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Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: "Peggy Sue"
On Monday, July 1, 1957, Buddy Holly and the Crickets set up their equipment in Clovis, New Mexico, at the Norman Petty Recording Studio to lay down the songs “Peggy Sue,” “Oh Boy,” “Listen to Me” and “I’m Gonna Love You Too.” During the session, they unwittingly had a special guest – a real cricket had found its way into the echo chamber and ended up on two of the songs, “Listen to Me” and “I’m Gonna Love You Too.” All attempts at trapping the serendipitous cricket had failed, so they kept the tape rolling.
Holly had brought a song called “Cindy Lou” to Clovis to record. This song eventually became the hit “Peggy Sue.” Originally, Holly composed the song using the name “Cindy,” after his sister Pat’s small daughter; and “Lou,” after Pat’s middle name. “Cindy Lou” was already being featured in the Cricket’s stage set, played to a Latin beat. When the Crickets began rehearsal for the songs, drummer J.I. Allison warmed up with a hard, pounding double paradiddle beat with no cymbals on his snare drum. Holly liked the sound and suggested that they use it on “Cindy Lou” and the ...
Rare Performances: Neil Young Live in 1995
On January 12, 1995, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held its 10th annual induction ceremony in New York City. Among the inductees that year, along with Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa and others, was Neil Young, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Pearl Jam lead singer, Eddie Vedder. Young’s performances that night included the epic “Act of Love” from his album Mirror Ball, which would be released in June 1995. After performing “Act of Love” with members of his touring band, Young was joined onstage by Pearl Jam to perform "F*!#in' Up,” from his 1990 album Ragged Glory. It was especially fitting that Young, who has been called “the Godfather of Grunge,” would invite the Seattle band to perform with him at his induction.
Pearl Jam and Neil Young had been collaborating since 1992, when the grunge band and “the Godfather” played separately at a Bob Dylan tribute at Madison Square Garden. Pearl Jam was invited to play at Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit concert in November of that year. Pearl Jam had long been Neil Young fans, frequently using Young’s “Rockin In the Free World” to close ...
Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: "Mr. Tambourine Man"
Folk rock didn't necessarily begin here. Four months before the Byrds recorded "Mr. Tambourine Man," the Animals were topping the pop charts with "The House of the Rising Sun." But this combination of song and performance epitomized the genre, with the happy effect of giving Bob Dylan – as songwriter, at least – a Number One hit, peaking on Billboard's Hot 100 on the week of June 26, 1965. The Byrds' debut gave them a powerful lift-off. The only Byrd playing on it, though, was electric 12-string guitarist Jim (later Roger) McGuinn. Producer Terry Melcher, doubtful of the new band's abilities, hired top session musicians (including Leon Russell) to back up the vocals of McGuinn, David Crosby and Gene Clark. Perhaps Melcher had heard the group's originally private 1964 recording of the tune, which sounds like an arrangement for a music box. The Byrds recorded and released "Mr. Tambourine Man" neck and neck with Dylan's own (album-only) acoustic version. "We didn't really like [the song] or even understand it at the time," bassist Chris Hillman later admitted; their manager had pushed it on them. Drenched in the 12-string jangle of McGuinn's Rickenbacker guitar and ...
Spotlight Exhibit: John Lennon's 1963 Gretsch 6120
After the Beatles achieved success, they could afford the kind of instruments they had only dreamed about as struggling musicians. Although Gretsch guitars were primarily associated with George Harrison, John Lennon acquired this particular guitar in 1966. He used it during the recording of "Paperback Writer" in April of that year.
In this video, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum curatorial director Howard Kramer discusses the guitar and the unique circumstances that brought it to the Rock Hall, where it is on display as part of the Museum's Beatles exhibit.
WATCH: Spotlight Exhibit: John Lennon's 1963 Gretsch 6120
Women Who Rock: 10 Essential Punk Songs
Many women found a new voice and musical identity during the punk-rock explosion of the Seventies. The anti-establishment philosophy of the punk rock movement was the perfect fit for those female musicians who still felt like outsiders in the male-dominated music industry. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth said, “I think women are natural anarchists, because you're always operating in a male framework.” Patti Smith paved the way at legendary punk venue CBGB in New York City with her fusion of experimental poetry and garage rock. British female punk rockers, such as the Slits, Raincoats, Siouxsie and the Banshees and X-Ray Spex responded to working-class discontent and racial division in Britain. Across the Atlantic, in the United States, musicians including Deborah Harry of Blondie, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Poison Ivy of the Cramps added new sounds and ideas to the punk rock formula. “That was the beauty of the punk thing: [sexual] discrimination didn’t exist in that scene,” once noted Chrissie Hynde. Here the Rock Hall presents Women Who Rock: 10 Essential Punk Songs.
1. Patti Smith – "Piss Factory"
Patti Smith was dubbed the "godmother of punk," a moniker with merit. Smith's debut single was ...
Spotlight Exhibit: The Band
Recently, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled a new Spotlight Exhibit devoted to the Band. Located in the Museum’s main gallery, the exhibit features an extremely rare electric guitar/mandolin that was manufactured by Gibson back in 1961. Band guitarist Robbie Robertson played the instrument when the group performed “The Weight” at the Last Waltz. The exhibit also includes a mandolin that was played by Levon Helm, the original handwritten lyric manuscript to “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” the original artwork for the cover of the group’s Cahoots album, Martin Scorsese’s shooting script for The Last Waltz and a jacket that Robertson wore onstage during a 1971 New Year’s Eve concert in New York City. That concert was recorded and released on the album Rock of Ages. Robbie Robertson got to check the exhibit out when he made a visit to the Museum on January 17.
Watch Robertson playing the 1961 Gibson electric guitar/mandolin in The Last Waltz:
Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: "How Soon Is Now?"
The Smiths placed 10 singles in the U.K. Top 20 between 1983 and 1987, yet "How Soon Is Now?" was not among them. Only in the years following the group's breakup did this towering Morrissey-Johnny Marr composition become one of the group's best-loved and most familiar songs. Guitarist Marr kicks it off with shimmering Bo Diddley tremolo chords and builds layer upon layer of echoing six-string sound effects as Morrissey croons his defiance: You shut your mouth/How can you say/I go about things the wrong way/I am human and I need to be loved/Just like everybody else does. Sire Records president Seymour Stein called the nearly seven-minute-long song "the 'Stairway to Heaven' of the Eighties."
Listen to and learn the stories behind the Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's unique app! This app features clips of more than 500 songs, each with cover art, and fascinating artist and recording notes. The searchable list of songs is also divided among decades and artists, so finding and hearing exactly what you want ...
Today in Rock: Billy Gibbons is Born
On December 16, 1949, guitarist Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was born in Texas. Together with bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard, Gibbons launched ZZ Top, as the group shared a passion for such blues masters as 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Freddie King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. From the beginning, they took a hard-rocking power-trio approach to the blues, cultivating a new audience for it in the Seventies and Eighties with superior musicianship as well as attitude, style and some devilishly funny songs. They have written about fast cars, fishnet stockings, sharp clothes, TV dinners, cheap sunglasses and “tush.”
"Rock and roll was certainly considered for so long… the stepchild that didn't have any place to go and yet at the same time it was probably the underlining current carrier that so many people depended on," said Gibbons in a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame interview. Gibbons translated his love of basic blues, boogie, rock and all things Texas-related into the no-frills approach to songwriting that guided ZZ Top's earliest albums, and evolved into a sound that also embraced a union of Texas blues and Memphis soul. T ...
