the age of 19 when he overturned the jeep he was driving. His current living children are a son, Jerry Lee Lewis III, and two daughters, Phoebe Lewis, and Lori Lewis.
In the 1960s, Lewis’ attempts at a comeback as a rock and roll performer had stalled during four years with Smash Records until he began recording country ballads.
Jerry Lee Lewis the rebel
He had already recorded a country-oriented LP for the label Country Songs for City Folks. In 1968, his single “Another Place, Another Time” became a Top 10 success and led to a string of Top Ten singles including the 1968 number-one country single “To Make Love Sweeter For You” that brought Lewis renewed stardom among country music fans, much like that which ex-rockabilly Conway Twitty began to cultivate during that same time. His shift to country reflected the fact that he had grown up listening to the Grand Ole Opry. Lewis’ country hits during this period include “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)”, “She Still Comes Around (To Love What’s Left of Me)”, “She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye”, “Once More With Feeling”, “There Must Be More to Love Than This”, “Touching Home”, “Would You Take Another Chance on Me”, “Me & Bobby McGee”, “Think About It, Darlin’”, “Sometimes a Memory Ain’t Enough”, and “Tell Tale Signs”. Lewis’ singles and albums were issued on Mercury records instead of Smash from 1970 on. Lewis’ renewed popularity encouraged Sun International Inc. to issue previously unpublished recordings dating from 1963 including “Invitation to Your Party”, “One Minute Past Eternity”, “I Can’t Seem To Say Goodbye” and “Waiting For A Train” on singles that also did well on the country music charts in 1969/70. Lewis’ successes continued throughout the decade and he eventually began to re-emphasize his rock and roll past with hits like his 1972 revival of The Big Bopper’s rock classic “Chantilly Lace” and “Drinkin’ Wine Spo dee-o dee” as well as looking at middle age with the 1977 “Middle Age Crazy”. In 1979, he signed with Elektra Records and had his last major country hit with 1981′s “Thirty-Nine and Holding.” He spent a very brief period with MCA Records in 1983 but left the label due to unspecified differences.
Dennis Quaid portrays The Killer in the 1989 film, "Great Balls of Fire"
In 1989, a major motion picture based on his early life in rock & roll, Great Balls of Fire!, brought him back into the public eye, especially when he decided to re-record all his songs for the movie soundtrack. The film was based on the book by Lewis’ ex-wife, Myra Gale Lewis, and starred Dennis Quaid as Lewis, Winona Ryder as Myra, and Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Swaggart. The movie focuses on Lewis’ early career and his relationship with Myra, and ends with the scandal of the late 1950s. A year later, in 1990, Lewis made minor news when a new song he co-wrote called “It Was the Whiskey Talking, Not Me” was included in the soundtrack to the hit movie Dick Tracy. The song can also be heard in a scene from the movie in which it is playing on the radio.
Jerry Lee's cousin, Jimmy " I have sinned against You, my Lord" Swaggart
The very public downfall of his cousin, television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, resulted in more adverse publicity to an already troubled family. Swaggart is also a piano player, as is another cousin, country music star Mickey Gilley. All three listened to the same music when they were growing up and frequented Haney’s Big House, the Ferriday club that featured black blues acts. Lewis and Swaggart have had a complex relationship over the years.
Lewis’ sister, Linda Gail Lewis has recorded with Jerry Lee, toured with his stage show for a time and more recently recorded with Van Morrison.
“The Killer”, a nickname he’s had since childhood, is known for his forceful voice and piano production on stage; he was described by fellow artist Roy Orbison as the best raw performer in the history of rock and roll music.
Linda Gail Lewis and her brother Jerry Lee Lewis
In 1986, Lewis was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That year, he returned to Sun Studio in Memphis to team up with Orbison, Cash, and Perkins along with longtime admirers like John Fogerty and Ricky Nelson to create the album Class of ’55, a sort of followup to the “Million Dollar Quartet” session, though in the eyes of many critics and fans, lacking the spirit of the old days at Sun.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry
In 1998 he toured Europe with Chuck Berry and Little Richard. On February 12, 2005, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy (which also grants the Grammy Awards). On September 26, 2006, a new album titled Last Man Standing was released, featuring many of rock and roll’s elite as guest stars. Receiving positive reviews, the album charted in four different Billboard charts, including a two week stay at number one on the Indie charts.
A DVD entitled Last Man Standing Live, featuring concert footage with many guest artists, was released in March 2007, and the CD achieved Jerry’s 10th official gold disk for selling over half-a-million copies in the US alone. Last Man Standing is Lewis’ biggest selling album of all time. It features contributions from Mick Jagger, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Rod Stewart, among others.
On November 5, 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio honored Jerry Lee Lewis with six days of conferences, interviews, a DVD premier and film clips, dedicated to him entitled The Life And Music of Jerry Lee Lewis. He is the first living artist to be so honored. On November 10, the week culminated with a tribute concert compered by Kris Kristofferson. Lewis was present to accept the American Music Masters Award and closed his own tribute show with a rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.
Little Richard, John Fogerty and Jerry Lee Lewis appearing at the 50th Aniiversary Grammy Awards Show
On February 10, 2008, he appeared with John Fogerty and Little Richard on the 50th Grammy Awards Show, performing “Great Balls of Fire” in a medley with “Good Golly Miss Molly”.
Lewis now lives on a ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi with his family.
On June 4, 2008, Jerry Lee Lewis was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
On July 4, 2008, Jerry Lee appeared on A Capitol Fourth and performed the finale’s final act with a medley of “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On” and “Great Balls of Fire”.
In October 2008 as part of a very successful European tour, Jerry Lee Lewis returned to the UK, almost exactly 50 years after his ill-fated first tour that saw the scandal with Myra. He appeared at two London shows: a special private show at the 100 Club on October 25 and at the London Forum on October 28 with Wanda Jackson and his sister, Linda Gail Lewis.
Jerry Lee Lewis, a REAL Mean Old Man
2010 will see a new CD album and DVD release as Jerry continues his career. 2009 also marks the sixtieth year since Jerry Lee’s first public performance when he performed ““Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” at a car dealership on November 19, 1949 in Ferriday Louisiana.
