|
Sun recording artists Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash - dubbed the Million Dollar Quartet - at an impromptu jam session, Memphis, 1956.

Country and rock have always been uneasy bedfellows, ever since Elvis Presley appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and offended country purists with his amalgamation of hillbilly music and R & B. To those outside the Southern States, country was redneck music and stood for political conservatism, while the country industry saw rock and rollers as decadent, longhaired beatniks, who threatened everything that was decent.

Nevertheless, country music was always a part of rock and roll. Elvis’s first batch of singles for the Sun label mixed up blues and country songs in equal measure – That’s All Right Mama, Blue Moon Of Kentucky, Milkcow Blues Boogie, Baby Let’s Play House, Mystery Train - listen to these vital Sun recordings and remind yourself how ‘country’ the first rock and roll songs were.

Elvis Presley, That’s All Right (Mama), recorded July 5, 1954

In the early days, Presley was marketed as a country singer. He played country festivals and performed on country shows, like the Grand Ole Opry, The Midnight Jamboree and The Louisiana Hayride, and in 1955 he received the award for most promising new artist from the Country Music Disc Jockey’s Convention.

Sam Phillips was the man who discovered Presley, and subsequently his Sun record label in Memphis became the incubator for a whole range of rockabilly artists. Carl Perkins got the first major crossover hit of the rock era, with his own song Blue Suede Shoes, which stormed up the R & B, Pop and Country charts. He followed up with a slew of rockabilly classics, such as Honey Don’t, Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby, Matchbox and Lend Me Your Comb.

Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes, 1956

Jerry Lee Lewis, the fiery piano player on Perkins’s Matchbox, went on to release other rockabilly classics like Whole Lotta Shaking Going On, Great Balls Of Fire, Breathless and Real Wild Child. Others, like Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash, presented their own unique blend of pop, country and rockabilly music.

More crossover artists followed. Chuck Berry’s debut single, the nationwide hit Maybellene, was, as he explains in his book Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, “my effort to sing country-western, which I had always liked.” The Everly Brothers were more pop orientated, with sweet harmonies and a Nashville sound, while Eddie Cochrane, Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly all started out as country singers before the revolution inspired by Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins pushed them towards rock and roll.

Chuck Berry, Maybellene, Released July 1955

Recommended recordings

• Elvis Presley, Sunrise - a 2-disc showcase of Elvis’s recordings from the Sun years. The seeds of rock and roll.
• Carl Perkins, The Essential Sun Collection - a comprehensive account of Perkins’s recordings on the Sun label.
• Jerry Lee Lewis, The Essential Sun Collection - outstanding compilation of Lewis’s classic recordings of the ’50s.
• Chuck Berry, Anthology - 2-CD retrospective and definitive Chuck Berry collection.
• The Everly Brothers, The Definitive Pop Collection - a document of the Everly Brothers’ country pop sound.
• Buddy Holly, From the Original Master Tapes - wonderful re-mastering of Buddy’s best early material.
• Johnny Cash, The Complete Sun Recordings, 1955-58 - definitive document of Cash’s early country/rockabilly sound.

Further Reading

• The Complete Guide to Country Rock Part 2: the Beatles to Buffalo Springfield
  
• The Complete Guide to Country Rock Part 3: Bob Dylan, the Band and the Byrds
• The Complete Guide to Country Rock Part 4: Gram Parsons, the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Grateful Dead
• The Complete Guide to Country Rock Part 5: Poco, the Eagles and the West Coast Sound
• The Complete Guide to Country Rock Part 6: The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Sound of Southern Rock