Gene Vincent

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  • Year:
    1998
  • Inducted by:
    John Fogerty
  • Category:
    Performers
Gene Vincent

Introduction

The rockabilly rebel encapsulated his era with the hit song “Be-Bop-A-Lula.”

Decked out in leather, roughed up by circumstance, Gene Vincent was an unsinkable, unruly, unrestrained rockabilly maverick.

Hall of Fame Essay

1998

Robert K. Oermann

The producer was afraid he’d lose his job. The studio was barely solvent. The engineer wrestled through twelve takes trying to get something usable. The record label didn’t really believe in the song, the artist or even in rock & roll. Out of such gloom came the bubbling magic of “Be-Bop-a-Lula,” and a career that was born under a bad sign.

Harold and Owen Bradley had constructed their Nashville studio a lit­tle over a year before Gene Vincent arrived on May 4, 1956. It had been built as a country-music recording base for Decca Records, but times were tough and the brothers were renting it out to anyone who wanted to use it. 

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program Cover 1998
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Gene Vincent_quote
I do believe that this record is probably one of the greatest records ever made.
John Fogerty