How do you think that you are qualified to argue this point with me when you have no idea what was happening in music before Elvis hit?

Rock and roll did not dominate the charts in Presley's day the way it did after the Beatles hit.

There were still loads of traditional pop and adult type records that were big on the charts in the 50s.

April 7, 1958, the top ten was not exactly loaded with rock and roll, here's the WMGM survey from that week.

TW LW WOC
1 1 TEQUILA - The Champs (Challenge) 9
2 5 TWILIGHT TIME - The Platters (Mercury) 3
3 3 FOR YOUR LOVE - Ed Townsend (Capitol) 4
4 2 LOLLIPOP - The Chordettes (Cadence) 7
5 11 HE’S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD (In His Hands) - Laurie London
(Capitol) 3
6 21 WITCH DOCTOR - David Seville (Liberty) 2
7 4 WHO’S SORRY NOW - Connie Francis (M-G-M) 10
8 7 BILLY - Kathy Linden (Felsted) 6
9 15 BOOK OF LOVE - The Monotones (Argo) 3
10 6 LAZY MARY (Luna Mezzo Mare) - Lou Monte (RCA Victor) 9

And here's one from 1959:

TW LW WOC
1 1 MACK THE KNIFE - Bobby Darin (Atco) 12
2 2 DECK OF CARDS - Wink Martindale (Dot) 9
3 3 MR. BLUE - The Fleetwoods (Dolton) 8
4 5 DON’T YOU KNOW - Della Reese (RCA Victor) 10
5 6 PRIMROSE LANE - Jerry Wallace with The Jewels (Challenge) 8
6 7 (Seven Little Girls) SITTING IN THE BACK SEAT - Paul Evans
(Guaranteed) 9
7 4 PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER - Paul Anka (ABC-Paramount) 10
8 11 MARINA - Willy Alberti (London) 3
9 8 (If You Cry) TRUE LOVE, TRUE LOVE - The Drifters (Atlantic) 5
10 15 BELIEVE ME - The Royal Teens (Capitol) 6

Where's all the amazing rock and roll that Presley supposedly ushered in as the dominant music form of the day?

Here's the top ten records in NYC just before "Heartbreak Hotel" entered the charts.

WMGM Top 10 Survey

For the Week of February 26, 1956


TW LW
1 ?? ROCK AND ROLL WALTZ - Kay Starr (RCA Victor)
2 ?? LISBON ANTIGUA - Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra (Capitol)
3 ?? NO, NOT MUCH - The Four Lads (Columbia)
4 ?? THE POOR PEOPLE OF PARIS - Les Baxter & His Orchestra (Capitol)
5 ?? SEE YOU LATER, ALLIGATOR - Bill Haley & His Comets (Decca)
6 ?? MORITAT (A Theme From “The Three Penny Opera”) - The Dick Hyman
Trio (M-G-M)
7 ?? THE GREAT PRETENDER - The Platters (Mercury)
8 ?? WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE - The Teenagers featuring Frankie
Lymon (Gee)
9 ?? BAND OF GOLD - Don Cherry (Columbia)
10 ?? MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS - Dean Martin (Capitol)


As you can see there are already three rock and roll songs (5, 7 & 8) among the 10 biggest records BEFORE anybody in NYC ever heard of Elvis.

Rock and roll was huge among teenagers in NYC and many other areas already before they ever heard of Elvis.

Once Freed got there in the fall of 1954 every teenager in the tri-state area was into rock and roll. Elvis was a late arriaval. Pop stars like Kay Starr were already exploiting rock and roll's popularity before Elvis ever made the pop charts.

I find it extremely fishy that you're narrowing your focus to only NYC to make this point. Extremely fishy, indeed.

Elvis was bucking the current trend. He was at the vanguard. That's much more difficult to do than what the Beatles did. All they had to do was slightly revive an already massively popular form of music. Cripes, how can you not see the difference?



And not in the ensuing decades? Barbara Streisand has had 22 Top Ten Albums and 7 #1 albums from 1963 to 2009.



I don't like this idea that the chart ends at #10, but I looked at your lists of the 120 greatest songs of all pop genres for those years and both are absolutely jam-packed with Rock 'n' Roll, so who exactly do you think you're kidding?

I suspect that you're right that the Everly Brothers beat Holly comfortably in musical impact.

Nothing fishy about it, it's just that I have quick access to those NYC station surveys. You'll find the same story in LA, Chicago, Memphis, Boston, Philly, etc...

The facts are that rock and roll was huge already before Elvis ever signed with RCA.

That's why I have secondary influence, which is not for innovation, but for the widespread expansion of something that was already in existance. The Beatles do get credit for that, but they are not alone in that regard, as you point out. So since album sales in rock were on the increase already, as was album experimentation in terms of artists being much more cognizant of the material they were including on albums and trying to ensure it was of a similar nature and a high level across the board, this was already the growing trend when they came along. They added to that with their releases, but the perception of them being the catalyst in this does not meet reality enough to make it defensible to grant them more credit than they deserve.

Here's a story from the Jan 22 1955 issue of Billboard about Freed's rock and roll show doing $24,000 in receipts. This is over a year before Elvis ever broke out on the national charts.

http://books.google.com/books?id=3h0EAA ... ig&f=false

My lists are purposely slanted toward rock and roll with some "related genres" included. In reality there were tons of non rock and roll hits in those years.

Bruce, if you had to pick one artist most responsible for Rock 'n' Roll becoming the dominant form of popular music, who would that artist be?

We know Rock 'n' Roll (Rhythm and Blues) was already huge in the black community, Bruce. Elvis is the artist most responsible for it breaking through to all communities.

Perhaps you ought to mention on those lists that you've taken a deliberately distorted view in compiling them.