There were a lot of young bucks who were thinking just like Elvis in 1955. The Elvis look was around long before Elvis for one thing. Slicked-back pompadours with pointy shoes were all over the teenage streets of all the east coast cities, at least, in the early 50’s. Black leather jackets were all the rage in 1953. And musically, the idea of combining blues with country was literally in the air, as people heard plenty of both on the radio, especially in the South. Plus electric guitars and amps were suddenly available. It HAD to happen. So it’s not right to call Carl Perkins and Conway Twitty and Gene Vincent and even Ricky Nelson mere Elvis imitators. And who cares if they were, as long as they made great records. This guy Clint Miller was an Elvis imitator I suppose, but this is a rockin tune just the same, with proto-Shakin All Over guitar:

Conway Twitty started out with a pomp while Elvis had his fresh fish special, and if this is imitation let’s have a little more. Too bad Conway immediately dove headfirst into the schlockiest of schlock Country. He had potential:

Moyer thinks the drums on the next one “pedestrian.” I think he’s nuts. They are pumping like what it’s all about. Add Dee Dee’s incredible voice and one the best sax solos ever:

The last two songs were hits in 1960 and 1962, so again it’s not a wasteland.

My thing for 1950’s rockroll, as Steve puts it, goes back to the blues and forward to soul and R&B among other things. Many of these songs are in danger of disappearing, although maybe I’m wrong and they were hits again in movies that I’ve never seen. In any case, it’s good to hear them and surely there are kids who haven’t heard them. Not MY kids, they have been steeped in their rocknroll heritage.

My favorite kid rocknroll incident was about 1991, I’m driving with my sons Gene (age 8) and Matthew (6) and The Beatles’ Please Mr. Postman comes on the radio so I jack it up and sing along because it’s such a great sing along song. When it ends I turn the volume down and Matt pipes up from the back seat “John at his best.” Of course he had heard that from me, nevertheless I almost drove off the road.

My biggest thrill with kid rocknroll was singing Chinese Rocks with my son Gene and his band at a club here in Fort Collins. We nailed it.

So I thought I’d post a great blues song and a great R&B song. They play Howlin Wolf on TV commercials but they don’t play this, as good as anything he ever did:

I wouldn’t try to top that singing but for hard funk it don’t get much better than this: