Timeline of Musical Styles & Guitar History - 1911 to Present

1911

• Fingerprints were admitted as evidence for the first time on March 8th.
• March 25th: 175 Jewish and Italian immigrant women were killed in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York City. They were locked in to prevent them from leaving work early.
• The first traffic lines were painted on a road by hand near Trenton, Michigan.

1912

• On the night of 14 April 1912, during her maiden voyage, The White Star Line passenger ship Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and 40 minutes later. The sinking resulted in the deaths of over 1,500 people, making it one of the most costly (in terms of lives) peacetime maritime disasters in history.
• The Bird of Paradise opened on Broadway in Daly’s Theatre – the beginning of the Hawaiian music craze.
• W.C. Handy writes “Memphis Blues.” It becomes a big hit and begins the publishing of the Blues.
• Classic Blues singer Bessie Smith begins work as a dancer in a vaudeville show.
• Louis Armstrong forms a vocal quartet with some of his boyhood friends in New Orleans.

1913

• According to stride pianist James P. Johnson, Luckey Roberts is the best stride piano player in New York City at this time.
• The stride pianists are still playing Ragtime as the New Orleans players did a generation before. So we will see an interesting evolution in their playing over the next few years that parallels the beginning of Jazz in New Orleans.
• British musician Vic Filmer brings Ragtime to Paris.
• An exhibition of avant-garde post-impressionist works was viewed at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The works included Gauguin, Picasso, Duchamp, and others. The public was generally confused.
• The Panama Canal opened by the final explosion of the Gamboa Dike; triggered by electric button from the White House by President Woodrow Wilson.

1914

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. World War I begins on July 28th.
• Midway Gardens, Chicago IL, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright opens.
• There is a major impetus around this time for the Europeanization of the Blues. Up until now the Blues form varied between 13.5 and 15 bars to suit the lyrics or the mood of the performer. Eventually, a 12 bar form based on the 1-4-5 chord progression (what we know as the Blues today) will become standard. This occurred for three reasons: 1) appealed to whites, 2) solved problems understanding, playing and notating the Blues 3) established harmonies and a form for band members to work with.
• RCA offers to record Freddie Keppard. He turns them down and misses the chance to be the first Jazz performer to record because he is afraid that his style will be copied.
• W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” is the first commercial blues to be published.
• Storyville was shut down during World War I, sending the Jazz musicians up the Mississippi River in search of employment. This spread Jazz beyond New Orleans and ultimately to Chicago and New York.
• The first traffic light in the nation was installed in Cleveland Ohio on August 5th.
• Irving Berlin’s 1st musical “Watch Your Step” opened on Broadway.

1915

• The Panama Pacific International Exposition opened in San Francisco bringing the mainland greater exposure to Hawaiian music and culture.
• The ‘Chicago Automatic Machine & Tool Company’ invents the jukebox.
• Epaminondas Strathopoulo takes charge of Epiphone – the House of Strathopoulo.
• Alexander Graham Bell, in New York City, on January 25th, spoke into an exact copy of his 1876 invention, saying to his assistant Dr. Thomas A. Watson: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” In his reply, Watson said that it would take him 4 days by fast train. He was in San Francisco to inaugurate the 1st transcontinental telephone service.

1916

• Louis Armstrong begins playing the bars in Storyville for $1.25 a night.
• Bechet is in Joseph “King” Oliver’s Olympia Band, but will soon leave for Chicago. He will work with Tony Jackson and then Freddie Keppard there.
• Martin uke production takes off as the ukulele boom begins. Martin also begins to design and build for Oliver Ditson Co. of Boston and New York. The first “Dreadnought” is produced and is named in honor of the huge battleships of the day.
• The first classical guitar performance in a Concert Hall. Andres Segovia performs at Ateneo in Madrid. Before this, no one believed that the guitar had enough volume for a concert venue.
• Sears & Roebuck & Co. acquires Harmony musical instruments in an attempt to corner the ukelele market.

1917

• Scott Joplin dies from syphilis related complications in a mental institution in New York City.
• The history of recorded Jazz begins on February 26 when the white band the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (originally, Original Dixieland Jass Band ) records “Livery Stable Blues” at Victor Studios in New York City. The ODJB was from New Orleans and consisted of Nick LaRocca on cornet, Larry Shields on clarinet, Eddie “Daddy” Edwards on trombone, Henry Ragas on piano, and Tony Sbarbaro on drums. Many black bands of the time were probably producing far more authentic and better music. Never the less, the Jazz Age begins. Trumpeter Freddie Keppard had refused the chance to make the first Jazz record because he feared that his style would be copied.
• New Orleans Jazz is a melting pot for the Blues, Ragtime, Marching Band music, etc. It can be thought of as an impressionistic view of these forms, just as Impressionistic painting gives a novel view of what we normally see.

1918

• The so-called “Lost Generation” of white American youths is ripe for a new kind of music.
• On March 18, James Reese Europe’s 369th Infantry Regiment (The Hellfighters) Band begins a six-week tour of twenty-five French cities. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson is the drum major.
• On April 20, James Reese Europe accompanies a French combat unit into battle and becomes the first black to face combat during WWI.
• World War I ends on November 11th.
• On August 21st, at 10:10 am, Orville H. Gibson died of a disease diagnosed as chronic endocarditis.

1919

• Treaty of Versailles signed on June 28th, 1919
• After years of lynching and other mistreatment of blacks by whites, the NAACP promotes the slogan “The new Negro has no fear.” This type of thinking will further the cause of Jazz.
• In this year, 70 blacks are killed by KKK mobs. More than ten of these are soldiers still in uniform.
• James Reese Europe and his band known as the 369th U.S. Infantry “Hell Fighters” Band released recordings within weeks of the men’s return from the war.
• On May 9, in Boston, Europe is confronted in his dressing room by Herbert Wright (one of his men). They have words because Wright thinks that Europe is treating him unfairly. Wright plunges a penknife into Europe’s neck. Europe bleeds to death.
• Innovative guitarist Charlie Christian is born in Dallas, Texas. His father is a blind guitarist. Christian will be influenced by Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, and Django Reinhardt.
• The Original Dixieland Jazz Band visits England and triggers interest in the new music.
• Bandleader Paul Whiteman leaves San Francisco for Atlantic City.

1920

• The “Volstead Act,” the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, passed Congress over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto on October 28th, 1919 and established the legal definition of intoxicating liquor and provided for enforcement of Prohibition. The 18th Amendment was ratified on January 29th, 1919, having been approved by 36 states, and went into effect as Federal law on January 29th, 1920. In many respects, prohibition had the opposite of its intended effect. For example, before prohibition, few, if any women drank in bars. However, women were very likely to drink in speakeasies. Prohibition indirectly helped the cause and image of Jazz.
• The first recorded Blues appears when Mamie Smith records Crazy Blues. This kicks off the Classic Blues craze of the 1920s.
• Over forty prominent New Orleans Jazzmen have moved to Chicago.
• Somebody discovers that the New York brownstone basement (being narrow and running from the main street to back alley) is well suited to use as a speakeasy. In time, the cellars of New York City will become riddled with speakeasies providing numerous opportunities for Jazz musicians.
• The cabaret business begins in New York. This will eventually be the cause of the shift of Jazz from Chicago to New York.
• This year marks the beginning of an age of great interest in black arts and music (Jazz). The young future Bop players are being born. They will be raised in an era that will allow them to rebel. Thus, Bop will begin in about twenty years.
• Paul Whiteman and his Band record the classic “Whispering” in New York City. Whiteman’s band does not play true Jazz but the so-called symphonic Jazz.
• James P. Johnson’s “Worried and Lonesome Blues” and “Carolina Shout” begin to approach Jazz. At any rate, Johnson becomes the pioneer of stride piano with these recordings.
• Django Reinhardt’s mother gives him a banjo, teaches him the rudiments and within weeks, he is playing cafes with his father Jean Vees.
• The Original Dixieland Jazz Band is now playing commercial music such as Fox Trots. They’ve sold out.
• Paul Whiteman controls twenty-eight bands on the east coast. This year, he will gross over $1,000,000 (a tidy sum for producing pseudo-Jazz in the early ’20s).
• The spring-wound talking machine with pre-electrical, no-fidelity sound was established and probably the most popular of the home entertainment devices; the best selling makes were the Victrola and the Graphanola.
• On August 26th the Women’s Suffrage Amendment to the Constitution went into effect.

