Contains “old” categories from before website rebuild.
The year is 1967 and you're just out of high school. You're burning your draft card, experimenting with various herbs, and licking acid from blotter papers while listening to "Eight Miles High" and "Light My Fire." And psychedelia-loving hipster that you are, you're ready to pull your long hair out every time the opening organ chords of "I'm a Believer" came piping from the nearest radio. Forty-eight years ago this week, The Monkees' single "I'm a Believer" was getting more airplay than any other song in the country. Thanks to 1,051,280 advance orders, it went gold within two days of its November 1966 release and spent seven weeks at the top of the charts, making it the biggest selling record of 1967. You couldn't escape the sound. Free-form FM was still in its infancy, and most of the nation's gargantuan cars came equipped with only an AM dial. So, even the most musically savvy flower children couldn't escape the pop hits of the day - many of which they considered bubblegum music. But I was a mere child of 7, and I absolutely loved both bubblegum and pop hits!
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Rockabilly King Carl Perkins? Yes, "Blue Suede Shoes." Congratulations. I hope no one out there thinks that Elvis wrote this rockin' ditty. His version seems to be the one everybody remembers. Chalk it up to hair and hips. But it was the El's buddy Carl, the poor 'ol sharecropper's son from Tennessee, who wrote and first recorded it. Since its release in January 1956, there's never been a shortage of blue suede in the world of rock. The song has been covered by everyone from The Beatles and Buddy Holly to Bill Haley and Pat Boone. But I'll bet you didn't know that some rather unlikely artists have also recorded and performed this most sacred of rock tunes. Here's a smathering of some rather outré Blue Suede renditions, plus covers of other Perkins classics.
"I want to do biological research [to find a cure for] cancer, if it isn't discovered by then." So said future Led Zeppelin guitar great Jimmy Page to a TV program host who asked him his future plans, following the lad's performance on a BBC talent show in 1957. So, should we be disappointed that the 13-year-old didn't follow through with that lofty goal? Uh, no. Page is considered one of the world's greatest musicians, primarily known for his 12 years with the hard-rocking, eardrum-shattering Zeppelin. But long before joining up with Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham in 1968, he was considered a hot commodity -- not only as a key member of seminal electric blues band The Yardbirds, but also as a highly sought-after session guitarist. His work can be heard on recordings by some of the most popular artists of the 1960s. Here's a look at some of them.
"Everyone else wanted to be Elvis; I wanted to be Scotty," Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards once told music writer James L. Dickerson. He's referring, of course, to Scotty Moore, the finger-picking phenomenon who has long been considered rock's first lead guitarist. Mr. Moore, who turns 83 today, was Elvis Presley's sizzling sideman from 1954 through the mid-'60s. He combined elements of country, western, blues and R&B to create the signature sounds you've heard on countless classic recordings: "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "That's All Right," "Good Rockin' Tonight," and "Mystery Train," to name a few.
In the early 1960s, The Beatles came off as cute and cheeky, while the Rolling Stones - marketed by manager Andrew Loog Oldham as the anti-Beatles - were perceived as snide and snarky. Here's a look at how these two very different bands greeted the public at Christmas time.