In August 2009, in advance of his new album, a single entitled “Mean Old Man” was released for download. It was written by Kris Kristofferson. An EP featuring this song and four more was also released on amazon.com on November 11.
On October 29, 2009, Lewis opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York.
JERRY LEE LEWIS AND HIS YOUNG BRIDE, MYRA GAIL BROWN BRITISH INTERVIEW
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HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL
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WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOING ON
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JERRY LEE LEWIS’ 2009 SINGLE “MEAN OLD MAN” WRITTEN BY KRIS KRISTOFFERSON
The Coasters are an American Rhythm and Blues/rock and roll vocal group that had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with “Searchin’” and “Young Blood”, their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller. Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo wop legacy through the 1960s.
The Very Best of The Coasters LP
The Coasters’ forerunners were The Robins, a Los Angeles based rhythm and blues group, which included Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn. The original members of the Coasters, who formed in October 1955, were African-Americans Carl Gardner, Billy Guy, Bobby Nunn, Leon Hughes (who was substituted with Young Jessie on a couple of their early Los Angeles recordings), and guitarist Adolph Jacobs. Jacobs left the group in 1959.
The songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had started Spark Records, and in 1955 produced “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” for The Robins (their 5th single with Leiber-Stoller). The record was popular enough that Atlantic Records offered Leiber and Stoller an independent production contract to produce The Robins for the Atlantic label. Only two of The Robins — Gardner and Nunn — were willing to make the move to Atlantic, recording their first songs in the same studio as The Robins had done (Master Recorders). In late 1957 the group moved to New York and replaced Nunn and Hughes with Obie Jesse and Will “Dub” Jones. The new quartet was from then on stationed in New York (although all had Los Angeles roots).
From 1959 - (At the piano) Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller (standing L to R) Atlantic Record's Nesuhi Ertegun & Jerry Wexler, Carl Gardner, Dub Jones, Billy Guy, Cornel Gunter, and Atlantic Record's Ahmet Ertegun
The Coasters’ association with Leiber and Stoller was an immediate success. Together they created a string of good-humored “storytelling” hits that are some of the most entertaining from the original era of rock and roll. Their first single, “Down in Mexico”, was an R&B hit in 1956 and appears (in a re-recording from 1970 – still with Gardner singing the lead) on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. The following year, The Coasters crossed over to the national charts in a big way with the double-sided “Young Blood”/”Searchin’”. Searchin was the group’s first U.S. Top 10 hit, and topped the R&B charts for 13 weeks, becoming the biggest R&B single of 1957 (all these were recorded in Los Angeles).
The ATCO single for Yakety Yak
“Yakety Yak” (recorded in New York), featuring King Curtis on tenor saxophone, included the famous lineup of Gardner, Guy, Jones and Gunter, became the act’s only national #1 single, and also topped the R&B chart. The next single, “Charlie Brown”, reached #2 on both charts. This was followed by “Along Came Jones”, “Poison Ivy” (#1 for a month on the R&B chart), and “Little Egypt (Ying-Yang)”.
Changing popular tastes, and a couple of line-up changes, contributed to a lack of hits in the 1960s. During this time, Billy Guy was also working on solo projects, so New York singer Vernon Harrell was brought in to replace Guy for stage performances. Later members included Earl “Speedo” Carroll (lead of The Cadillacs), Ronnie Bright (the bass voice on Johnny Cymbal’s “Mr. Bass Man”), Jimmy Norman, and guitarist Thomas “Curly” Palmer. The Coasters signed with Columbia Records’ Date label in 1966, but were never able to regain their former fame. The Coasters had a minor chart entry with “Love Potion No. 9″ in 1959. In Britain, a 1994 Volkswagen TV advertisement used the group’s “Sorry But I’m Gonna Have To Pass” track, which led to a minor chart placement in that country.
The Coasters
The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, crediting the members of the 1958-era configuration. The Coasters also joined the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
Several groups used the name in the 1970s, touring throughout the country, though Carl Gardner, one of the original Coasters, held the legal rights to it. Gardner continued to tour with the Coasters and has made many attempts to stop bogus groups with no connection to the original group from using the name. In late 2005 Carl’s son Carl Gardner, Jr. took over as lead with the group, when his father retired. The Coasters of 2008: Carl Gardner Jr, Ronnie Bright, Alvin Morse, J.W. Lance, and Thomas Palmer (gtr), with Gardner Sr as coach.
Saxophonist extraordinaire King Curtis
As of 2010, all of the other original group members, except Leon Hughes and Carl Gardner, have died. Some of the former members suffered tragic ends. Saxophonist and “fifth Coaster” King Curtis was stabbed to death by two junkies outside his apartment building in 1971. Cornelius Gunter was shot to death while sitting in a Las Vegas parking garage in 1990. Nate Wilson, a member of one of Gunter’s offshoot Coasters groups, was shot and his body dismembered in 1980.
Former manager Patrick Cavanaugh was convicted of the murder after Wilson threatened to notify authorities of Cavanaugh’s intent to buy furniture with stolen checks. While Cavanaugh was convicted of the murder and given the death sentence in 1984, his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He died in 2006, in Nevada’s Ely State Prison. Cavanaugh was 60.
The Coasters (circa 2008)
The Coasters continue to appear regularly on “oldies” shows and PBS specials as old favorites and are available for bookings.
The Coasters’ repertoire had a significant impact on ’60s and ’70s rock artists. For example, Leon Russell performed “Young Blood” at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, imitating the group’s arrangement of the song with four different solo voices; Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen recorded The Robins’ “Riot in Cell Block No. 9,” while The Beach Boys recorded a 1971 version with revised lyrics by that group’s vocalist Mike Love, titled “Student Demonstration Time.” The novelty singer Ray Stevens reached No. 27 on the U.S. pop singles chart with a 1969 remake of “Along Came Jones.” Elvis Presley included “Little Egypt” in the soundtrack for his 1964 film Roustabout. The Rolling Stones included “Down Home Girl” as an album track on their 1965 U.S. album Right Now. The Monkees reached No. 10 on the Cashbox singles chart with a remake of “D.W. Washburn.” Several Coasters songs were part of The Beatles’ repertoire before the British rock group began its recording career; George Harrison is among the singers on the above-mentioned Leon Russell live recording. The Grateful Dead similarly performed several Coasters songs in its early days, although this was influenced by a weekend in 1965 in which it (while still called The Warlocks) served as pickup band for The Coasters at a lounge in Belmont, CA. When The Beach Boys and Grateful Dead joined on stage to perform a brief set at New York City’s Filmore East, they performed “Searchin’” and “Riot in Cell Block No. 9.” Numerous groups have recorded “Poison Ivy.”