1921

• Lloyd Loar goes to work for Gibson Musical Instruments. He helps redesign and refine the Gibson carved archtop instruments to help increase lagging sales. His designs have become the standards to which all other carved instruments strive. He developed the F series mandolins and the L series guitars including the Gibson F-5 mandolin and the Gibson L-5 guitar that has become the most sought after collection instruments of the century. Ironically, his work was ahead of its time and was not immediately understood or appreciated. Gibson sales did not immediately rise. It was some years after Lloyd Loar’s short tenure at Gibson before the public saw the benefits and began to support the new designs.

1922

• The words “rock” and “roll”, which were black slang for sexual intercourse, appear on record for the first time, in Trixie Smith’s “My Baby Rocks Me With One Steady Roll.”
• OKeh Records begins using the term Race Music, which soon becomes the standard referent for African American popular music.
• The first Southern radio station to broadcast rural white music is WSB in Atlanta.
• Comedian Ed Wynn is responsible for creating the first studio audience when he refuses to perform without an audience watching.
• In March, the Atlanta Journal opened up WSB in Atlanta, the first radio station in the south. Six months later on September 9th, Fiddlin’ John Carson made his radio debut, one of the first country music performers on the airwaves.
• On May 30th, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington D.C.
• Lloyd Loar began working on experimental electrostatic pickups at Gibson as a means to amplify the guitar and make it louder and more suitable as a competitor to the banjo for rhythm and increase its potential as a solo instrument.

1923

• Sigmund Freud publishes The Ego and the Id (Das Ich und das Es, 1923)
• Early occurrence of the “color barrier” being broken when Jelly Roll Morton sits in with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings.
• Ellington makes his first recording (on a cylinder – acoustic recording still most used). It is a stride piano piece called “Jig Walk.”
• Ma Rainey, “The Mother of the Blues” signed a recording contract with Paramount Records, She had been a featured performer on the T.O.B.A (Theater Owners Booking Association) circuit for almost a quarter-century.
• Bessie Smith was earning upwards of $2,000 per week.
• Harmony became the largest producer of musical instruments in the US with over 250,000 units.

Leadbelly

1924

• Louis Armstrong marries piano player and composer Lil Hardin on February 5. Armstrong joins the Fletcher Henderson band in October at Lil’s insistence. During Armstrong’s year with Henderson, this band will become the most important early big band. This is the band that will be the model for the swing bands of the next decade.
• Kansas City bands are beginning to play a style with a four even beat ground beat (New Orleans Jazz had a distinct two beat ground beat behind a 4/4 melody). This paved the way for more modern forms of Jazz. Charlie Parker as a child growing up in K.C. heard this music. Count Basie is later quoted as saying, “I can’t dig that two-beat jive the New Orleans cats play; cause my boys and I got to have four heavy beats to a bar and no cheating.”
• Django Reinhardt settles upon the guitar as his primary instrument for playing the clubs of Paris.
• Paul Whiteman makes Jazz “respectable” with his February 21 concert at Aeolian Hall in New York City. The first song is an authentic version of ODJB’s “Livery Stable Blues” which is merely meant to show how crude the real thing is, but most fans like it better than the ‘Symphonic Jazz’ which follows.
• Gershwin performs “Rhapsody in Blue.”
• Enrico Caruso is still widely popular.
• Twelve-string guitarist and Folk and Blues singer Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter is released from a Texas Penitentiary where he was serving time for killing a man in a fight.
• Lloyd Loar leaves Gibson Musical Instruments to start his own company.
• Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin, was performed for the 1st time. Gershwin was the piano soloist accompanied by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

1925

• The roots of the Grand Ole Opry began on November 28th, 1925 as The WSM Barn Dance (It had only been five years since the first commercial American radio station). The National Life and Accident Insurance Company in Nashville, Tennessee, installed a radio station on the 5th floor of their downtown Nashville office building.
• Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded over eighty blues tunes between 1925 and 1929 and was generally responsible for the surge of popularity in the country blues in this period. The unexpectedly strong sales of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Paramount 78s sent record scouts scrambling to sign male blues artists. One of their discoveries was Blind Blake, a swinging, sophisticated guitarist whose warm relaxed voice was a far cry from harsh country blues.
• Charlie Poole developed a three-fingered banjo playing technique after a baseball accident injured his right hand. This technique influenced many banjo players and would later be perfected by Earl Scruggs.
• In July, Tennessee legislators made it unlawful to teach anything but creationism. John Scopes, a high school teacher in Dayton, decided to test the law. He was convicted and fined $100.

1926

• Kansas City, Missouri becomes the wildest city in America – a perfect match for Jazz – when Tom “Boss” Pendergast (the Democratic boss of Jackson county) begins his reign over the city.
• On December 9th, the Ben Pollack Band with Benny Goodman on clarinet records “Deed I Do” / “He’s the Last Word” for Victor. It is Benny Goodman’s recording debut. On the same evening, Benny Goodman’s father dies at the corner of Madison and Kostner streets in Chicago after being struck by a speeding auto. He never got to hear Benny’s first recording done that very same day.
• Henry Ford introduced the 8-hour workday and the 5-day workweek. This was in reaction to the depressed auto industry. Other industrialists were afraid of the precedent but the AFL welcomed the move as a means of controlling overproduction and reducing unemployment.

1927

• In October of 1927 the film The Jazz Singer was released, the first full length ‘Talkie’ – motion pictures with sound.
• Charles A. Lindbergh flies a Ryan monoplane – named Spirit of St. Louis – on the first solo transatlantic flight and first non-stop fixed-wing aircraft flight between America and mainland Europe on May 20th – May 21st. The flight was 3,600 nautical miles (6,667 km), from Long Island to Paris, in 33.5 hours. The flight was timed by the Longines watch company.
• Americans will buy more than 100,000,000 phonograph records during this year.
• George Dewey Hay christened the show that would become radio’s longest-running musical program when he announced, “You’ve been up in the clouds with Grand Opera; now get down to earth with us in a shindig of Grand Ole Opry!”
• It seems as if the music of Oliver and Morton will capture the world but Armstrong makes the greatest of the hot fives and sevens. He is now setting whole phrases ahead of or behind the beat, not just pulling single notes. This will set the stage for Swing. Armstrong is now a star and because of him, New Orleans style ensemble playing is disappearing and is being replaced by Chicago and New York-style solos. In short, Jazz is becoming a soloist art primarily because of Armstrong. A few songs of significance include “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue,” “Big Butter and Egg Man,” and “Hotter than That.” In May, Warren “Baby” Dodds on drums and Pete Briggs on tuba are added to hot fives to make hot sevens.
• Bootlegger Joe Helbock (a friend of Jimmy Dorsey) opens a speakeasy called The Onyx on 52nd street. It becomes a musicians’ hangout featuring such attractions as Art Tatum.
• Bing Crosby joins the Paul Whiteman band.
• On February 7th, federal agents raided a dozen of Chicago’s North Side nightclubs. They took the names of everybody that was caught with alcohol. They had already closed a number of the South Side black-and-tans. This was all part of a “get tough on booze” policy of the new Republican mayor William Dever (Big Bill Thompson’s successor). Chicago would soon fall as the Jazz capital.
• The word bop appears in the song “Four or Five Times” by Mckinney’s Cotton Pickers.
• Bing Crosby, an early Jazz fan, visits Harlem to hear Ellington and other authentic Jazz players.
• Ralph Peer recorded Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family in Bristol, Tennessee. Rodgers, known as “The Father of Country Music,” reportedly sold over 20 million records in the six years of his career.
• Blind Willie McTell recorded his first sides for the Victor company in Atlanta.
• Andrés Segovia makes his first recording on 78 rpm disk.
• John Dopyera invented the resonator guitar in an effort to increase the volume of the 6 stringed instruments to better compete with banjos for the rhythm sections of bands. He joined forces with Vaudevillian George Beauchamp to start the National String Instrument Corporation. The partnership only lasted until 1929.
• The first signature series guitar was instigated by the Gibson Company for Nick Lucas – a popular singer and musician of the day. Gibson issued a concert-sized L-1 with extra depth as the ‘Nick Lucas Model’.

