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Welcome to Old Forty Fives.com, where the '50s and '60s come back to life.

When did Rock'n Roll start?

Some people think it started in 1953 with Ike Turner's "My Rocket 88," or Big Joe Turner with "Honey, Hush" in 1953, or "Shake, Rattle and Roll" 1954. Personally, I believe it started with the premiere of the movie Blackboard Jungle in theaters across the country, in 1955. This movie featured the song "Rock Around the Clock" by "Bill Haley and his Comets," which helped to propel Rock and Roll as a musical genre. It was reported that teenagers jumped from their seats to dance to the song.

It is Alan Freed, in 1952-53 who is credited with coining the phrase "Rock'n Roll." He visited a Cleveland record store and learned that R&B records were being snapped up by white teenagers, and immediately sensing the makings of something big, he changed the name of his popular music show on radio station WJW from "Record Rendezvous" to "Moon Dog's Rock 'n' Roll House Party" and began playing R&B tunes. Freed apparently used the term "Rock 'n' Roll" to describe the music because he thought the racial connotation of "rhythm and blues" might turn off the white audience.

I remember, I was about 11-12 years old at the time and just starting to get into music, and this new music genre did not sit well with my old man at the time. Songs, like "Lollipop" by the Chordettes, would bring my dad running across the house, or yard, just to shut off the radio, or change the station to a Country & Western music station.

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Woolworth menu cira 1960

Miner's Drive In, Union Gap, WA
A regular stop when dragging the avenue as a teenager in the early 60s

Music of the Fifties & Sixties

This section depicts the Rock'n Roll Era that I remembered in my youth. This era started in 1955, for me, when I first started paying attention to what was playing on AM radio at the time. It continued through the sixties, even though I was not into a lot of the anti-war protest music, and I was still trying to get used to the British sound - some of it I liked, some I didn't. I never could get into the music of the 70s and 80s. The best years of Rock'n Roll, in my opinion, were 1957 through 1963.

The era, 1955 through 1969, is presented by years below. Each page link lists the Top 100 songs of that year with some statistics for that year.

1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969

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