Do you remember “sock hops” — the high school dances following ball games? I vaguely remember, from the two or three dances I dropped in on, seeing a group in the center of the gym bopping like crazy to the music, the beat of the time. Against the walls of the gym were the wallflowers, the shy ones, the wannabe boppers, hanging with other introverts and trying to look as cool as awkward can look cool. Well, I didn’t fit in with the boppers or the wallflowers. I had my own group of one — myself. Dancing was out, socializing was traumatic, and just hanging out was a bore.
However, the music caught me. I had a huge collection of 45 RPM records. Some were country, but many were 50s Rock and Roll. Alone in my room I would go crazy, even sometimes dance to the sounds of Danny and the Juniors, Paula Anka, Chuck Berry, and Billy and Lillie’s La Dee Dah.
After spotting a promo for Alan Freed’s Beat Beat Tour I wanted to go see some of the stars, the people I listened to in my bedroom. I drove 50 miles to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, by myself of course, to be with several thousand others, shoulder-to-shoulder, going crazy with the Big Beat. Seems sort of weird as I ponder being an edger, a non-groupie, and yet at the time immersing myself in a sea of groupies.
68 shows in just 44 days! In 1958 Alan Freed’s Big Beat Tour followed the debut of the Big Beat show on TV in 1957. Freed was a DJ, popularized the term “Rock and Roll”, and became a master promoter of the new sound.
Alan Freed : Rock-n-Roll is a river of music - which has absorbed many streams. Rhythm and Blues. Jazz. Ragtime. Cowboy songs. Country songs. Folk songs. All have contributed greatly to the big beat. Hollywood Walk of Fame
The line up of performers on the tour was amazing — artists like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Danny and the Juniors, The Diamonds, Frankie Lymon, Billy and Lillie, and many others rotated in and out of concerts as the Big Beat toured the East. the Midwest and Canada. In Boston, the crowd turned so rowdy that the authorities turned on the house lights to end the show. After that Rock and Roll was banned in Boston!
The video below of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, an all time favorite of mine and millions, shows the wildness of those West Texas kids! In a plane crash in Iowa on February 3, 1959, Holly, 22, died, along with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson). This tragic event became known as “The Day the Music Died” after singer-songwriter Don Mclean referred to it in his 1971 song American Pie.
I can still see Jerry Lee Lewis going wild on the keyboard and kicking his piano bench off the stage. I was 15 and very impressed with his energy! Later, you may remember, he married a young cousin. His popularity in the U.S. waned, but he was able to keep going with British fans. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". This October 28 will mark one year since Jerry Lee died at age 87.
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, a rock and roll doo-wop group, performed on the Big Beat TV show. The show was cancelled following an episode where Lymon was seen dancing with a white woman. This is in 1957!
The video below shows Lymon performing one of his big hits on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. The faces on the young women tell the story of the times. Frankie got them moving by the end of the song.
I watched American Bandstand about every afternoon. I find myself grooving as I write this piece and listen to Frankie. I think I am an aged closet bee-bopper!
Fun post to write! In preparing the post I learned that Lymon died of heroin OD at 25! Also, a coin flip was made that fateful day of the plane crash. Choice of taking a bus or the plane to next stop.Waylon Jennings was avCricket (didn’t know that) Buddy says to Waylon “ Hope you bus freezes. “ Waylon responded”Hope your plane crashes.” !!!!!!! Jennings was haunted by that til he died in 2002!!!!!
I enjoyed writing the piece. I have a couple tidbits to share with you out of some google searches. Just packing more trivia into my head that will fall away in a day or two.
Your thoughts are delightful.