Smokey Joe's Cafe
The Coasters’ hits also comprised a major portion of the song score for the 1994 musical revue Smokey Joe’s Cafe, a retrospective of Leiber & Stoller songs that received one Grammy Award and seven Tony Award nominations following its 1995 Broadway debut. Their song “Baby, That’s Rock and Roll” has served as the main title for a biography/songbook of Leiber & Stoller songs and a Bravo television documentary on the songwriters.
In addition, Coasters songs and the Coasters themselves have been referred to by later popular musicians. Frank Zappa referenced the group in the lyrics of the song “Status Back Baby” on his second album, Absolutely Free. Sly Stone titled a No. 1 hit 1971 album by his group Sly & the Family Stone after the tag line from “Riot in Cell Block No. 9″: There’s a Riot Goin’ On. The folksinger David Bromberg quoted from “Little Egypt” in his 1972 song “Sharon.” Paolo Nutini regularly covers The Coasters [ Down in Mexico ] during live performances.
On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA in Nashville. Extending the singer’s by now customary backup of Moore, Black, and Fontana, RCA enlisted pianist Floyd Cramer, guitarist Chet Atkins, and three background singers, including Gordon Stoker of the popular Jordanaires quartet, to fill out the sound. The session produced the moody, unusual “Heartbreak Hotel”, released as a single on January 27. Parker finally brought Presley to national television, booking him on CBS’s Stage Show for six appearances over two months. The program, produced in New York, was hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. After his first appearance, on January 28, Presley stayed in town to record at RCA’s New York studio. The sessions yielded eight songs, including a cover of Carl Perkins’ rockabilly anthem “Blue Suede Shoes”. In February, Presley’s “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”, a Sun recording initially released the previous August, reached the top of the Billboard country chart. Neal’s contract was terminated and, on March 2, Parker became Presley’s manager.
Col. Tom Parker and Elvis Presley
RCA Victor released Presley’s self-titled debut album on March 23. Joined by five previously unreleased Sun recordings, its seven recently recorded tracks were of a broad variety. There were two country songs and a bouncy pop tune. The others would centrally define the evolving sound of rock and roll: “Blue Suede Shoes”—”an improvement over Perkins’ in almost every way”, according to critic Robert Hilburn—and three R&B numbers that had been part of Presley’s stage repertoire for some time, covers of Little Richard, Ray Charles, and The Drifters. As described by Hilburn, these “were the most revealing of all. Unlike many white artists … who watered down the gritty edges of the original R&B versions of songs in the ’50s, Presley reshaped them. He not only injected the tunes with his own vocal character but also made guitar, not piano, the lead instrument in all three cases.” It became the first rock and roll album to top the Billboard chart, a position it held for 10 weeks. While Presley was not an innovative instrumentalist like Moore or contemporary African American rockers Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, cultural historian Gilbert B. Rodman argues that the album’s cover image, “of Elvis having the time of his life on stage with a guitar in his hands played a crucial role in positioning the guitar…as the instrument that best captured the style and spirit of this new music.”
Milton Berle and Elvis Presley
Presley made the first of two appearances on NBC’s Milton Berle Show on April 3. His performance, on the deck of the USS Hancock in San Diego, prompted cheers and screams from an audience of sailors and their dates. A few days later, a flight taking Presley and his band to Nashville for a recording session left all three badly shaken when an engine died and the plane almost went down over Arkansas. Twelve weeks after its original release, “Heartbreak Hotel” became Presley’s first number one pop hit. In late April, Presley began a two-week residency at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The shows were poorly received by the conservative, middle-aged hotel guests—”like a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party”, wrote a critic for Newsweek. Amid his Vegas tenure, Presley, who had serious acting ambitions, signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures. He began a tour of the Midwest in mid-May, taking in 15 cities in as many days. He had attended several shows by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys in Vegas, and was struck by their cover of “Hound Dog”, a hit in 1952 for blues singer Big Mama Thornton. It became the new closing number of his act. After a show in La Crosse, Wisconsin, an urgent message on the letterhead of the local Catholic diocese’s newspaper was sent to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. It warned that “Presley is a definite danger to the security of the United States. … [His] actions and motions were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. … After the show, more than 1,000 teenagers tried to gang into Presley’s room at the auditorium. … Indications of the harm Presley did just in La Crosse were the two high school girls … whose abdomen and thigh had Presley’s autograph.”
Elvis Presley received the nickname "Elvis the Pelvis" for this performance on the Milton Berle Show
The second Milton Berle Show appearance came on June 5 at NBC’s Hollywood studio, amid another hectic tour. Berle persuaded the singer to leave his guitar backstage, advising, “Let ‘em see you, son.” During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an uptempo rendition of “Hound Dog” with a wave of his arm and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with energetic, exaggerated body movements. Presley’s gyrations created a storm of controversy. Television critics were outraged: Jack Gould of The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability. … His phrasing, if it can be called that, consists of the stereotyped variations that go with a beginner’s aria in a bathtub. … His one specialty is an accented movement of the body … primarily identified with the repertoire of the blond bombshells of the burlesque runway.” Ben Gross of the New York Daily News opined that popular music “has reached its lowest depths in the ‘grunt and groin’ antics of one Elvis Presley. … Elvis, who rotates his pelvis … gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos”. Ed Sullivan, whose own variety show was the nation’s most popular, declared him “unfit for family viewing”. To Presley’s displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as “Elvis the Pelvis”, which he called “one of the most childish expressions I ever heard, comin’ from an adult.”
Elvis sings to a "Hound Dog" on the Steve Allen Show
The Berle shows drew such high ratings that Presley was booked for a July 1 appearance on NBC’s The Steve Allen Show in New York. Allen, no fan of rock and roll, introduced a “new Elvis” in a white bow tie and black tails. Presley sang “Hound Dog” for less than a minute to a basset hound wearing a top hat and bow tie. As described by television historian Jake Austen, “Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd… [he] set things up so that Presley would show his contrition”. Allen, for his part, later wrote that he found Presley’s “strange, gangly, country-boy charisma, his hard-to-define cuteness, and his charming eccentricity intriguing” and simply worked the singer into the customary “comedy fabric” of his program. Presley would refer back to the Allen show as the most ridiculous performance of his career. Later that night, he appeared on Hy Gardner Calling, a popular local TV show. Pressed on whether he had learned anything from the criticism to which he was being subjected, Presley responded, “No, I haven’t, I don’t feel like I’m doing anything wrong. … I don’t see how any type of music would have any bad influence on people when it’s only music. … I mean, how would rock ‘n’ roll music make anyone rebel against their parents?”
Elvis (sitting) with The Jordanaires
The next day, Presley recorded “Hound Dog”, along with “Any Way You Want Me” and “Don’t Be Cruel”. The Jordanaires sang harmony, as they had on The Steve Allen Show; they would work with Presley through the 1960s. A few days later, the singer made an outdoor concert appearance in Memphis at which he announced, “You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I’m gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight.” In August, a judge in Jacksonville, Florida, ordered Presley to tame his act. Throughout the following performance, he largely kept still, except for wiggling his little finger suggestively in mockery of the order.
Charles Laughton - filling in for Ed Sullivan - introduces Elvis on his first Sullivan appearance
The single pairing “Don’t Be Cruel” with “Hound Dog” ruled the top of the charts for 11 weeks—a mark that would not be surpassed for 36 years. Recording sessions for Presley’s second album took place in Hollywood during the first week of September. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the writers of “Hound Dog”, contributed “Love Me”.
Allen’s show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten CBS’s The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings. Sullivan, despite his June pronouncement, booked the singer for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000. The first, on September 9, 1956, was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—a record 82.6 percent of the television audience. Actor Charles Laughton hosted the show, filling in while Sullivan recuperated from a car accident. Presley appeared in two segments that night from CBS Television City in Hollywood.
Elvis Presley in his first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show
According to Elvis legend, Presley was shot only from the waist up. Watching clips of the Allen and Berle shows with his producer, Sullivan had opined that Presley “got some kind of device hanging down below the crotch of his pants–so when he moves his legs back and forth you can see the outline of his cock. … I think it’s a Coke bottle. … We just can’t have this on a Sunday night. This is a family show!” Sullivan publicly told TV Guide, “As for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots.” In fact, Presley was shown head-to-toe in the first and second shows. Though the camerawork was relatively discreet during his debut, with leg-concealing closeups when he danced, the studio audience reacted in customary style: screaming. Presley’s performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad “Love Me Tender”, prompted a record-shattering million advance orders. More than any other single event, it was this first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that made Presley a national celebrity of barely precedented proportions.
Elvis Presley performing live in Miami, FL
Accompanying Presley’s rise to fame, a cultural shift was taking place that he both helped inspire and came to symbolize. Igniting the “biggest pop craze since Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra … Presley brought rock’n'roll into the mainstream of popular culture”, writes historian Marty Jezer. “As Presley set the artistic pace, other artists followed … Presley, more than anyone else, gave the young a belief in themselves as a distinct and somehow unified generation—the first in America ever to feel the power of an integrated youth culture.”
The audience response at Presley’s live shows became increasingly fevered. Moore recalled, “He’d start out, ‘You ain’t nothin’ but a Hound Dog,’ and they’d just go to pieces. They’d always react the same way. There’d be a riot every time.” At the two concerts he performed in September at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, 50 National Guardsmen were added to the police security to prevent crowd trouble. Elvis, Presley’s second album, was released in October and quickly rose to number one. Assessing the musical and cultural impact of Presley’s recordings from “That’s All Right” through Elvis, rock critic Dave Marsh wrote that “these records, more than any others, contain the seeds of what rock & roll was, has been and most likely what it may foreseeably become.”
Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley and Ed Sullivan
Presley returned to the Sullivan show, hosted this time by its namesake, on October 28. After the performance, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis burned him in effigy. His first motion picture, Love Me Tender, was released on November 21. Though he was not top billed, the film’s original title—The Reno Brothers—was changed to capitalize on his latest number one record: “Love Me Tender” had hit the top of the charts earlier that month. To further take advantage of Presley’s popularity, four musical numbers were added to what was originally a straight acting role. The movie was panned by the critics but did very well at the box office. Presley would receive top billing on every subsequent film he made.
Sam Phillips' Million Dollar Quartet - Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and (seated at piano) Elvis Presley
On December 4, Presley dropped into Sun Records where Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were recording and jammed with them. Though Phillips no longer had the right to release any Presley material, he made sure the session was captured on tape. The results became legendary as the “Million Dollar Quartet” recordings—Johnny Cash was long thought to have played as well, but he was present only briefly at Phillips’ instigation for a photo opportunity. The year ended with a front page story in the Wall Street Journal reporting that Presley merchandise had brought in $22 million on top of his record sales, and Billboard’s declaration that he had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted. In his first full year on RCA, one of the music industry’s largest companies, Presley had accounted for over 50 percent of the label’s singles sales.
The Jordanaires, Elvis Presley and Bill Black (on bass) during Presley's 3rd Sullivan show
Presley made his third and final Ed Sullivan Show appearance on January 6, 1957—on this occasion indeed shot only down to the waist. Some commentators have claimed that Parker orchestrated an appearance of censorship to generate publicity. In any event, as critic Greil Marcus describes, Presley “did not tie himself down. Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows, he stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, with all stops out.” To close, displaying his range and defying Sullivan’s wishes, Presley sang a gentle black spiritual, “Peace in the Valley”. At the end of the show, Sullivan declared Presley “a real decent, fine boy”. Two days later, the Memphis draft board announced that Presley would be classified 1A and would probably be drafted sometime that year.
