1959 Overview

     This year in music history is most infamously known for the events of February 3rd, 1959. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, all at the peaks of their career, suddenly gone. 

     Besides losing three of the most prominent names in 1950's Rock And Roll, the genre itself entered a bit of a dark age. Chuck Berry would be arrested in December of the year. Little Richard, once a signature sound in the genre, was still in his Born Again Christian phase and had disowned both Rock And Roll, and his own previous work. Elvis was in the army, Jerry Lee Lewis' personal life was now in controversy, and many Rock And Roll singers such as Frankie Avalon started to mellow out their sound. It really was the day the music died. 

     From what I personally know of this year, there were a lot of ballads and easy listening tunes which, due to the creative dip of Rock And Roll, started to flourish even more than usual. This would continue until a certain invasion of the British variety 5 years later...

     This does not mean of course the year was one of the worst in music, far from it. The R&B genre absolutely FLOURISHED during this year. For one, it saw the first Motown single released - Barrett Strong's "Money", written by Berry Gordy, Jr. Himself. The Coasters and The Drifters (the latter now with Ben E King as their lead singer) released some timeless tunes, such as the former's, "Poison Ivy" and, "There Goes My Baby", by the latter. The Isley Brothers released, "Shout", Sam Cooke gave us, "Wonderful World", and of course Ray Charles gave us the legendary, "What'd I Say?" Unfortunately in certain parts of the country, these were still racially segregated times and so much of this great music was still alien to the whitebread market, and thus, did not feature as heavily on the billboard charts of the time. 

     Despite the genre not being heavily covered in this blog, it is worth noting two classic jazz albums were recorded and released this year as well - Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue" and the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Time Out". Also, another genre of music had its seeds sown this year when The Fireballs recorded "Bulldog", one of the first examples of what would soon become known as "Surf Rock". 

     So as you can see, this year can be summed up just like the 1980's are today in that, what was commercially successful wasn't necessarily the best music being produced. I'm expecting to review a lot of soft ballad-y songs for this year, but hoping to find some R&B or early Rock And Roll remnants. Let's find out shall we? 

               First Up - "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" by The Platters. 

                                   Until Next Time - Dr. Rock -