1928

• Django Reinhardt is married at eighteen. He lives in a caravan near a cemetery. His wife sells silk flowers to support them. One night, Django is trying to remove a rat and he catches the flowers on fire with a candle. He burns his legs and his left hand badly saving his wife. His left hand never completely healed with two fingers partially paralyzed. He nevertheless became a great guitarist in months. Stephane Grapelli says that the injury probably improved Django’s playing because it slowed him down causing him to be more thoughtful. If you’ve ever listened to the speed of Django, it is hard to imagine him playing faster.
• Walt Disney released the 1st Mickey Mouse silent film Plane Crazy, and later the same year, Steamboat Willy, the first animated cartoon with sound.
• Amelia Earhart took off from Boston with two passengers in her airship ‘Friendship.’
• George Eastman demonstrated the 1st color motion pictures.
• Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) debuted on American soil at the New York City Town Hall. The event was very well received by a public that had not witnessed the broad potential of the classical guitar in the Maestro’s hands. His fiery and romantic performance touched the hearts and imaginations of the public and led to five more sold-out New York City performances and then an equally successful tour of 25 American cities. Hundreds of young musicians were inspired to take up the versatile and expressive instrument.

1929

• The 78 rpm record is introduced.
• Martin introduces the OM sized and scaled flat-top guitar.
• Martin also introduced the first 14 fret neck-body intersection.
• On March 5th, in the early morning, Eddie Condon suggests to Tommy Rockwell (producer of the Hot Fives and Sevens) that he take the opportunity to record Armstrong with some of the superb musicians who have gathered to honor Armstrong. Rockwell is concerned about a mixed group but goes ahead anyway. As a result, Armstrong, Jack Teagarden (trombone), Eddie Lang (guitar), Happy Cauldwell (saxophone), Kaiser Marshall and Joe Sullivan record the classic “Knockin’ a Jug” in the Okeh studios after knockin’ back a bottle of whiskey.
• Duke Ellington appears in a short called Black and Tan. Ellington is portrayed as a handsome, elegant, hard-working composer even though the subject matter is degrading.
• Boogie Woogie piano player Clarence “Pine Top” Smith dies shortly after recording the influential “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie.”
• Trumpeter Jabbo Smith records “Take Me to the River.”
• John Dopyera joined with his brother to form the Dobro brand of resonator guitars.
• On Friday, October 24th (Black Friday), the stock market crashes, the Great Depression begins and for the most part, the big party that was most of the 1920s’ ends.
• Memphis Minnie signed with Columbia records.
• 14 members of Bugs Moran’s North Siders were shot to death on February 14th, in a warehouse on Clarke Street in Chicago on orders from Al Capone. The incident became known as the Valentine’s Day Massacre.

1930

• Louis Armstrong began enunciating no more than one beat per measure. ‘Swing’ takes on a new meaning and is fully underway. Louie recorded big band Swing sides including “St Louis Blues,” “Dallas Blues,” “Confessin,” “If I Could Be With You,” and others. Listen to Columbia CD St Louis Blues – Louis Armstrong – Vol 6, JSP CD Big Band – Vol 1, Classics CD Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra 1929-1930 or Classics CD Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra 1930-1931.
• Ellington records his first big hit in October, a masterpiece of tone color called “Dreamy Blues” (aka “Mood Indigo”).
• Young people begin to revolt against the standard of “niceness.. “Express your true feelings” becomes a catchphrase (much like the ’60s).
• Harmony musical instruments sold over 500,000 units.

1931

• March 3rd: “The Star-Spangled Banner” was formalized as the National Anthem by a Congressional resolution (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover. Before 1931, other popular songs served as American hymns of officialdom: “Hail, Columbia” served at official functions for most of the 1800s. “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” (whose melody is identical to the British National Anthem) also served as a de facto anthem before the adoption of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Although the song has four stanzas, only the first is commonly used today. The fourth stanza, “O! thus be it ever when free men shall stand…” was added for more formal occasions. The fourth stanza also includes the line: “And this be our motto: In God is our Trust”. The United States later adopted “In God We Trust” as its national motto in 1956.
• Adolph Rickenbacher (later spelled Rickenbacker) produces a working prototype of the electric guitar. Rickenbacher, George Beauchamp, Paul Barth and Harry Watson developed the lap-steel guitar with an electromagnetic horseshoe pickup known as the ‘Fry Pan’. The vibration of the strings over a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet created a current that could be electrically amplified.
• Martin starts selling Dreadnaught sized flat-top guitars under its own name. They had been making them for Ditson since 1916.
• The Japanese invaded Manchuria setting one of the stages for World War II.
• On September 17, RCA-Victor Records held a demonstration for the first long-playing record at the Savoy Hotel Plaza Hotel in New York City. The new discs spun at 33-1/3 rpm, as opposed to standard 78 rpm records, and had space for more music. Since record players were exorbitantly expensive, the long-playing record would have to wait nearly 20 years to gain popularity. In 1948, rival record company Columbia Records created their own long-playing records, using RCA’s 33-1/3 rpm speed format. However, RCA countered with a new seven-inch, 45 rpm record in 1949, launching what is known by vinyl collectors as “the speed wars.”
• The first network broadcast of the New York Metropolitan Opera was heard on December 25th. The performance was Hänsel und Gretel. The broadcast series came about in the early years of the Great Depression to help the financially endangered Metropolitan Opera by attempting to enlarge its audience and support through national exposure on network radio.
• The New York Bank of the United States financially collapsed on December 11th, 1931, and The Great Depression begins.

1932

• The earliest examples of guitar amplifiers appeared in the early 1930s with the introduction of electrolytic capacitors and rectifier tubes. These allowed the production of economical built-in power supplies that could be plugged into wall sockets. The design was developed by Western Electric and made available to the public. The earlier vacuum tube amplification designs required heavy multiple battery packs. Electronic amplification of guitar was first widely popularized by the 1930s and 1940s craze for Hawaiian music, to amplify the popular lap steel Hawaiian guitar.
• While still at National Guitar, George Beauchamp worked with Adolph Rickenbacker to develop the Ro-Pat-In Corporation to sell ‘Electro’ Hawaiian guitars.
• Mario Maccaferri (5/1900–4/16/1993): In France, in 1932, amplifiers and instrument pickups were not yet adapted to the performance world. The size of a classical guitar concert was limited to the volume of the acoustic gut-stringed guitar. Working with a full orchestra was out of the question. Luthier & classical guitarist Mario Maccaferri wanted to invent a louder guitar. He designed an acoustic instrument with an internal resonator, steel reinforced neck and cutaway. They featured a distinctive D-shaped sound hole (referred to as Grand Bouche “big mouth’). The design was louder and an early version caught the eye and ear of Django Reinhardt.


1933

• Chicago Worlds Fair – A Century of Progress is held.
• Lonestar / Monogram film Riders Of Destiny, Sandy Sanders starring a young John Wayne was released starting the ‘Singing Cowboy’ genre of films.
• RCA introduced the model 77A cardioid pattern dual ribbon microphone for recording and radio broadcast. The listening public could now hear the nuance of speech and music over the airwaves.
• Homer Capehart sold his Simplex record changer mechanism to the Wurlitzer Company. Wurlitzer used the invention to produce the jukebox. The jukebox changed the face of popular music by making new tunes available to all.
• Johnny Mercer had his first hit, “Lazy Bones.” He published 701 songs, had 90 film credits, starred in six Broadway Musicals, received four Academy Awards from 15 nominations, had 37 Hit Parade songs of which 13 were No.1, and he founded Capitol Records.
• Instrument manufacturer Dobro made a handful of modified resonator Spanish style guitars with electromagnetic horseshoe pickups. These can be argued to be the first manufactured electric Spanish style guitars (with electromagnetic pickups).
• Regular radio broadcasts of complete operas from the New York Metropolitan Opera began March 11th, with the transmission of Tristan und Isolde with Frida Leider and Lauritz Melchior.

1934

• The Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1934-1937) was formed. From 1934 to 1937, the Committee was authorized to investigate Nazi propaganda and certain other propaganda activities.
• Gibson introduces the Super 400 at $400. The biggest archtop to hit the market and the highest price tag at the height of the depression.
• Benny Goodman’s ‘Let’s Dance’ broadcasts first aired in December.
• Folklorist John Lomax discovered and recorded Leadbelly at the Angola Prison Farm in Louisiana.
• Ella Fitzgerald made her singing debut at age 17 on November 21st at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City.

1935

• Epiphone introduced the Emperor Masterbuilt, slightly bigger than the Gibson Super 400. The competition for the biggest and flashiest instruments was on.
• Martin Block, a junior assistant from KFWB Los Angeles, moved to New York and used a recorded music format during breaks in the high profile Bruno-Hauptman trial. The trial was broadcast on network radio and the new format found an eager and appreciative audience. These record jockeys, as they were called, were soon entertaining listeners with discs all over the country.
• Benny Goodman’s Big Band performance at the Palomar in Los Angeles caused a surge of delight in young listeners. The Big Band Era had begun.
• Mahalia Jackson made her first Gospel recordings.
• T-Bone Walker began experimenting with a prototype electric guitar and was one of the first guitarists anywhere to play the instrument in public. The instrument was probably a Rickenbacker Vibrola model. He soon got his hands on a Gibson sunburst ES-250 that he played into the late 1940s.

1936

• Robert Johnson, ‘King of the Delta Blues,’ made his first recordings in San Antonio, Texas.
• Gibson introduced the ES-150. The 150 was basically a modified L-50 archtop fitted with a bar electromagnetic pickup. It was viewed as the first readily available production model electric guitar. The “ES” refers to ‘Electric Spanish’ and is still used as the common Gibson classification today. ‘Spanish’ refers to the upright placement of the instrument on your knee, the way guitars are played today.
• Selmer Guitars replaced the Maccaferri-designed D-Shaped sound hole (“grand bouche”) with an oval shape (“petite bouche”), removed the internal resonator, and increased the frets from 12 to 14. The use of Selmer guitars made it possible for artists like Django Reinhardt to generate the raw power needed to fill venues with rhythmic drive. They had enough cutting power to be heard over the rest of the band: Reinhardt used two rhythm guitar players to support the volume of his own lead guitar playing. Featuring the music of the Great American Songbook, Django helped make the name ‘Selmer’ synonymous with ‘gypsy jazz’.

1937

• In mid-1937, following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan began a full invasion of China. The Soviets quickly lent support to China, effectively ending China’s prior cooperation with Germany.
• Count Basie releases “One O’clock Jump,” a cross of swing and R&B.
• Gibson introduces the Super Jumbo flat-top acoustic guitar. It is seen in the hands of Ray Whitley and Gene Autry on the silver screen.
• Robert Johnson made his second and last recording session in Dallas, Texas.
• Patents were granted to George Beauchamp for the electromagnetic horseshoe pickups, filed originally in 1933 and 1934.
• Woody Guthrie moved to Los Angeles and got a job at KFVD as a radio show host. He used the public platform as a way to have his songs heard and tell stories of what he had seen and experienced through the American mid-west and the Dust Bowl years.

Django Reinhardt in New York, N.Y., 1946.

1938

• The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC or HCUA: 1938-1975) was formed as an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives.
• John Hammond stages the Spirituals To Swing concert in New York City to highlight black musical styles. The stars of the show are the duo of singer Big Joe Turner and pianist Pete Johnson, who kick off a national ‘boogie-woogie’ craze.
• Saxophonist Louis Jordan leaves Chick Webb’s band to form the Tympani Five, a slimmed-down group that begins the rhythm & blues revolution.
• Bill Monroe forms the Blue Grass Boys, creating a fusion of Appalachian folk music with blues, polka and other genres from around the world.
• Bill Monroe made his first appearance on WSM radio in Nashville.
• Roy Acuff joined the Grand Ole Opry.
• Charlie Christian’s lively, inventive single-note playing helped popularize the electric guitar as a solo instrument and ushered in the era of bop.
• Clarence Leonidas Fender (“Leo” Fender) began “Fender’s Radio Service” in late 1938 in Fullerton, California. Leo Fender was a qualified electronics technician and had been asked to repair radios, phonograph players, home audio amplifiers, public address systems and musical instrument amplifiers. (At the time, most of these were just variations on a few simple vacuum-tube circuits.) All designs were based on research developed and released to the public domain by Western Electric in the ’30s and used vacuum tubes for amplification.
• All American coins now bear the motto: “In God We Trust.”

1939

• In September the German army invaded Poland and war was declared on Germany by the United Kingdom, France and the British Dominions. World War II had begun.
• Leo Mintz opens The Record Rendezvous in Cleveland, Ohio, a store specializing in race music. 12 years later he will convince DJ Alan Freed to start playing those records on the air, which launches the Rock ‘n’ Roll era.
• The Grand Ole Opry began an affiliation with NBC that lasted until 1957.
• 225,000 jukeboxes were in operation and were said to be responsible for the sale of 13,000,000 records a year.
• Charlie Christian wrote the article published in Downbeat Magazine (December 1st, 1939) that called for “Guitar men, Wake Up and Pluck! Wire for Sounds; Let ’em hear you play.” It forecast the growing role of the electrified guitar in Jazz music.

