Music Events Of The 1950s

Here's some cool music events from the 1950s

• January 3, 1950  - Sam Phillips launches Sun Recording Studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee.
• Patti Page becomes the first (and only) artist to have a Number One record on the Pop, R&B and Country charts concurrently.
• Sam Cooke replaces R. H. Harris as lead singer of The Soul Stirrers.
• The original version of "Rocket 88" is recorded at Sun Studios by Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm as Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats
• Disc jockey and music promoter Alan Freed broadcasts his first Rhythm and blues radio program from station WJW in Cleveland, Ohio. Freed uses the term "Rock & Roll" to describe R&B, in an effort to introduce the music to a broader white audience.
• March 27, 1952 - Sun Records begins operations
• Bill Haley and His Saddlemen change their image to become Bill Haley & His Comets
• First edition of Bob Horn's Bandstand is broadcast as a local show from station WFIL-TV in Philadelphia, It is later renamed American Bandstand.
• July 18, 1953 - Elvis Presley makes his first recordings.
• "Crazy Man, Crazy", recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets, becomes the first rock and roll single to make the Billboard national American musical charts.
• February 1, 1954 - Johnny "Guitar" Watson records "Space Guitar" pioneering reverb and feedback techniques on guitar.
• "Rock Around the Clock" is released as the B-side of "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)". The song is only a moderate success until it is featured in the film Blackboard Jungle the following year.
• July 5, 1954 - Elvis Presley has his first commercial recording session at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. He sang That's All Right (Mama) and Blue Moon of Kentucky.
• October 16, 1954 - Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on a radio program in Shreveport, Louisiana called the Louisiana Hayride.
• A cover version of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Bill Haley and His Comets becomes the first internationally popular rock and roll recording.
• Record companies deliver 7 inch 45 rpm record singles to radio stations instead of 78s..
• Les Paul commissions Ampex to build the first eight track tape recorder, at his own expense.
• The Isley Brothers make their first recordings, featuring only the three eldest brothers, O'Kelly Jr., Rudolph and Ronald.
• The Newport Jazz Festival is established.
• January 14, 1955 - In New York City, Alan Freed produces the first rock and roll concert.
• February 26 - For the first time since their introduction in 1949, 45 rpm discs begin to outsell standard 78s
• Colonel Tom Parker becomes Elvis Presley's manager
• May 21, 1954 - Chuck Berry records his first single, "Maybelline" for Chess Records in Chicago.
• July 9 - "Rock Around the Clock" becomes the first Rock & Roll single to reach Number One on the American charts.
• Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" with significantly cleaned up lyrics (originally "Tutti Frutti, good booty").
• October 15, 1954 - Elvis Presley plays a concert in Lubbock, Texas. Opening act is local duo Buddy and Bob. Buddy is future rock star Buddy Holly.
• Bo Diddley makes his debut TV appearance on Ed Sullivan's "Toast Of The Town" show on CBS.
• November 22 - Colonel Tom Parker signs Elvis Presley to RCA Records.
• December 15 - Sun Records releases "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash
• January 26, 1956 - Buddy Holly's first recording sessions for Decca Records take place in Nashville, Tennessee
• Roy Orbison signs with Sun Records
• Elvis Presley's single "Heartbreak Hotel" / "I Was the One" is released. It goes on to be Elvis's first #1 hit.
• January 28 - Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show.
• Carl Perkins' single "Blue Suede Shoes" enters the R&B charts, the first time a country music artist has made it on the R&B charts.
• March 22 - Carl Perkins is injured in a car accident near Wilmington, Delaware, on his way to New York City to make an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. He spends several months in hospital.
• The first regularly scheduled nationally broadcast rock & roll show, Rock 'n Roll Dance Party, with Alan Freed as host, premières on the CBS Radio Network.
• Elvis makes his first appearance on The Milton Berle Show.
• Paramount Pictures signs Elvis Presley to a three-picture deal.
• Gene Autry's Melody Ranch, a CBS Radio Sunday evening program on the air since 1940 (except for a hiatus from 1942–45), ends its run.
• May 2, 1956 - For the first time in Billboard magazine history, five singles appear in both the pop and R&B Top Ten charts. They are Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" (#1 pop, #6 R&B), Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" (#4 pop, #3 R&B), Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" (#9 pop, #1 R&B), The Platters' "Magic Touch" (#10 pop, #7 R&B) and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers' "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (#7 pop, #4 R&B). Presley's and Perkins' singles also appeared on the country and western Top Ten chart at #1 and #2 respectively.
• Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.
• Dick Clark hosts American Bandstand for the first time.
• September 9, 1956 - Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• The Nat King Cole Show was first broadcast.
•  December 4, 1956  - Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash record together at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The sessions are later released under the name, the "Million Dollar Quartet"
• February 8, 1957 - Bo Diddley records his songs "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Mona" (aka "I Need You Baby").
• Elvis Presley purchases a mansion in Memphis, Tennessee and calls it Graceland.
• John Lennon and Paul McCartney first meet at St. Peter's Church garden fete in Liverpool, England.
• March 24, 1958 - Elvis Presley enters the U.S. Army.
• April 14 - Gladys Presley, Elvis´ mother dies.
• RCA introduces its first stereo LPs.
• January 12, 1959 - Tamla Records is founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit, Michigan.
• Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper are killed in a plane crash in Iowa. This date becomes known as "The Day the Music Died". Future country star Waylon Jennings was scheduled to be on the plane, but instead gave his seat up to The Big Bopper.
• New Orleans blues and R&B guitarist Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones dies of pneumonia in New York City.
• The first of two recording sessions for the extremely influential Miles Davis album Kind of Blue takes place.
• Rich Hynes is born while is family lives in a two room country shack outside of Nashville, Indiana.
• Bill Haley & His Comets end their groundbreaking association with Decca Records, for whom they had recorded since 1954. Their first recording for the label, "Rock Around the Clock", helped usher in the rock and roll era. Haley signs with Warner Bros. Records.
• The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences sponsors the first Grammy Award ceremony for music recorded in 1958.
• Roy Orbison signs with Monument Records.
• The Supremes are founded as a quartet ("The Primettes").
• Jimi Hendrix buys his first electric guitar: a White Single pickup Supro Ozark 1560 S.