I have to confess that growing up I only knew the name Brenda Lee from the Golden Earring song Radar Love. I’m not sure I even knew she was a real person. But she was.

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This song has history. In 1955 it gave Johnny Ace his biggest hit single… but only after his unusual death at the age of only 25.

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Huey “Piano” Smith was one of the key figures in the transition from RnB to rock’n’roll in the Fifties. And a legend in his native New Orleans.

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Chuck Norris didn’t do karate but he earned his chops playing session guitar in California in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He also cut a handful of solo singles like this. (more…)

No one played the slide guitar like Elmore James. Well, they did – but he did it first. This was his first recording, and became his signature song. (more…)

Saxman Big John Greer is another of those seminal figures turning jump blues into rock’n’roll in the postwar era. (more…)

Here’s a song by one of rockabilly’s revered elder statesmen that just makes you want to get up and dance, whatever music you like.
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Johnny London made history at the age of 16 when his only recording became the first single to be released on the great Sun Studio label in Memphis. (more…)

Hank Locklin was a huge country star, notching numerous hits with countless smooth songs showcasing his sweet and warm tenor and romantic sentiments. This old-timey number is an exception.

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Johnny Horton walked the line between country music and rockabilly but had his biggest success with a pair of folk-flavoured “saga songs” before dying an early death in a car crash in 1960. (more…)