Bill Haley is the neglected hero of early rock & roll. Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly are ensconced in the heavens, transformed into veritable constellations in the rock music firmament, their music respected by writers and scholars as well as the record-buying public, virtually every note of music they ever recorded theoretically eligible for... [+] Read More

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Boyd Bennett's music fell into the cracks between country and the early days of rock & roll. Boyd never received much recognition from country circles while he was performing, possibly because his music sounded more like the emerging rockabilly than hardcore honky tonk.

Bennett was raised outside of Nashville, performing as a drummer... [+] Read More

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Buddy Holly is perhaps the most anomalous legend of '50s rock & roll -- he had his share of hits, and he achieved major rock & roll stardom, but his importance transcends any sales figures or even the particulars of any one song (or group of songs) that he wrote or recorded. Holly was unique, his legendary status and his impact on popular music... [+] Read More

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Buddy Knox was the first artist of the rock & roll era to write and record his own number one hit, 1957's million-selling classic "Party Doll" -- a pioneer of the Lone Star State rockabilly sound that would later earn the name "Tex-Mex," the arc of his career anticipated that of fellow Texan Buddy Holly, yet while Holly is now enshrined in the... [+] Read More

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Somehow, time has not accorded Eddie Cochran quite the same respect as other early rockabilly pioneers like Buddy Holly, or even Ricky Nelson or Gene Vincent. This is partially attributable to his very brief lifespan as a star: he only had a couple of big hits before dying in a car crash during a British tour in 1960. He was in the same league... [+] Read More

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Although he is better-remembered for his historical songs, Johnny Horton was one of the best and most popular honky tonk singers of the late '50s. Horton managed to infuse honky tonk with an urgent rockabilly underpinning. His career may have been cut short by a fatal car crash in 1960, but his music reverberated throughout the next three... [+] Read More

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One of the first white rock & rollers to record for a major label (Columbia), Sid King (born Sid Erwin) was also one of the first young Southern musicians to go from Western swing to rockabilly in the mid-'50s. Erwin grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He sang and played guitar at school, and while still in his mid-teens he began appearing on... [+] Read More

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Sonny Burgess is one of the wildest rockers to record for the legendary Sun label in Memphis. He and his band the Pacers came out of Newport, Arkansas, with a hard-rocking style that, unlike that of most rockabillies, owed little to nothing in the way of a stylistic debt to country music. With his red-dyed hair, matching stage suit and guitar,... [+] Read More

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Of the assorted Texas rockabillies who plied their wares in Norman Petty's Clovis, NM, studio, the least heralded is Terry Noland. Much of this has to do with Noland jumping ship early in the ball game from Petty's direction to head to New York City with teen stardom waiting in the wings. He cut sides there with Tonight Show musical director... [+] Read More

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By the time Lawrence (b. 1944) and Lawrencine Collins (b. 1942) were 11 and 13, respectively, they were already tearing it up on country package shows, recording for Columbia Records, and performing on national TV almost weekly. Older sister Lorrie held up the cowgirl fringe-rustling-against-nylons teenage sensuality department; kid brother... [+] Read More

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