1950s – Greatest Recording Artists

Music Lovers Special

December 8th, 2025

Music Lovers Special

With the holiday season here, I hope you will consider gifting my book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS, to the music lovers in your life. MUSIC TITANS ranks and profiles the most consequential recording artists of the past century using a clearly explained algorithm based on popularity (records sold, concert attraction, longevity), musical and cultural influence, and major awards won. You will find artists of all genres included – from Rock to Country, Jazz to Pop, R&B to Hip-Hop, Blues to Folk, Classical to Electronica, and more.

MUSIC TITANS has been lauded by music industry insiders – music publisher Peter Burke called it “an absolute masterpiece!”; Grammy winning producer Jeffrey Weber wrote, “I love this Book!”; while producer Bill Bentley said, “Steve Williams…comes through with flying colors.” Reviewers have used words like “comprehensive,” “accessible,” “insightful,” “immersive,” “entertaining,” “perceptive,” and “fun” in describing it.

MUSIC TITANS is available (and at discount prices) at Amazon, BookBaby Bookshop (my publisher), and at several other online sites. Thank you! – Steve

Classic LP of the 1950s

June 29th, 2023

The single disc vinyl LP, or long playing album, was introduced in 1948 by Columbia, though albums as a collection of 78s bound together in a single package had been around for several decades. By the end of the ’50s, the 45 single was king, but 33 1/3 LPs were beginning to come into their own as well.

Elvis was the dominant artist in 1950’s album sales as he was in singles, but his two biggest sellers were a Christmas album and a greatest hits package. Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours from 1955 gets a lot of love as does his follow-up, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! However, there seems to be little real debate that The classic LP of the ’50s was Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. One of the best-selling jazz albums of all-time with sales of over five million, the LP features six brilliant musicians, arguably at their peak- Davis, the intense, restless bandleader, composer of the five tracks, and a master of the smooth, subdued yet smoky trumpet; John Coltrane, widely considered the greatest tenor saxophonist who became a legend in his own right; the joyful Cannonball Adderley, on alto sax; the esteemed but tragic Paul Chambers plays bass; Jimmy Cobb, who only passed away in 2020, is on drums; and Bill Evans, who didn’t stay long with Davis and may have written the lovely, achingly sad “Blue in Green” is one of the stars on piano, though Davis’ regular pianist, Wynton Kelley, replaces Evans on the “happy” blues number “Freddy Freeloader”.

Considered a masterpiece of modal jazz, the improvisation is built around scales rather than chords and allows the players a tremendous amount of freedom. Kind of Blue is all instrumental; it’s moody yet accessible (even for people who “don’t like jazz”); it bores into the subconscious and stays there. I would also use words like haunting, familiar, lovely, contemplative, a wee bit melancholic, melodic, classical, yet wholly vibrant and new. “So What”, the nine minute opener, and “All Blues” are probably the best known pieces.

Sixty-four years on, it is widely hailed as not only the finest jazz album ever, but one of the greatest of any genre. Kind of Blue was among the first LPs chosen for inclusion in the National Recording Registry. Music critic Stephen Erlewine put it this way, “it’s an album that towers above its peers.”

Steve Williams (6/29/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #23

1950s – 5 Classic Records

June 26th, 2023

Any honest cataloguing of the most iconic records of the 1950s has to be heavy on rock & roll. Certainly you can make a case for “Cold Cold Heart” (1951) and “Your Cheatin’ Heart” (1953) by country legend Hank Williams, but I’ve got to begin with “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets, the 1954 rockabilly single that more than any other number kick-started the rock & roll era when it was inserted into the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all-time in the process.

Little Richard’s 1955 breakout classic, “Tutti Frutti”, with its epochal a cappella opening, “A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a lop-bam-bam” and driving, seminal rock & roll rhythm transfixed the young Robert Zimmerman (later Bob Dylan), David Jones (aka David Bowie), and millions of other listeners. Mojo magazine called it the Number 1 record that changed the world, while the Library of Congress includes it on its National Recording Registry.

Elvis Presley so dominated the ’50s record charts that it almost seems unfair to pick just one of his songs as a strong case can be made for “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Jailhouse Rock”, but I’ve gotta go with “Hound Dog”, his 1956 smash that spent 11 weeks atop the pop chart, was his all-time best-seller, topped as well the R&B and country charts, and stirred up the initial blowback that Elvis just might be a menace to society. Before Elvis made the song his own, three years earlier it had been a huge blues hit for Big Mama Thornton.

Like Presley, Chuck Berry could be represented by several classics, but “Johnny B. Goode” is widely recognized as one of the defining songs of the rock & roll era. With his usual storytelling prowess, Berry captures the dream of a poor country boy to one day be a renowned guitar master. The song was chosen in 1977 to go into space as part of the Voyager Golden Record that contains “sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on earth.”