1940

• Billboard Magazine introduced the ‘Hot 100’ popularity chart in January 1940. The week-by-week listings were based on statistics accrued by Billboard Magazine from data pooled from record purchases and radio/jukebox play throughout the United States. 
• Bob Wills became a national music figure with the recording of “San Antonio Rose.”
• Bob Wills and his band arrived in Los Angeles to appear in the film “Take Me Back to Oklahoma” starring Tex Ritter and Arkansas Slim. The film was a hit. Some historians feel that this marked the beginning of the Western Swing craze. Within a very short time cowboy hats, boots, string ties and rawhide vests were seen all over Southern California.
• South Carolina native Dizzy Gillespie began an innovative style of trumpet performance that would come to be called BeBop.
• North Carolina native Thelonious Monk was a member of the adventurous musicians who liked to gather at Minton’s in Harlem.
• Guitarist Les Paul signs an endorsement deal with Gibson, appearing in ads with the ES-300 electric archtop model.
• The Dupont chemical company first made nylon commercially available for toothbrush bristles, stockings, and fishing line. It would soon be reserved for the military.
• The Supreme Court – in Minersville School District v. Gobitis – ruled that students in public schools, including the respondents in that case, Jehovah’s Witnesses (who considered the flag salute to be idolatry), could be compelled to swear the Pledge of Allegiance. A rash of mob violence and intimidation against Jehovah’s Witnesses followed the ruling. (see 1892 & 1943)
• In 1940, Pete Seeger (5/3/1919 – 1/27/2014) and Lee Hays (3/14/1914 – 8/26/1981) co-founded the Almanac Singers. They had a passion for traditional songs, ‘folk’ songs and ‘music of the people’ for its simple, memorable melodies and poetic resonance of the human condition. They shared a political preference to promoted peace and isolationism before the start of World War II. They began working with the American Peace Mobilization (APM) group. They featured songs opposing entry into the war. In June 1941, following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, the APM changed its name to the ‘American People’s Mobilization’ and changed its position to support U.S. entry into the war. The Almanac Singers supported the change and began to produce many pro-war songs urging the U.S. to fight with the Allies. The Almanac Singers disbanded when the U.S. entered the war.

1941

• In late June, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union.
• On the morning of Sunday, December 7th, 1941, the Japanese navy conducted a surprise attack on the United States’ naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii resulting in the United States becoming involved in World War II.

1942

• The onset of World War II results in limited record production, particularly non-pop records, slowing the growth of rhythm & blues music until war’s end in 1945.
• “From today on there will be no recording of music, classical or jazz, in this country by union musicians.” (DownBeat Magazine) Prexy Petrillo, president of the Musicians Union, AFM, began a strike, known as The Recording Ban.
• Epaminondas (Epi) Strathopoulo of Epiphone dies on June 6th, 1943 at age 49. He is replaced by his brothers Orpheus (Orphie) and Nicol (Frixo) Strathopoulo.
• Billboard magazine debuts the Harlem Hit Parade to chart the top singles in the “race” field, a precursor to rhythm & blues.
• Herman Lubinsky and Savoy Records begin operations in Newark, New Jersey, focusing on recording black artists.
• Illinois Jacquet kicks off the tenor sax as a primary R&B instrument with his wild solo on Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home.”

1943

• King Records run by Syd Nathan opens in Cincinnati, Ohio to record hillbilly music. In 1946 they begin recording rhythm & blues, becoming one of the most prominent independent labels of the next decade as a result.
• The Grand Ole Opry began airing nationally on more than 140 NBC affiliates.
• On June 5th, the Grand Ole Opry found a home at the Ryman Auditorium.
• The Supreme Court reversed its 1940 decision in Minersville School District v. Gobitis that students in public schools could be compelled to swear the Pledge of Allegiance. The Court ruled – in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette – that public school students are not required to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The Court concluded that “compulsory unification of opinion” violates the First Amendment of the Constitution. In a later opinion, the Court held that students are also not required to stand for the Pledge. (see 1892 & 1940)

1944

• Woody Guthrie records “This Land Is Your Land,” one of America’s most popular folk songs.
• Louis Jordan, “Father of Rhythm and Blues,” had his first million-seller with “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t Ma Baby?”
• Luthier Albert Augustine used the new developments from WWII in nylon cord to experiment with guitar strings. With the support of one of his clients, guitarist Andre Segovia, he successfully introduced nylon strings for classical guitars.
• July 6th, Hartford, CT – the Ringling Bros. Circus Tent Fire. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was the largest circus in the country. They arrived late by train and erected the huge canvas tent called the “Big Top”. The tent could seat 9,000 around three performance rings. To keep it waterproof, the canvas had been treated with 1,800 lbs (820 kg) of paraffin wax dissolved in 6,000 gallons (23,000 l) of kerosene. On Thursday (a work day), the afternoon performance was estimated at 7,000, dominated by women and children. A small fire began on the Southwest sidewall of the tent while the Great Wallendas were performing. It accelerated quickly due to the flammable canvas treatment. Circus bandleader Merle Evans immediately directed the band to play “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” the tune designed to signal distress to all circus personnel. As Ringmaster Fred Bradna urged the audience not to panic and to leave in an orderly fashion, the power failed and his instructions could not be heard. The death toll is estimated at 168 with injury estimates of over 700 people. Young Robert Dale Segee (1929-1997) confessed to starting the fire but was never tried and later recanted. The Hartford circus fire was one of the worst fire disasters in United States history. Hal Blaine, famous percussionist of the Wrecking Crew, was one of the small children at the fire.

1945

• On April 12th, U.S. President Roosevelt died.
• Harry Truman became president of the United States.
• Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on April 28th.
• On April 30th Hitler committed suicide, succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.
• German forces surrendered in Italy on April 29th and Germany itself surrendered on May 7th.
• At the order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, after 6 months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities, the nuclear weapon Little Boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6th, 1945, followed on August 9th by the detonation of the Fat Man nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. These are to-date the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.
• The armistice of August 14th, 1945 marks an end to World War II.
• The House Committee on Un-American Activities became a standing (permanent) committee. Under the mandate of Public Law 601, passed by the 79th Congress, the committee of nine representatives investigated suspected threats of subversion or propaganda that attacked “the form of government guaranteed by our Constitution.”
• Though Capitol and Decca settled with the musician’s union AFM by 1943. RCA Victor and Columbia held out for nearly two years more. The Big Bands never recovered, and the Big Band Era was over.
• Les Paul invents echo-delay, multi-track recording and many other techniques that further expand recording possibilities.
• “The Honeydripper” by Joe Liggins is #1 on the black music charts for a record 18 weeks. The sexually suggestive term is an early indicator of the new direction of R&B music.
• The Bihari family forms Modern Records in Los Angeles, one of the most successful and groundbreaking R&B labels in the country.
• Cecil Gant’s “I Wonder” becomes the first R&B hit to be significantly covered for other markets.
• Lew Chudd forms Imperial Records and the following year Art Rupe forms Specialty Records, both in Los Angeles, to record rhythm & blues. Each label will also make significant recordings of New Orleans R&B over the next decade and a half.
• Leo Fender and Doc Kauffman start a business called “K and F” to build lap steel guitars and amplifiers. “K and F” folded in 1946.
• In October, Les Paul achieves his first #1 record, “It’s Been A Long Long Time” by Bing Crosby With The Les Paul Trio.

1946

• “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five becomes the biggest hit ever in the increasingly popular jump blues style that later leads to rock ‘n’ roll.
• Clarence Leonidas Fender (“Leo” Fender) struck out on his own with a new business to build guitars and amplifiers. The new business was called “Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company”. The 1st Spanish style design was the solid body, single pickup “Esquire”, followed by a 2 pickup version called the “Broadcaster’.
• Albert Augustine Ltd. developed a nylon polymer from nylon he collected from an army surplus store, that had the strength and mass to be suitable for guitar strings. They had the strong advantage of being able to be manufactured within tight gauge tolerances to help assure accurate pitch over the entire fretboard. The three treble strings could be a monofilament of nylon and the three bass strings could be a filament core wrapped in silver, copper or bronze wire.
• Les Paul takes his homemade experimental semi-solid guitar to Gibson to try to sell the instrument commercially. Gibson says no.
• December: Classical guitar icon Andres Segovia tried Augustine’s nylon guitar strings for the first time, writing, “When it had reached its proper pitch and I heard its clear sound, although it had a faint metallic accent that distinguished it from gut, I knew at once that a fuller and happier life was to open up for my beloved guitar.” Gut guitar string sales quickly declined, and Augustine’s nylon strings, complete with an image of Segovia on the package, became the norm for classical guitarists.

