Ducktails, drive-ins, and broken hearts : an unsweetened look at '50s music Cover Image

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Ducktails, drive-ins, and broken hearts : an unsweetened look at '50s music / Hank Davis.

Davis, Hank, 1941- (author.).

Summary:

They all tried, but few singers and musicians from the 1950s became stars. Yet many of them had stories to tell that were far more interesting than the ones you already know. Author Hank Davis was bitten by the music bug as a teenager. By the time he entered college in 1959, he was no stranger to New York's recording studios and had a few 45s of his own on the market. Spanning a 45 year career in music journalism, Davis has spent time backstage, in motel rooms, and on tour buses to uncover stories that rarely made the official annals of pop music history. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews and new research, 'Ducktails, Drive-Ins, and Broken Hearts' offers a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the winners and losers during rock 'n' roll's formative era. How did a decade as uptight and puritanical as the '50s produce so much cringe-worthy, politically incorrect music? What was it like to see a pale cover version of your latest record climb the charts while yours sat unplayed by mainstream radio stations? How did precious Elvis tapes end up in a Memphis landfill? And who was that thirteen-year-old girl who made a five-dollar vanity record at Sun just two years after Elvis had-and ended up singing backup on "Suspicious Minds" and "In the Ghetto?" This book is a must-read for all fans of '50s music.

Record details

ISBN: 9781438492681 (trade paperback)
Physical Description: xxii, 337 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Albany, NY : Excelsior Editions, [2023]
Copyright: ©2023

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Part I. Hitmakers and bold-faced names -- Carl Perkins meets Elvis in a high school parking lot -- LaVern Baker : play it fair -- Frankie Laine : bringing passion to pop -- Ella Johnson : since I fell for you -- Charlie Rich : before the fox was silver -- Betty Johnson : no more singing for her supper -- Rosco Gordon : just a little bit -- Ella Mae Morse : so much, so soon -- Part II. One-hit wonders, wannabees, and supporting characters -- Chuck Miller : fryers, broilers, and the house of blue lights -- Huelyn Duvall : close but no cigar -- Eddy Bell : his alter ego became a star -- Sherry Crane : a parakeet visits 706 Union Avenue -- Ben Hewitt : the best known unknown -- Joey Riesenberg : the scrapyard drummer -- Troy Shondell : the early years of a one-hit wonder -- Carl Mann : that "Mona Lisa" boy -- Part III. Chasing the story -- How Elvis and the Jones Brothers ended up in the Memphis landfill -- Hannah Fay and Jeannie Greene : searching for missing singers -- Allerton and Alton : black, white, and bluegrass -- Donna Dameron loses her gig in an Iowa cornfield -- The Kirby sisters : envy wrapped in red velvet -- "Unchained melody": the pre-Ghost story -- Chuck Berry and other passengers on the hellbound train -- Delia's not gone : the musical legacy of the late Delia Green -- Part IV. Doo wop stories -- A brief introduction to doo wop -- The paragons meet the turbans -- The channels : the closer you look -- God or girlfriend?: the prisonaires create a very confusing love song -- Going steady with the pearls -- The six teens meet the Cleftones -- Part V. The bigger picture -- The first rock 'n' roll record and other creation myths -- Politically incorrect music in the 1950s -- "Sugartime" and other subtle sexual content in '50s music -- Looking under the covers -- The dozen most influential records of the 1950s -- Instrumental hit records : no words were necessary -- Ancestors of the chipmunks -- The Bobbys : an antidote to all that rockin'.