Otha Ellas Bates was born on 30 December 1928 in McComb, Mississippi, and at the age of five, moved with his family to the south-side of…
Browsing: Music – 1950s
Bobby Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto on 14 May 1936, in the Bronx area of New York, and was raised by his mother -…
17-year-old Bobby Freeman was still at High School in San Francisco when he began enjoying chart hits – none as great as his debut Do You…
Born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Atlanta, Georgia, on 11 December 1944, Brenda Lee is rumoured to have taken to the road with a singing group…
Born Charles Hardin Holley on 7 September 1936, Buddy (as he was nicknamed from an early age by his family) first performed and broadcast in…
Buddy Wayne Knox was born on 20 July 1933 in the tiny farming community of Happy (motto: “The town without a frown”) in the Texan…
Born in Lake County, Tennessee, on 9 April 1932, Carl Perkins began playing country music with his brothers Jay and Clayton for nearly a decade before…
The Champs grew out of a group of Texan studio session musicians Gene Autry hired for his fledgling Challenge Records label in Hollywood. Their first…
Five New York school friends led by 15-year-old Arlene Smith made the Top 20 in 1958 with Maybe, produced by disc jockey Alan Freed for…
Rockabilly pioneer Charlie Feathers was born Charles Arthur Feathers in June 1932 in the hill country near Holly Springs, around 50 miles southeast of Memphis, and…
Chet Atkins was born Chester Burton Atkins in Luttrell, Tennessee, on 20 June 1924. His father was a music teacher who specialised in piano. He…
Possibly the most popular TV and musical cartoon of all time, the Chipmunks enjoyed two periods of prosperity – the ’60s era of adolescent Baby…
The Chordettes, label-mates of The Everly Brothers, were one of the most successful of the many US Girl Groups of the 1950s, scoring seven US Top 40 hits…
There is much confusion surrounding the actual birth date of rock legend Charles Edward Berry. Most informed sources agree on 18 October 1931, yet some…
An outstanding R&B singer from Atlanta, Chuck Willis became known as the ‘king of the stroll’, although he saw himself as a latter-day Johnny Ace. Legendary…
Cliff Richard figured large in my early years. He always provided the soundtrack to my summer holidays (no pun intended). My holidays in Skegness each…
The Clovers hailed from Washington DC, where they initially formed just after the Second World War as a conventional 1940s vocal group. Their founder, Harold…
Clyde Lensley McPhatter was born on 15 November 1933 in the tobacco town of Durham, North Carolina. He was one of ten children for George…
Carl Gardner, Leon Hughes, Billy Guy and Bobby Nunn got together in 1955 as The Coasters and hit the US charts with their second release, Down…
Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero was born in 1938 in Newark, New Jersey to Italian parents and began her career in music as a child accordion…