The fifth selection takes us outside the field of rock & roll to an immortal piece of swinging pop, Bobby Darin’s unforgettable 1959 version of “Mack the Knife”. Originally a German murder ballad from 1928’s The Threepenny Opera, “Mack the Knife” tells the sordid tale of a murderous thief. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong both did English versions of it, but Darin’s arresting take has become definitive, winning the coveted Grammy Record of the Year and a place on the National Recording Registry.

-Steve Williams (6/26/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #22

Ray Charles (1930 – 2004)

June 22nd, 2023

Imagine that you are black and poor, growing up in the segregated south of Georgia and Florida; by the age of 7 you lose your sight, and both your parents by the time you are 14. Your saving grace was learning braille and piano at the school for the deaf and blind your mom had fought for you to attend. With her passing you take to the road as an itinerant musician, hungry and barely scraping by, dropping your last name, Robinson, just calling yourself Ray Charles.

Through sheer tenacity coupled with genuine talent, you are soon networking with other musicians, including a teenage Quincy Jones, writing, arranging, singing an eclectic mix of blues, jazz, gospel, and pop. As you begin to find success in the 1950s with such hits as “I Got a Woman” and “What’d I Say”; the music is termed rhythm and blues (R&B) or soul.

One of the biggest surprises of Ray’s career was his turn in the early ’60s toward country music. While his signature tune, “Georgia on My Mind” straddles several genres, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “You Don’t Know Me” are unabashedly country and went a long way in breaking down more of the barriers that separated so called black and white music.

Sinatra reputedly called him a “genius” and the nickname stuck; Charles himself said, “I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.” And he was. One of the great vocalists with his ancient sounding mix of crying, wailing, hollering, and soulful emoting, Ray has been extolled by the likes of Greg Allman, Aretha Franklin, and Billy Joel.

-Steve Williams (6/22/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #21

Johnny Cash (1932 – 2003)

June 19th, 2023

He had success with strange and unexpected numbers- “A Boy Named Sue”; “The Ballad of Ira Hayes”; “Hurt”, his cover of a Nine Inch Nails song. Ever the iconoclast, when country star Johnny Cash had his hit ABC television show out of Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium from 1969 to 1971, he delighted in featuring such non-country artists as Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Louis Armstrong, and his friend Bob Dylan. When then President Nixon asked him to sing “Welfare Cadillac” at the White House, Cash instead opted for “What Is Truth” and “Man In Black”.

Recording first in Memphis with Sam Phillips of Elvis fame, his breakthrough hit in 1956 was the simple, chugging “I Walk the Line”, his pledge of fidelity to first wife Vivian. Other iconic recordings include two career defining LPs, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and Johnny Cash at San Quentin, along with the singles, the mariachi flavored “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues”. Indeed, Cash cultivated an outlaw image for much of his career and was greatly moved by his interaction and acceptance by inmates, though he, personally, spent little time in jail, just a few overnighters, mostly for drug related offenses.

Cash was instrumental in helping the careers of Merle Haggard who was an inmate when Johnny played San Quentin and Kris Kristofferson who once landed a helicopter on Cash’s property to get his attention. As Kris said of Cash, the former sharecroppers’ son, “He went from being this guy who was as wild as Hank Williams to being almost as respected as one of the fathers of our country.”

-Steve Williams (6/19/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #20

Elvis Presley (1935 – 1977)

June 15th, 2023

Born poor in the segregated deep South, Elvis Presley, as a child, was drawn to the gospel music he heard in church. Even after attaining worldwide fame as the face and voice of rock & roll, Elvis never forgot his gospel roots and often turned to the music for hope and consolation.

Having sung in a talent contest while still in high school (some reports say he won; others say he came in second), it did wonders for his confidence and set him on a career path. In Memphis, Sam Phillips owned a small local studio, Sun Records, and dreamed of finding a white singer who could sing black music. Elvis and Sam found each other. Elvis’ first single, “That’s All Right” failed to chart, but it got him noticed. The following year a middle-aged hustler, Colonel Tom Parker, found his way into Presley’s circle and negotiated a deal with RCA Victor to buy out Elvis’s contract. The ex-carnival barker would, in time, become Presley’s all-controlling manager.

In the second half of the ’50s and early ’60s Elvis dominated the charts with such iconic hits as “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Hound Dog”, “Love Me Tender”, “Jailhouse Rock”, and “It’s Now or Never”. Sometimes lost amidst all the hubbub of swiveling hips, the new race-mixing music termed rock & roll, and the astounding number of records sold is the fact that Elvis was a hell of a singer, blessed with a high, strong baritone, sometimes tenor, voice and was deeply expressive whether singing raucous R&B (“That’s All Right”), pop ballads (“Are You Lonesome Tonight?”), or gospel (“How great Thou Art”).

