In the mid-1950s, everyone in the music business was looking for the next Elvis. Enter Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps and their massive hit, the insinuating, catchy “Be-Bop-A-Lula.” One of the first self-contained rock & roll bands, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps would relentlessly tour America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, introducing countless audiences to the untamed exuberance of rockabilly.

Fresh out of the navy in the spring of 1956, Vincent was spending time at the Norfolk, Virginia, radio station WCMS, singing a ditty he had written—or bought, depending on which story you believe—called “Be-Bop-A-Lula.