Howard McGhee, Brick Fleagle, and Miles Davis, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947.

1947

• The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) launched investigations into Communist influence on the motion picture industry.
• Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith was one of the first musicians to use a (prototype) Fender Telecaster (then named the Broadcaster) to record “Guitar Boogie” in 1947. Leo Fender’s Telecaster was the design that would put the solid-body guitar on the map.
• Paul Adelbert Bigsby (1899-1968) had met Merle Travis for lunch in California in late 1946. Merle sketched an idea for a solid body guitar and asked if Paul could build it for him. It had all six tuning pegs on one side of the headstock and was completed in 1947 and played by Merle on numerous recordings, radio and public appearances. Merle claims that Leo Fender borrowed and copied the guitar, but no one seems to know for sure.
• The Ravens introduce a new form of harmony singing featuring bass vocalist Jimmy Ricks out front with tenor Maithe Marshall floating on top of the melody. Their radical reworking of “Old Man River” is the prototype for the new style of R&B group singing on the horizon.
• “Open The Door Richard” becomes the smash of the year with five different artists hitting the Top Three on the R&B Charts with a version, including its writer Dusty Fletcher. The comical song about a drunk trying to get into his apartment while his roommate is there with a woman signal a loosening of sexual mores, which become an R&B hallmark.
• New York’s Carnegie Hall welcomed Ernest Tubb and a group of Grand Ole Opry stars, acknowledging country music in the American musical lexicon.
• Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson start Atlantic Records in September which will become the biggest R&B label in history.
• Ampex introduced the first commercially available magnetic tape recording machine in the US (The technology had been developed in Nazi Germany in the 1930s). The Ampex Model 200.

1948

• In February, Les Paul’s solo record using new overdubbing techniques to create an orchestra of guitars; “Lover” charts at #21.
• At a meeting on February 12th, Lincoln’s Birthday, Louis A. Bowman (1872–1959), as Chaplain of ‘The Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution’ led the Society in swearing the Pledge of Allegiance with two words added, “under God.” He stated that the words came from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Though not all manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address contain the words “under God,” all the reporters’ transcripts of the speech as delivered do, as perhaps Lincoln may have deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he said “that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom.” (see 1892, 1951 & 1954)
• In April, Ted McCarty joins Gibson from the Wurlitzer organ company.
• On April 3rd, the Louisiana Hayride began a Saturday night broadcast from the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana.
• June 1948 – Columbia launched the vinyl 12-inch 33-1/3 rpm album.
• The term “rhythm & blues” is coined by young Billboard reporter and future Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler. It will replace the negative “Race Records” chart a year later which signifies the new shift in black music.
• The Orioles, led by Sonny Til, become the first of the young black vocal groups to appeal to a teenage audience, scoring a #1 R&B hit with their debut, “It’s Too Soon To Know,” the first rock ballad.
• Wynonie Harris’s version of “Good Rockin’ Tonight” tops the R&B Charts.
• Saxophonist Wild Bill Moore releases “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll”.
• Julia Lee’s releases “King Size Papa” and Bull Moose Jackson releases “I Want A Bowlegged Woman” The generation returning from the war connect with this music
• In November, Ronnie Gilbert (9/7/1926 – 6/6/2015), Lee Hays (3/14/1914 – 8/26/1981), Fred Hellerman (5/13/1927 – 9/1/2016) and Pete Seeger (5/3/1919 – 1/27/2014) formed a musical group called The Weavers. Hellerman’s suggested the name from an 1892 play by Gerhart Hauptmann, Die Weber (the Weaver). The play depicted the uprising of the Silesian weavers in 1844 and contained the line “I’ll stand it no more, come what may”. Like the Almanac Singers before them, they shared a passion for traditional songs, ‘folk’ songs and ‘music of the people’ for their simple, memorable melodies and poetic resonance of the human condition.

1949

• March 31st, 1949: RCA Victor introduces the 45 RPM Record which is easier to produce, smaller, and cheaper than 78’s. RCA Victor offered a small record player for $12.95 to play the new records.
• The electric guitar takes hold with the blues recordings of T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters.
• The saxophone becomes the sound of R&B as evidenced by Big Jay McNeely’s “The Deacon’s Hop” and Paul Williams “Hucklebuck”.
• Atlantic Records scores with Stick McGee’s “Drinkin Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.”
• The Orioles continue their dominance of the market with eight Top 10 hits during the year and frequently cause riots at their performances.
• A failing white Memphis’ radio station WDIA hires Nat Williams, the first black disc jockey, and changes its format to rhythm & blues which promptly turns the station’s fortunes around. They also hire future singing stars B.B. King and Rufus Thomas as DJs.
• Louis Jordan’s hit “Saturday Night Fish Fry” marks the end of the jump blues dominance of the ’40s, while Jimmy Preston’s “Rock The Joint” points towards the rock ‘n’ roll of the ’50s.
• Leo Fender and George Fullerton developed the prototype for their new solid body guitar design, calling it the ‘Broadcaster.’
• Bing Crosby presented a gift to Les Paul — an Ampex Model 300 reel-to-reel tape recorder. Like every other piece of recording gear that Les Paul owned, he immediately began to tinker with the new machine by adding an additional playback head before the erase/record head. Multitrack magnetic recording was born.
• On June 11th, Hank Williams debuted at the Grand ‘Ol Opry. The 25-year old’s first hit “Lovesick Blues” had just been released and the crowd called him back for six encores.
• The Weavers landed a steady gig in Greenwich Village, New York City, at the Village Vanguard. The club featured traditional ‘Folk’ music, poetry readings, comedy and political discourse. Gordon Jenkins, an arranger-bandleader with connections to Decca Records, heard them there and was impressed. His discovery led to a record deal with Decca.

1950

• Joseph Raymond McCarthy (11/14/08 – 5/2/57) served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the State of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the public face of intense anti-communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War. In a speech, he asserted that he had a list of “members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring” who were employed in the State Department. The McCarthy era had begun.
• The Weavers had a double hit with recordings of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene” and “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena.” “Goodnight Irene” remained at the top of the charts for 13 weeks and sold over one million copies. This was the first ‘Folk’ song to reach a broad audience and created a curiosity about ‘Folk’ and ‘Americana’ music. The early productions had orchestral strings added to the group’s simple banjo, guitar and whistle instrumentation. Because of the Red Scare of the early 1950s, Pete Cameron (their manager) advised them not to perform their most explicitly political songs and to stay away from performing at overtly “progressive” venues or events. As the growing ‘Folk’ community learned of this, the Weavers were criticized by some fans for diluting their core beliefs and commercializing their musical styles. The Weavers felt some compromises were worth getting the songs exposed to the public. The new approach initially proved successful.
• The Korean War began on June 25th, 1950.
• The forerunner of the Fender Telecaster was Introduced for national distribution as the Broadcaster in the autumn of 1950. The earliest versions (in the spring of 1950) were the single and dual-pickup Esquire models. From that time to the present, the Telecaster has been in continuous production in one form or another
• Fats Domino’s first record “The Fat Man.”
• The Johnny Otis Rhythm & Blues Caravan takes the R&B show on the road scoring ten Top 10 hits with vocalists such as 14-year-old Little Esther, Mel Walker, and The Robins.
• The R&B ballad takes shape with hits in that style by Ivory Joe Hunter, Percy Mayfield, and Laurie Tate.
• Arkie Shibley & His Mountain Dew Boys record “Hot Rod Race” sets the stage for white country music to meet rhythm & blues as rockabilly.
• Atlantic Records scores its first #1 record with Ruth Brown’s “Teardrops From My Eyes,” the biggest R&B hit for a female artist for the next 40 years.
• Ted McCarty is appointed president at Gibson, replacing the outgoing Guy Hart.