That he ended his days a bloated, drug addled, paranoid, sloppy caricature of the brilliant performer he once was is a tragedy. Strangely, though, he’s never been allowed to die. Graceland, his home, is still one of the most visited places in the country; according to the Guinness people there are literally hundreds of thousands of “Elvis Tribute Artists” all around the world; and the music is still being played- why I just heard “Suspicious Minds” last week.

-Steve Williams (6/15/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #19

Chuck Berry (1926 – 2017)

June 12th, 2023

John Lennon once quipped, “If you were to give rock & roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.” Popular in the late ’50s and early ’60s with a string of classics recorded for Chess Records, Berry, sometimes called the “Father of Rock & Roll”, only saw his reputation as an innovator and showman grow with each passing year. Starting with the blues, in time he put together propulsive early R&B with country & western, marrying his slick, distinctive guitar riffs to sharp, humorous, storytelling lyrics, and crafting a winning stage presence featuring his famous “duck walk”. He made himself an immortal with such timeless and witty hits as “Maybellene”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, “School Days”, “Rock and Roll Music”, and “Johnny B. Goode”, all in a three-year stretch (1955-1958), cleverly commenting on such concerns as troubling relationships, souped up cars, boredom in school, and the emerging new music. A prison stint from ’62 to ’63 interrupted his career (indeed, Berry had a number of scrapes with the law), but he was back with several more hits after his release.

The Beach Boys, The Beatles, the Stones, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, and a host of other artists have acknowledged their debt to Berry. He is an inductee in the Rock & Roll and Songwriters halls of fame; he won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, and earned the coveted Kennedy Center honors.

-Steve Williams (6/12/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #18

Little Richard (1932 – 2020)

June 8th, 2023

Born and raised in Macon, Georgia, later home to such musical giants as Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers, Richard Penniman sang from a early age in church, but was kicked out of his home as a young teen by his father for “being gay”, as Richard told it.

Inspired by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ike Turner, and a host of other R&B artists, he toiled in musical obscurity in the early ’50s before a racy tune about “good booty” broke through in 1955. With cleaned up lyrics and Little Richard’s insistent, singing-shouting style, “Tutti Frutti” became one of the early hits of the rock & roll era. With his trademark falsetto “woooo” and his piano pounding triplets, Richard said it was “just rhythm and blues played fast.” More hits followed- “Long Tall Sally”, “Rip It Up”, “Lucille”, “Good Golly, Miss Molly”. He was a sensation, appealing to black and white audiences, outrageous in his high pompadour, makeup, and flamboyant costumes.

And then he quit, turning his back on pop music to go into ministry, even cutting a series of superb gospel records (e.g., “Do Lord Remember Me”). In a few years he was back to rock & roll, but he struggled for much of his life to reconcile the two worlds- the excessive, “sex, drugs and rock & roll” lifestyle of a pop musician and the engaged Christian gospel path of a minister and true spiritual seeker.

On a personal note, I was present in August 1969 at the Woodstock forerunner, The Atlantic City Pop Festival, when Richard had the dubious task of closing the 3-day affair, following Santana, Joe Cocker, and Janis Joplin. He was simply magnificent. All the greats, from Elvis to James Brown, from The Beatles to Bob Dylan, have acknowledged their gratitude and debt to Little Richard.

-Steve Williams (6/8/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #17

Music of the 1950s

June 5th, 2023

At the start of the 1950s, most records rotated at 78 rpm; they were either 10″ (holding about 3 minutes of music per side) or 12″ (about 5 minutes of music); they were brittle and generally coated in shellac. By the decade’s end, 78s had fallen out of favor, replaced by so-called 45s, or singles, and albums, Long Playing records (LPs) which rotated at 33 1/3 rpm.

The light vocal pop which dominated the airwaves and charts the latter half of the ’40s continued into the early ’50s with artists such as Patti Page, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and Perry Como particularly prevalent; but, as always, a new style of “outsider” music was brewing which drew from blues, jazz, gospel, country, folk, and, especially, R&B sources. Sailors had once used the term rock ‘n’ roll (or rock & roll) in describing how a sailing ship moves at sea, but by the 1920s blues artists had picked up the term as a sexual metaphor. When white Cleveland deejay Alan Freed began using rock & roll to refer to the mostly new, black music he was playing in the early to mid-’50s to his racially mixed audience, the music and the term began to catch on.

There is some debate about what was the first true rock & roll record with many arguing for Ike Turner’s and Jackie Brenston’s 1951 recording of “Rocket 88”; but there is little doubt that “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets was the powerful popular breakthrough in 1955 that opened the floodgates for the likes of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley.

-Steve Williams (6/5/23) – Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #16

Category: 1950s

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: