Eddie Cochran was born on 3 October 1938, the youngest of five children. The Cochran family home was in Oklahoma City but shortly after Eddie…
Browsing: Music – 1950s
Born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1917, Ella Fitzgerald never knew her father – he left the family while she was an infant – and…
Despite his brief career – spanning little more than a decade before his early death in 1963 – bluesman Elmore James affected rock and roll…
Elvis Aron (Aaron) Presley was born on 8 January 1935 to a poor family from Tupelo, Mississippi, and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his parents…
Kids today want designer names, the genuine thing. But in the 1950s and 1960s when money was in short supply, they were happy to buy…
In a musical climate that had been dominated by white British and American acts, Emile Ford forged a name for himself as Britain’s first black…
Esther Phillips was born Esther Mae Jones in Galveston, Texas, on 23 December 1935. She was brought up singing in church and, at the age…
LA-native Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins) was born in Los Angeles on 25 January 1938. Her mother, Dorothy Hawkins, a 14-year-old groupie and jazz fan, put…
Born Isaac Donald Everly on 1 February 1937 in Brownie, Kentucky, Don wasn’t the twin of Phil, as so many believed. Phil was in fact,…
Born Fabiano Forte in Philadelphia on 6 February 1943, he attended the same boys club as his neighbourhood friends Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell. All three…
He was born Antoine Domino in New Orleans in February 1928, and since his first professional appearance at the age of 14 at the celebrated…
They were acclaimed as pioneers of the surf sound alongside Dick Dale, Link Wray and The Ventures, but The Fireballs (from Raton, New Mexico) -…
Fred Parris composed the song In The Still Of The Night one night in the 1950s while on guard duty in the Army. Back home in…
This group first recorded as The Five Willows (after originally starting out as The Dovers in 1950). Original members were Richie Davies, twin brothers Ralph and…
This Los Angeles group recorded a host of singles on US labels but only ever released one in the UK – Swing Pretty Mama b/w I’d Climb The…
Cousins Jacob ‘Jake’ Carey and Ezekial ‘Zeke’ Carey formed this doo-wop group in Chicago, Illinois, after meeting Paul Wilson and Johnny Carter at a black…
When childhood friends Barbara Ellis and Gretchen Christopher joined forces with Gary Troxel in Washington, the group Two Girls and A Guy was born. After…
Vocal group The Four Aces came together in 1951 when Al Albertini hooked up with Dave Mahoney – who he had met during their time…
Formed in 1948, the close-knit harmonies of The Four Freshmen were a hugely popular draw over the next decade and a half. Founder member Bob…
This vocal group met while in the Marine Corps and stationed at Camp Pendleton, Twentynine Palms, California (in the heart of the Mojave Desert). After…