1951

• The first jukebox that plays 45 RPM records is introduced.
• A wave of young black vocal groups springs up with variations of the style popularized by the Orioles. The Five Keys’ smooth harmonies hit with “The Glory Of Love.” The Clovers combine tougher harmonies with southern-inflected blues and hit with “Don’t You Know I Love You” and” Fool, Fool, Fool,” kicking off a string of 15 straight Top 10 hits. The Dominoes’ gospel-based singing and racy lyrics hit with “Sixty Minute Man.”
• In Memphis, Sam Phillips records Ike Turner’s band with Jackie Brenston on lead for “Rocket 88”, leasing it to Chess Records of Chicago. It tops the charts.
• Les Paul’s electric guitar work on the #1 Pop Hit “How High The Moon” with Mary Ford allows the song to cross over onto the R&B Charts.
• April 30th – The Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization, also began including the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance (see 1948). In New York City, the Board of Directors adopted a resolution to amend the text of their Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of each of the meetings of the 800 Fourth Degree Assemblies of the Knights of Columbus by adding the words “under God.” Over the next two years, the idea spread through the Knights of Columbus organizations nationwide. (see 1892, 1948 & 1954)
• In July, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed begins his “Moondog Show” on WJW, broadcasting nothing but rhythm & blues. He coined the phrase “rock’n’roll” to describe the music. His initial audience was young blacks, but he quickly attracted young white listeners.
• Nat King Cole’s record “Too Young” held the top place on Your Hit Parade for four consecutive weeks.
• Fender’s ‘Broadcaster’ is renamed the Telecaster after a dispute with Gretsch – the legal owner of the ‘Broadcaster’ name.
• The Weavers helped introduce new audiences (between 1950 and 1955) to ‘Folk Revival’ standards including “On Top of Old Smoky,” “Kisses Sweeter than Wine,” “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” “The Wreck of the John B” (“The Sloop John B),” “Rock Island Line,” “Pay Me My Money Down,” “The Midnight Special,” “Darling Corey” and “Wimoweh.” Pete Seeger would encourage audience participation by feeding lyric lines ahead of the melody so the audience could sing along. This helped burn songs into their collective memory. It helped shape the influences of a generation.

1952

• The Gibson Les Paul, designed by Ted McCarty and endorsed, named and used by then-popular jazz/pop guitarist Les Paul is introduced.It remains in production today. The new design sported a gold-finish, later known as the ‘Goldtop’.
• Seth Lover joined Gibson as a full-time employee to work in the electronics department. Among other things, he began to work on new pickup designs.
• On the night of March 21st, DJ Alan Freed puts on the ever rock ‘n’ roll show, “The Moondog Coronation Ball” in Cleveland, starring The Dominoes, Varetta Dillard, Tiny Grimes & His Rockin’ Highlanders featuring Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams. The overflow crowds break down the doors, storming the arena where a full-scale riot ensues bringing the newly coined “rock ‘n’ roll” music its first widespread headlines and scrutiny.
• Renegade white country & western swing band Bill Haley & The Saddlemen record “Rock The Joint,” the first white rock song to become a hit.
• White pop vocalist Johnnie Ray records the two-sided smash “Cry” / “The Little White Cloud That Cried.” His emotional wailing leads many to believe he is both black and a female as the song tops the R&B charts.
• Johnny Ace, a former piano player with the Beale Streeters, a group that included blues legends B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland, records his first record in Memphis, “My Song,” and watches it hit #1.
• In New Orleans, the rock ‘n’ roll beat is furthered by Lloyd Price’s hit “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” with Fats Domino on piano.
• Domino’s own “Goin’ Home” hits #1 on the R&B Charts and becomes one of the first rock songs to enter the Pop Charts as well, reaching #30.
• Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, still in their late teens, write their first hit “Hard Times “for R&B star Charles Brown, as well as the rock classic “Kansas City.”
• Sam Phillips starts his own label, Sun Records, at Sun Studios at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, recording mostly blues musicians its first two years in business. Their first release was Johnny London’s moody R&B sax instrumental “Drivin’ Slow.”
• “Stormy Weather” by The Five Sharps was issued. For record collectors, it is one of the rarest of all R&B records. Only three 78rpm and no 45rpm copies are known to exist. At auction, an original record can fetch an estimated $20,000.
• Folk archivist Harry Smith released the “Anthology of American Folk Music” on 78s. The Folkways anthology presented African-American and white roots music as equally valid. Political ballads were treated the same as Creole Chants. Some feel this to be the definitive collection of early American music.

1953

• Dwight David Eisenhower, nicknamed “Ike”, was elected as the 34th President of the United States. He was the former five-star general who served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe.
• 15 million rhythm & blues records are bought in 1953, while that accounts for just five percent of all records sold it begins to draw notice in the industry that fails to note the growing interest among young white audiences.
• Clyde McPhatter leaves the Dominoes after three years and nine hits to form the Drifters for Atlantic Records. They hit #1 with “Money Honey.”
• The first clear evidence of soul music shows up with the “5” Royales, an ex-gospel group that turned to R&B and in Faye Adams, whose “Shake A Hand” becomes an R&B standard.
• Bill Haley changes his group’s name to the more youthful Comets and writes the first white rock hit, “Crazy Man Crazy,” reaching #13 on the Pop Charts in May, the highest position for a rock song to date.
• The Rhythm & Blues Charts begin to reflect the overwhelming dominance of emerging rock ‘n’ roll with such hits as Big Joe Turner’s “Honey Hush” Johnny Ace’s “The Clock” and Ruth Brown’s “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean.” Only one pure blues record tops the chart the entire year.
• On May 15th, near his house in Samois-Sur-Seine France, while sitting with friends at a cafe, Django Reinhardt had a stroke. He died during the night. He was 43 years old.
• In June, the first major integrated rock ‘n’ roll show is staged in Cleveland with headlining co-stars The Dominoes and Bill Haley & His Comets.
• The Orioles “Crying In The Chapel” becomes the first R&B hit to approach the Top 10 on the Pop Charts.
• Major hostilities in the Korean War ended with the armistice signed on July 27th.
• The original ‘trapeze’ tailpiece on the Gibson solid-body electric Goldtop was replaced with a new ‘wrap-over’ combined bridge-tailpiece design.
• The RIAA (Radio Industry Association of America) arrived at a standard equalization curve for the recording and playback of records. This cleared the way for the manufacture of standardized preamplifiers and the beginning of the audiophile market — the research and development of better sounding playback equipment (speakers, preamplifiers, amplifiers, phonograph cartridges and turntables).
• In August, 18-year-old Elvis Aaron Presley (1/8/35 – 8/16/77) wandered into the street-front office of Sun Records in Memphis and approached receptionist Marion Keisker, asking to pay for a demo recording as a gift for his mother. The owner of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, was out that day. The arrangements were made and paid for and a two-sided acetate was pressed: “My Happiness” on the A-side and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” on the B-side. Elvis was hoping to be discovered (His mother’s birthday had recently passed). Marion Keisker made a note: “Good ballad singer – hold.”
• Pete Seeger (5/3/1919 – 1/27/2014) and Lee Hays (3/14/1914 – 8/26/1981) of the Weavers were called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Seeger and Hays were identified as Communist Party USA members by FBI informant Harvey Matusow (who later recanted). Hays took the Fifth Amendment to avoid prosecution. Seeger simply refused to answer, claiming his First Amendment rights. He was the first to do so after the conviction of the Hollywood Ten in 1950. Seeger was found guilty of contempt and placed under restrictions by the court pending appeal. Seeger was added to the entertainment industry blacklist publication Red Channels. All of the Weavers were placed under FBI surveillance and not allowed to perform on television or radio. Decca Records terminated their recording contract and deleted their records from the Decca catalog. Since their recordings were denied airplay, they lost all income from royalties. Right-wing and anti-Communist groups protested at their performances and harassed promoters. As a result, the group’s ability to support itself fell apart and in 1952 the Weavers disbanded. After this, Pete Seeger built upon his solo career. He found interest and support in the College Circuit and teaching music to children. In 1961, Pete Seeger’s conviction was overturned on technical grounds. It was not until 1967 that Seeger’s blacklisting ended by his appearance on the nationally broadcast CBS-TV variety show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
• Mario Maccaferri introduced plastic guitars. It had worked well with plastic ukuleles in 1949, but the plastic flat-top G-30 and archtop G-40 never really caught on.
• December – The first issue of Playboy was published. The centerfold was a fully naked Marilyn Monroe stretched upon a deep red velvet background with an upraised arm, closed eyes and open mouth. Hugh Hefner, a 1949 graduate of Psychology from the University of Illinois, had worked in Chicago for Esquire magazine writing promotional copy, Publisher’s Development Corporation in sales and marketing, and Children’s Activities magazine as the circulation promotions manager, set out to create his own magazine. The first issue sold out within a few weeks. Mint condition copies of the first issue sold in 2002 for over $5,000.