Each of the three Presley singles released in the first half of 1957 went to number one: “Too Much”, “All Shook Up”, and “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”. Already an international star, he was attracting fans even where his music was not officially released. Under the headline “Presley Records a Craze in Soviet”, The New York Times reported that pressings of his music on discarded X-ray plates were commanding high prices in Leningrad. Between film shoots and recording sessions, the singer also found time to purchase an 18-room mansion eight miles south of downtown Memphis for himself and his parents: Graceland. Loving You—the soundtrack to his second film, released in July—was Presley’s third straight number one album. The title track was written by Leiber and Stoller, who were retained to write four of the six songs recorded at the sessions for Jailhouse Rock, Presley’s next movie. The songwriting team effectively produced the sessions, and they developed a close working relationship with Presley, who came to regard them as his “good-luck charm”. Their title track was yet another number one hit, as was the Jailhouse Rock EP.
Elvis Live!
Presley undertook three brief tours during the year, continuing to generate a crazed audience response. A Detroit newspaper suggested that “the trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you’re liable to get killed.” Villanova students pelted him with eggs in Philadelphia, and in Vancouver, the crowd rioted after the end of the show, destroying the stage. Frank Sinatra, who had famously inspired the swooning of teen-aged girls in the 1940s, condemned the new musical phenomenon. In a magazine article, he decried rock and roll as “brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious. … It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phoney and false. It is sung, played and written, for the most part, by cretinous goons. … This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore.” Asked for a response, Presley said, “I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn’t have said it. … This is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago.”
Mike Stoller, Elvis Presley, Jerry Leiber
Leiber and Stoller were again in the studio for the recording of Elvis’ Christmas Album. Toward the end of the session, they wrote a song on the spot at Presley’s request: “Santa Claus Is Back In Town”, an innuendo-laden blues. The holiday release stretched Presley’s string of number one albums to four and would eventually become the best selling Christmas album of all time. After the session, Moore and Black—drawing only modest weekly salaries, sharing in none of Presley’s massive financial success—resigned. Though they were brought back on a per diem basis a few weeks later, it was clear that they had not been part of Presley’s inner circle for some time. On December 20, Presley received his draft notice. He was granted a deferment to finish the forthcoming King Creole, in which $350,000 had already been invested by Paramount and producer Hal Wallis. A couple of weeks into the new year, “Don’t”, another Leiber and Stoller tune, became Presley’s tenth number one seller. It had been only 21 months since “Heartbreak Hotel” had brought him to the top for the first time. Recording sessions for the King Creole soundtrack were held in Hollywood mid-January. Leiber and Stoller provided three songs and were again on hand, but it would be the last time they worked closely with Presley. A studio session on February 1 marked another ending: it was the final occasion on which Black was to perform with Presley. He died in 1965.
Albert James “Alan” Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965), also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey who became internationally known for promoting African-American rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll. His career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the early 1960s.
Freed was born to a Jewish father, Charles S. Freed, and Welsh mother, Maude Palmer, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In 1933, Freed’s family moved to Salem, Ohio where Freed attended Salem High School, graduating in 1940. While Freed was in high school, he formed a band called the Sultans of Swing in which he played the trombone. Freed’s initial ambition was to be a bandleader; however, an ear infection put an end to this dream. While in college, Freed became interested in radio. Freed served in the Army during World War II and worked as a DJ on Armed Forces Radio. Soon after World War II, Freed landed broadcasting jobs at smaller radio stations, including WKST (New Castle, PA); WKBN (Youngstown, OH); and WAKR (Akron, OH), where, in 1945, he became a local favorite for playing hot jazz and pop recordings.
A marquee announcing one of Freed's great live shows
Freed, a well-known disc jockey was commonly referred to as the “father of rock and roll.” He was given this title because he was the first to coin the phrase,” rock and roll” on public radio. The term rock and roll was used in songs by other famous artists; however, he is credited with popularizing the term “rock and roll” to describe the genre of music style. While the term “rock and roll” goes back as far as Trixie Smith’s 1923 recording of “My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)” her song’s meaning is a “double entendre” referring to dance and sex. Also another song by The Boswell Sisters’ a 1934 pop hit “Rock and Roll,” was referring to the motion of a ship on the sea. Alan Freed is one of several key individuals who helped bridge the gap of segregation among young teenage Americans. Alan Freed made it possible for white audiences to hear African-American music stylings. He arranged live concerts and played “black” music on his radio station. He chose to play original songs by black artists rather than cover versions by white artists. Freed was instrumental in introducing this new style of music “rock and roll” to a teenage audience who were ready to have their own type of music unlike the musical taste of their parents. Alan Freed appeared in several motion pictures in which he played a part as himself. In the 1956 film, ‘‘ Rock, Rock, Rock, Freed tells the audience that “rock and roll” is a river of music that has absorbed many streams: rhythm and blues, jazz, rag time, cowboy songs, country songs, folk songs. All have contributed to the big beat.”
Alan Freed on the air for Cleveland's WJW radio station
In the late 1940s, while working at WAKR in Akron, Ohio, Freed met Leo Mintz, the owner of the Record Rendezvous, one of Cleveland’s largest record stores, who had begun selling rhythm and blues records. Mintz told Freed that he had noticed increased interest in the records at his store, and encouraged him to play them on the radio. In 1949, Freed moved to Cleveland and, in April 1950, he joined WXEL-TV (Channel 9) as the afternoon movie show host. The next year, he got a job playing classical music on Cleveland radio station WJW.
Mintz proposed to buy airtime on WJW, to be devoted entirely to R&B recordings, with Freed as host. On July 11, 1951, Freed started playing rhythm and blues records on WJW. Freed called his show “The Moondog House” and billed himself as “The King of the Moondoggers”. He had been inspired by an offbeat instrumental called “Moondog Symphony” that had been recorded by New York street musician Louis T. Hardin, aka “Moondog”. Freed adopted the record as his show’s theme music. His on-air manner was energetic and faintly smarmy. He addressed his listeners as if they were all part of a make-believe kingdom of hipsters, united in their love for “black” music.
Poster for Freed's Coronation Ball
Later that year, Freed promoted dances and concerts featuring the music he was playing on the radio. He was one of the organizers of a five-act show called “The Moondog Coronation Ball” on March 21, 1952 at the Cleveland Arena. This event is known as the first rock and roll concert. Crowds attended in numbers far beyond the arena’s capacity, and the concert was shut down early due to overcrowding and a near-riot. Freed gained a priceless notoriety from the incident. WJW immediately increased the airtime allotted to Freed’s program, and his popularity soared.
