Joni James was born Giovanna Carmella Babbo to an Italian-American family in Chicago, Illinois, on 22 September 1930. Giovanna babysat and worked in a bakery…
Browsing: Music – 1950s
Born Gayle Peck in 1926, Julie London married actor Jack Webb of Dragnet fame in 1947. They were drawn to each other through a mutual interest…
Junior Wells was born Amos Blakemore in Memphis, Tennessee in 1934. While his parents farmed, Wells took an early interest in music. Wells had his…
1 9 2 9 – 1 9 8 9 Laurence Maurice Parnes was born on 3 September 1929 to a Jewish family in Willesden, London.…
Larry Williams, though born in New Orleans in 1935, recorded in Los Angeles for Art Rupe’s Specialty label – the home of Little Richard. Williams formed…
Chicago-native LaVern Baker (born Delores Williams on 11 November 1929) was a well-built and undeniably sexy black girl who learnt to sing in church before…
Jerry (born Jerome) Leiber and Mike Stoller have written some of the most spirited and enduring rock and roll songs: Hound Dog (originally recorded by Big Mama…
The Lettermen’s first break came when they were spotted by comedian George Burns who took them on tour with him. Jack Benny then “stole” them…
Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins was born on 15 March 1912 in Centerville, Texas, a small farming town north of Houston. His father, Abe – who died when…
While recording his 1958 hit single Rumble, Link Wray took a pen and punched holes in the tweeters of his amp to get a combination of…
Formed in Brooklyn in 1957, the group’s first hit, the haunting Tears On My Pillow (1958), encapsulated the essence of street corner harmony. Further success came with So…
Little Richard made the kind of Rock ‘n’ Roll you think only exists in the movies. Richard pounds the piano and scats out some vocals,…
Born William Edward John in Camden, Arkansas, on 15 November 1937, he grew up in a Detroit household with four brothers and two sisters. An…
By the time this raucous rocker from New Orleans was 19 he had become part of rock ‘n’ roll history when the first song he ever…
Lonnie Donegan rose to international fame as one of the founding fathers of a new wave of music called Skiffle that swept the world during the 1950s.…
In February 1957 Lonnie Lee entered an Elvis Presley impersonation contest at the Trocadero nightclub in Sydney, Australia. He won and greatly impressed the compere, Johnny O’Keefe who…
Lula Marietta McClelland was born in Mingo Junction, Jefferson County, Ohio on 21 March 1926. Her family moved to Port Clinton, Ohio, where she sang…
Blue Moon was the only song by Richard Rodgers and Lorenzo Hart not to have been written for a musical. Originally composed as a ballad of…
Marty Wilde (real name Reg Smith) was born in Greenwich, London, in 1939. He began singing at the age of four when he walked on…
Michael Holliday was born Norman Alexander Milne in the Kirkdale district of Liverpool in November 1924 and began his singing career after winning an amateur…