MoonRiver777, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The challenge of covering early rock artists is that rock LPs of that era were comparatively rare, loaded with filler and not particularly popular with the sock hoppers and malt shoppers. In the period from 1956 and 1963, the only rockers to hit the top of the Billboard LP charts were Elvis (six times) and Ricky Nelson (once).
Eventually, the more popular artists were featured in compilation albums of varying quality. Still, a lot of great early rock came from one, two and even three-hit wonders and to omit those 45s would have left an unacceptably large hole in my coverage of the early years of rock ‘n’ roll.
Fortunately, my father is a borderline hoarder and has a pretty good collection (partially inherited from his older brother) of early rock and proto-soul 45s. You’ll find my coverage of those singles in Dad’s 45’s Part 1 (1955-58) and Dad’s 45’s Part 2 (1959-63).
And here are the early rock albums and compilations I reviewed . . . and had a great time doing so:
Buddy Holly – The Buddy Holly Collection
Chuck Berry – The Great Twenty-Eight
Cliff Richard and The Shadows – Singles and EPs Collection 1958-1962
Dion and The Belmonts – Greatest Hits
Eddie Cochran – The Best Of Eddie Cochran
The Everly Brothers – The Millennium Collection
Fats Domino – The Fats Domino Jukebox
Johnny Burnette and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio – Tear It Up
Little Richard – The Georgia Peach
Roy Orbison – Playlist: The Very Best of Roy Orbison
Sam Cooke – Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964
The Platters – Millenium Collection