In those days, Cleveland was considered by the music industry to be a “breakout” city, where national trends first appeared in a regional market. Freed’s popularity made the pop music business sit up and take notice. Soon, tapes of Freed’s program began to air in the New York City area.
Although Freed made use of the “Moondog Symphony,” he failed to obtain the composer’s permission to use the piece, nor did he pay any royalties. As a result he was sued by Hardin for infringement in 1952; Hardin also argued prior claim to the name “Moondog,” under which he had been composing since 1947. Freed lost the suit, and had to give up both use of the piece and the Moondog name.
Freed on the air for New York City's WINS radio station
In 1954, following his success on the air in Cleveland, Freed moved to New York City where he turned WINS into a rock and roll radio station, which it would remain until April 19, 1965 when it became a news outlet.
It was at the height of Freed’s career at the beginning of his new television series that various individuals decided to use Freed as a scapegoat for all that was wrong with the recorded music industry. His show, The Big Beat (which predated American Bandstand), on ABC, was suddenly canceled after an episode in which Frankie Lymon of Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers was seen dancing with a white girl. Reportedly, it offended the management of ABC’s local affiliates in the southern states. During this period, Freed was seen on other popular programs of the day, including To Tell The Truth, where he is seen defending the new “rock and roll” sound to the panelists, who were all clearly more comfortable with swing music: Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellamy, and Kitty Carlisle.
In 1958, Freed faced controversy in Boston when he told the audience, “The police don’t want you to have fun.” As a result, Freed was arrested and charged with inciting to riot.
Headline about the Payola scandal
Freed’s career ended when accusations were made – and proven – that he had accepted payola, or accepted bribes from record companies to play specific records. There was also the conflict of interest that he had taken songwriting co-credits (most notably on Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene”), which entitled him to receive part of a song’s royalties. Freed could help increase these royalties by heavily promoting the record on his own popular radio show. After a legal action, Freed’s name disappeared from the credits. However, the fact remains that many recording artists lost royalties that they were entitled to receive due to Freed’s actions.
Freed lost his own show on the radio station WINS; then he was fired from the station altogether. In 1960, payola was made illegal. In 1962, Freed pleaded guilty to two charges of commercial bribery, for which he received a fine and a suspended sentence.
Although the punishment handed down to Freed was not severe, the side effects of negative publicity were such that no prestigious station would employ him, and he moved to the West Coast in 1960, where he worked at KDAY-AM in Santa Monica, California. In 1962, after KDAY refused to allow him to promote “rock and roll” stage shows, Freed moved to WQAM in Miami, Florida, but that association lasted two months. He died in a Palm Springs, California hospital in 1965 from uremia and cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism. He was 43 years old. Freed was initially interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York; his ashes were later moved to their present location in Cleveland, Ohio at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 21, 2002.
American Hot Wax LP
In 1978, a motion picture entitled American Hot Wax was released, which was inspired by Freed’s contribution to the rock and roll scene. Although director Floyd Mutrux created a fictionalized account of Freed’s last days in New York radio by utilizing real-life elements outside of their actual chronology, the film does accurately convey the fond relationship between Freed, the musicians he promoted, and the audiences who listened to them. The film starred Tim McIntire as Freed. Several notable personalities who would later become well-known celebrities starred in the movie, including Jay Leno and Fran Drescher. The film included cameo appearances by Chuck Berry, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Frankie Ford and Jerry Lee Lewis, performing in the recording studio and concert sequences.
Alan Freed
In 1986, Freed was part of the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was built in Cleveland in recognition of Freed’s involvement in the promotion of the genre. In 1988, he was also posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
Freed appeared in Stephen King’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes as an evil version of himself, who enthusiastically announces the names of deceased rock n roll legends in You Know They Got a Hell of a Band as part of an upcoming concert to perform. He was portrayed by Mitchell Butel in the television adaptation on the Nightmares & Dreamscapes mini-series. The Cleveland Cavaliers’ mascot Moondog is named in honor of Freed.
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and recording artist, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame web site entry on Penniman states that:
He claims to be “the architect of rock and roll,” and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as “Tutti Frutti”, “Long Tall Sally” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.
The flamboyant Little Richard
Penniman began his recording career in 1951 by imitating the gospel-influenced style of late-1940s jump blues artist Billy Wright, but did not achieve commercial success until 1955, when, under the guidance of Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, he began recording in a style he had been performing onstage for years, featuring varied rhythm, a heavy backbeat, funky saxophone grooves, over-the-top Gospel-style singing, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections, accompanied by a combination of boogie-woogie and rhythm and blues music. This new music, which included an original injection of funk into the rock and roll beat, inspired many of the greatest recording artists of the twentieth century, including James Brown, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding and generations of other rhythm & blues, rock and soul music artists. He was subsequently among the seven initial inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and was one of only four of these honorees (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.
Little Richard
In October 1957, while at the height of stardom, Penniman abruptly quit rock and roll music and became a born-again Christian. In January 1958, he enrolled in and attended Bible college to become a preacher and evangelist and began recording and performing only gospel music for a number of years. He then moved back and forth from rock and roll to the ministry, until he was able to reconcile the two roles in later life.
In October 1951, at the age of 18, Little Richard began recording jump blues records for RCA Camden. His father was shot to death while he was performing at a club on January 12, 1952. In October 1953, he began recording with Peacock Records. Records were released each year from 1951–54, but none were significant hits.
Little Richard
Following two recording sessions with Peacock in 1953, Little Richard, dissatisfied with his solo career, began to form a new, hard-driving R&B road band that he called “The Upsetters.” The band began with New Orleans drummer Charles ‘Chuck’ Connors and two saxophonists, including Wilbert ‘Lee Diamond’ Smith. By 1955, the band was joined by saxophonists Clifford ‘Gene’ Burks and Grady Gaines, who became its leader, along with Olsie ‘Baysee’ Robinson on bass, and Nathaniel ‘Buster’ Douglas on guitar.
