We tend to think of the 1950s as the decade when rock’n’roll was born. But there’s a whole legion of post-war musicians who lit the spark.

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Rewinding back to 1948 on the early rock’n’roll trail, I discover Detroit sax man Wild Bill Moore.

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Chuck Berry must have been listening when a teenage Goree Carter & His Hepcats released Rock Awhile in 1949.

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Here’s a third nomination for First Rock’n’Roll song – it’s got a backbeat, you can’t lose it, as some other group would one day observe.

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Here is my second contender for the first rock’n’roll song of them all – That’s All Right by Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – from 1946.

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Louis Jordan was already the biggest black music star when he staked his claim for the first rock’n’roll song way back in 1945. (more…)

In the pantheon of soul greats, Major Lance never got the name recognition of Curtis Mayfield, his mentor and collaborator on the Chicago soul scene in the Sixties.

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Another weather-appropriate tune today, to mark the onset of brass monkeys and taters. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the only cover version by New Order.

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As winter draws in, what better to chase away that chilly wind than a sunny slice of reggae from Jamaica. 
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Everyone my age must have grown up with Peter Wyngarde’s two TV shows – Department S and Jason King. Few have heard his only album.

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