Rock N’ Roll

Jerry Lee Lewis. Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash

More than any other performer - save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.

Little Richard

Tutti Frutti

Long Tall Sally

Good Golly Miss Molly

With his smash 1956 hit classic "Blue Suede Shoes," Carl Perkins virtually defined and established rockabilly music in the rock and roll cannon and launched Sun Records into national prominence. Although he placed only one record in the pop top forty "Blue Suede Shoes," Carl Perkins is regarded by many as one of the founding fathers of rock-and-roll.

Carl Perkins

Bill Haley

It was not the first rock and roll record, nor was it the first successful record of the genre (Bill Haley had American chart success with "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, and in 1954, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart). Haley's recording nevertheless became an anthem for rebellious Fifties youth and is widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture in the United States and around the world.

Elvis Presley

Jail House Rock

King Creole