At Lloyd Price’s suggestion, Little Richard recorded a demo for gospel/R&B label Specialty Records on February 9, 1955. Specialty’s owner, Art Rupe, loaned him money to buy out his contract from Peacock Records and placed his career in the hands of Specialty’s A&R man Robert “Bumps” Blackwell.
Little Richard "Woooooooo!"
Rupe and Blackwell originally pictured Little Richard as a commercial rival to Ray Charles, who was experiencing success with Atlantic Records by taking gospel songs and developing them in a bluesy setting with a beat. Little Richard told Rupe he liked Fats Domino’s sound, so Rupe and Blackwell booked Cosimo Matassa’s J & M Recording Studio in New Orleans, and hired studio musicians who had worked with Domino (including Earl Palmer on drums and Lee Allen on sax) rather than members of Little Richard’s road band on many of the mid-1950s Specialty tracks.
Following some recording that did not satisfy Blackwell, they took a break. Penniman began pounding out a boogie woogie rhythm on piano and hollering out impromptu recital of “Tutti Frutti”, a song he wrote and had been performing on stage for years. Blackwell was so impressed with the sound that he had Little Richard record the song. However, in order to make it commercially acceptable, he had Little Richard’s lyrics changed from “tutti-frutti, good booty” to “tutti frutti, au rutti”. (All rooty was hipster slang for “all right”.) The song featured a powerhouse acappella intro “A-wop-bop-a-loo-lop-a-lop-bam-boom!” that had also been altered slightly to make it commercially acceptable. The recording was released on Specialty in October 1955.
Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” climbed to the top of Billboard’s R&B chart. Sixteen more hit singles followed in less than three years, seven of which reached number 1. While most of these hits were characterized by a driving piano, boogie-woogie bass line, a variety of rhythmic drumbeats, and wild screams before Lee Allen’s funky sax solos, such as Rip It Up”, “Lucille”, “Jenny, Jenny”, “Good Golly, Miss Molly” and “Keep A-Knockin’”, a few of them were slower in tempo and more soulful, such as “Slippin’ and Slidin’”, “Send Me Some Lovin’” and “True Fine Mama”. During this period, he also appeared performing his hit songs in three films, including The Girl Can’t Help It (1956), in which he sang the hit title track, Don’t Knock the Rock (1956), and Mister Rock and Roll (1957).
Little Richard and Bill Haley
“Tutti Frutti” was quickly covered by both Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. While Presley’s versions only appeared as album tracks, Boone’s covers were released as singles and his “Tutti Frutti” single outdid the source record on Billboard’s Top 100 pop chart. Boone also released a version of “Long Tall Sally” with slightly bowdlerized lyrics, but this time, the Little Richard original version outperformed the cover on the Billboard pop chart. Presley and Bill Haley tackled Little Richard’s fourth R&B chart topper, “Rip It Up”, but Little Richard’s single was the hit. With the record-buying public’s preference established, Little Richard’s subsequent releases did not face the same chart competition.
(L to R) Jet Harris, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, and Sam Cooke
Little Richard, along with his road band, performed his hits in sports stadiums and concert venues across the United States through 1956 and 1957. He brought the races together at his concerts, at a time in the United States when laws still dictated that public facilities (including concert venues) be divided into separate “white” and “colored” domains. Little Richard’s audiences would start out segregated in the building, usually with one race on the floor and the other on the balcony, but most of the time, by the end of the night they were mixed together. Racists in the south, such as The North Alabama White Citizens Council, responded by putting out statements on television, warning the public that “Rock n Roll is part of a test to undermine the morals of the youth of our nation. It is sexualistic, unmoralistic and … brings people of both races together.” The demand for him was so great, however, that even in the south where segregation was most rampant, the taboos against black artists appearing in white venues were being shattered.
Penniman was an innovative and charismatic performer, appearing in sequined capes under flicker lights that he brought from show business into the music world. He would run off and on the stage, jumping, yelling, and whipping the audience into a frenzy. At a concert in Baltimore, Maryland, US concert history was made when excited people had to be restrained from jumping off the balconies, and the police had to stop the show twice to remove dozens of girls that had climbed onstage to try to rip souvenirs from Penniman. Later in the show, girls began to throw their undergarments onto the stage.
Former Little Richard girlfriend, Angel Lee
While on the road in the mid-50s, Penniman would have notorious parties, replete with orgies, in hotel rooms wherever they appeared. In late 1956, he met a voluptuous high school graduate in Savannah, Georgia by the name of Angel Lee. She became his girlfriend and started traveling on the road with him. Penniman would invite attractive men to his parties and would enjoy watching them having sex with his girlfriend.
In early October 1957, on the fifth date of a two week tour of Australia, Little Richard was flying from Melbourne to appear in front of forty thousand fans in concert in Sydney. Shocked by the red hot appearance of the engines against the night sky, he envisioned angels holding up the plane. Then, while he performed at the stadium, he was shaken by the sight of a ball of fire that he watched streak across the sky overhead. He took what was actually the Russian satellite Sputnik as another sign to quit show business and follow God. The following day he departed Sydney on a ferry and threw his $8,000 ring in the water to show his band members that he was serious about quitting. The plane that he was originally scheduled to fly back home on ended up crashing in the Pacific Ocean, which he took as confirmation that he was doing what God wanted him to do.
Alan Freed, Little Richard and fans at the Apollo Theater
The news of him quitting at the height of his career had broken all over the world by the time he returned to the United States. He attended one more recording session for Specialty on October 18, 1957, and, at the request of DJ Alan Freed, performed a farewell concert at the Apollo Theater in New York. He then had his roadies drive his Cadillacs across the United States to a property he bought for his mother in California and gave her the keys. He formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country preaching, and helped people locally through a ministry on skid row in Los Angeles.
Penniman's album, "Here's Little Richard"
From October 1957 to 1962, Little Richard recorded gospel music for Goldner, Little Star, Mercury, and Atlantic Records. He also enrolled in the Seventh-day Adventist Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), in Hunstville, Alabama, where he planned to take a three year course which was to culminate in ordination. In November 1957, he met Ernestine Campbell at an evangelistic meeting in Washington. They were married on July 11, 1959.
