1954
Bill Haley’s Shake, Rattle and Roll became the first rock ‘n’ Roll record to chart in the U.K. It peaked at #4. The British pop chart otherwise was dominated by the more mainstream pop imports like Doris Day, Johnnie Ray, Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney (all the artist our parents would have been preferring over Elvis, Bill Haley, Chuch Berry etc).
1956
Elvis made his 50th and final appearance on the Louisiana Hayride at the Louisiana Fairgrounds, a benefit concert for the Shreveport YMCA.
Rev. Charles Howard Graf, rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Greenwich Village, New York, said the Elvis Presley craze will pass. He said, “Basically I don’t think youth wants this sort of thing. It is the result of the letdown that follows every war.” Guess the good Reverend was wrong…
1957
Jerry Lee Lewis secretly married his 13 year-old second cousin Myra Gale Brown. She was the daughter of his bass player. She claimed to be 20 on the marriage license. What Jerry forgot was he was still married to his second wife, Jan Mitcham. Two of Lewis’ other cousins were Mickey gilley and Jimmy Swaggart.
Al Priddy, a DJ at radio station KEX in Portland, Oregon, was fired for playing Elvis Presley’s version of White Christmas. The station’s owner says: “It is not in the spirit we associate with Chrismas. Playing Presley’s version of that song is like having a stripper give my kids Christmas presents.”
Chicago radio station WCFL went even further by banning all records by Elvis.
1958
The Coasters follow up their #1 song Yakety Yak by recording Charlie Brown. In February of ’59 Charlie Brown peaked at #2 and failed to give The Coasters back to back #1′s.
1959
The Everly Brothers recorded their first session outside of Nashville. Let It Be Me, an English translation of a French song was recorded in New York. It was also the first song from the duo in which an orchestral backing (eight violins and a cello) was used.