Following release of his gospel album for Mercury Records, Little Richard met Mahalia Jackson, one of his childhood heroes. She was appearing in Los Angeles and he stopped her on the street to invite her to hear him sing at the Mount Maria Baptist Church. She attended and indicated that she was delighted with his singing, stating that “he was singing gospel songs the way they should be sung” and “he had that primitive beat and sound that came so naturally.” Two of his gospel songs during this period hit the charts – “He’s Not Just a Soldier” (1961) for Mercury, and “Crying In The Chapel” (1962) for Atlantic Records. He continued in the ministry but was experiencing marital problems and some difficulty living a disciplined Christian life.
(L to R) Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Little Richard, George Harrison, and John Lennon
Although rock and roll sales were in a slump in America in 1962, Little Richard records were still selling well in England. British promoter Don Arden booked him for an October tour of the country, with The Beatles as an opening act. Penniman thought he was going to perform gospel music but Arden had promoted the concert as a rock and roll show. On the first night of the tour he began performing gospel music, but gave in to the pressure and began performing his secular hits. The crowd appeared spellbound, with people standing and near hysterical girls in the aisles. He walked off to a standing ovation. The frenzied crowd reaction was to be repeated wherever Little Richard appeared.
Little Richard
Penniman returned to Specialty Records in April 1963, recording one secular track. In mid-summer, around the time of Penniman’s divorce, Don Arden began negotiating a second tour of England. Penniman did not disclose this to the church community because he wasn’t convinced that rock and roll was evil and still wanted to keep his options open in the ministry.
Little Richard toured England and Wales in October and November 1963, with Bo Diddley, The Everly Brothers and the then little-known Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger would later state, “I heard so much about the audience reaction, I thought there must be some exaggeration. But it was all true. He drove the whole house into a complete frenzy… I couldn’t believe the power of Little Richard onstage. He was amazing.” Near the end of the tour, he recorded a television show, “The Little Richard Spectacular”, with Sounds Incorporated as the backing band and The Shirelles performing backing vocals, for Britain’s largest independent television company at the time, Granada Network. After the show was first aired in May 1964, the Granada received over 60,000 letters from fans, which prompted the company to two repeat broadcasts of the show. Much of the footage was used for a TV special, highlighting the frenzy and excitement associated with rock and roll, that was seen all over the world.
Penniman recorded four more secular tracks for Specialty in April 1964. One of these recordings, “Bama Lama, Bama Loo” was released as a single and was a minor hit on the Billboard charts.
Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix
On March 1, 1964, he brought a fledgling Jimi Hendrix into his band, Hendrix began dressing and growing a mustache like Penniman’s. He toured with Little Richard and played on at least a dozen tracks for Vee Jay Records between the spring of 1964 and 1965. Three singles, including a cover of Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On, would again hit the charts with moderate success.
Penniman continued to record and perform only secular music in the mid-60s, during which time he began drinking heavily. He has stated that he could have had more commercial success during this period, but southern preachers displeased with his backslide from the ministry pressured R&B radio stations throughout the southern U.S. to not play his music, while on the West Coast, particularly in Los Angeles following the Watts Riots, some black DJs were not playing his music because he was drawing both races to his concerts.
Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis
In 1966 and 1967, Penniman recorded two funky soul albums for Okeh Records, with his old friend from the mid-’50s, Larry Williams, as producer, and Johnny Guitar Watson on guitar. The first produced the hit single, “Poor Dog”; in August 1967 the second (a collection of concert performances) returned Little Richard to Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart for the first time in ten years. Williams also acted as the musical director for Little Richard’s live performances used for the album, and Penniman’s bookings during this period skyrocketed. This period also marked Penniman’s return to a lifestyle of orgies and bisexuality. He also began dabbling in cocaine.
With the emergence of the Black Power movement in the latter part of the decade, Penniman was invited to perform for strictly black crowds. He refused because he did not want to exclude any races from attending his shows. He remained a popular concert attraction, traveling extensively in the United States and Europe, as well as in Mexico and Canada, throughout the remainder of the decade.
Poster for Little Richard's appearance at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival
In 1969, he was invited to perform at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival. The event was filmed by director D.A. Pennebaker and also featured Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent.
Little Richard continued to recover from the operation on his left hip in the first part of 2010. On June 5th and 6th of 2010, in his 60th year (and 7th decade) of professional recording, he spent time at a studio (The Rock House in Franklin, Tennessee) to record a new track – a cover of Dottie Rambo’s “He Ain’t Never Done Me Nothing But Good”, as part of a star-studded tribute to the late Gospel songwriting legend.
The Incomparable Little Richard Penniman!
Little Richard influenced the development of a variety of musical genres in the twentieth century and many of those genres most significant artists. James Brown, who called Little Richard his idol, stated that he was the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat via his mid-1950s road band. Otis Redding, whose inspiration was Little Richard, indicated that he contributed significantly to the development of soul music. Richie Unterberger of allmusic.com stated that Little Richard “was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock & roll.”
Little Richard has been recognized for his musical contributions by many other high-profile artists. In 1989, Ray Charles introduced him at the Legends of Rock n Roll concert in Rome, Italy, as “a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what’s happening today.” Bo Diddley stated that “Little Richard was a one-of-a-kind show business genius. He influenced so many people in the business.” Paul McCartney said that he idolized Little Richard when he was in school and always wanted to sing like him, and Mick Jagger called Little Richard “the originator” and “my first idol.” In his high school year book, Bob Dylan declared that his ambition was “to join Little Richard”. In 1966, Jimi Hendrix was quoted as saying, “I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice.” Bob Seger, John Fogerty, David Bowie and Rod Stewart are among the other artists who have stated that Little Richard was a primary rock ‘n’ roll influence. In 1979, as he began to develop his solo career, Michael Jackson was quoted as saying that Little Richard was a huge influence on him.
Robert has been performing
in bands and writing songs
since 1969. He is a former
writer and performer for the
Bob & Tom Show. He lives
in Fort Wayne, IN with his
wife, Sheri and their three
children, Dustin, Harrison
and McCartney.
I've had several requests to do a Pink Floyd post. I'll get around to it soon. For now, enjoy this live video of the band from Knebworth in 1990 with SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
Every Sunday, Peter Tibbles contributes a column called "Elder Music" at the web site,TIME GOES BY. Check it out. For archives of previous "Elder Music" columns click HERE.