1954

• Joseph McCarthy’s support and popularity began to fade with the highly publicized Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954. Later in 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion.
• February 8th: Rep. Charles Oakman (R-Mich.), introduced a bill in the Federal Congress to add the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. Congress passed the necessary legislation and Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Flag Day, June 14th, 1954. The phrase “under God” was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance that day, by a Joint Resolution of Congress amending article 7 of the Flag Code enacted in 1942. (see 1892, 1948 & 1951)
• The Fender Stratocaster, designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares is introduced, and remains in production today.
• R&B music explodes into the mainstream with black vocal groups leading the crossover due to records such as the Crows’ “Gee,” The Chords’ “Sh-Boom,” The Charms’ “Hearts Of Stone” and The Penguins’ “Earth Angel.” The often crude recording techniques, amateurish vocals and sometimes nonsensical lyrics give the impression that the music is just a novelty.
• Pop record companies try desperately to capitalize on the fad by having white artists cover black vocal group records and the increased distribution and radio play assures many of those versions of becoming the hits.
• The Midnighters cause waves when their off-color “Work With Me Annie” and its equally suggestive sequels become the most popular R&B records of the year, resulting in many communities calling for a complete ban on rock ‘n’ roll.
• On April 12th, “Rock Around The Clock” was recorded by Bill Haley & the Comets.
• On July 5th, Elvis Aaron Presley returned to Sun Records in Memphis at the request of owner Sam Phillips. Phillips had assembled guitarist Winfield “Scotty” Moore and upright bass player Bill Black to see if he could capture something the public might like with the talented young singer. They worked for hours without much luck. Sam stepped out the back of the control room into the ally for a cigarette, tempted to give up on the session. A bit punchy from being stuck in the small studio for so long, Presley picked up his acoustic guitar and launched into Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s 1946 blues number “That’s All Right (Mama).” Moore recalled, “All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool too, and I started playing with them. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open … he stuck his head out and said, ‘What are you doing?’ And we said, ‘We don’t know.’ ‘Well, back up,’ he said, ‘try to find a place to start, and do it again.” For the B-side, they recorded Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” over the next few days. Wide public exposure to Rockabilly was born with the release of the record on July 19th. Sam Phillips suspected he had found the man to bring Rhythm & Blues to the broader white American audience.
• On October 2nd, a teenage Elvis Presley made his first and only performance on the Grand Ole Opry. The audience reacted politely to this new brand of rock ‘n’ roll. Following the show, he was told by Opry manager Jim Denny that he should go back to Memphis and his truck-driving career. Elvis swore never to return.
• Among those records targeted for widespread bans are Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters’ explicit “Honey Love” and “Such A Night,” and the Midnighters’ “Sexy Ways.” As a result, of course, they all become R&B hits.
• 10,000 fans attend Alan Freed’s first east coast Rock ‘n’ Roll Show held in Newark, New Jersey, featuring the Clovers and Harptones. The success is a further indication that rock ‘n’ roll has national appeal…
• Freed moves to New York’s WINS in September and quickly becomes the city’s most famous DJ, attracting large audiences to his newly named ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Party.’
• Big Joe Turner and Bill Haley each record “Shake Rattle & Roll” and have dueling hits that stay on the charts for months.
• Rock ‘n’ roll suffers its first tragedy as one of its biggest stars Johnny Ace accidentally shoots and kills himself playing Russian Roulette backstage at a Houston Auditorium in between shows on Christmas Night.
• Gibson introduces three new Les Paul models alongside the ‘Goldtop’: the deluxe black Custom and the budget Junior and TV models.
• Gibson introduced the adjustable Tune-O-Matic bridge on the Les Paul Custom model.
• Gibson introduced the J-160E (for ‘Electric’). This would become a major instrument when exploited by the Beatles in the 60’s.
• On July 11th, just one month after the phrase “under God” was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance, Congress enacted Public Law 84-140 requiring the motto: “In God We Trust” to be placed on all currency (paper & coin). The law was signed by President Eisenhower on July 30th, 1956, and the motto was progressively added to paper money between 1957 & 1966. (see 1864 & 1938)

1955

• After being used in the hit film about juvenile delinquency The Blackboard Jungle, Bill Haley & The Comets’ “Rock Around The Clock” becomes the first rock record to top the Pop Charts, holding the #1 position for two months and remaining in the Top 100 for a record 38 weeks. It would be 39 years before that record was broken.
• Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.
• The Weavers were asked to perform at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve of 1955. It was a come-back for the group following their inclusion on the entertainment industry blacklist.
• Pete Seeger was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to discuss his political affiliations with the House Committee of Un-American Activities (HUAC), although the conviction was overturned on appeal in May, 1962.
• In May, Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (born October 18th, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri) traveled to Chicago where he met Muddy Waters. Waters suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. Berry thought his blues material would be of most interest to Chess, but to his surprise, it was an old country and western recording by Bob Wills, entitled “Ida Red” that got Chess’s attention. At that time, Chess had seen the blues market shrink and was looking to move beyond the rhythm and blues market, and he thought Berry might be that artist who could do it. So on May 21st, Berry covered “Ida Red” (renamed “Maybellene”) with Johnny Johnson, Jerome Green (from Bo Diddley’s band) on the maracas, Jasper Thomas on the drums and blues legend Willie Dixon on the bass. “Maybellene” sold over a million copies, reaching #1 on Billboard’s Rhythm and Blues chart and #5 on the Hot 100. The song ushers in descending pentatonic double-stops, which becomes the essence of rock guitar.
• Crossover records start appearing on the Pop Charts led by Johnny Ace’s posthumous smash “Pledging My Love.” Others by Fats Domino, The Moonglows, The Platters and the first hits and Little Richard follow.
• Little Richard recorded “Tutti Frutti!” with the original lyric, “tutti frutti, good booty”. The original recording was at Cosmo Matassa’s J&M Studios in New Orleans.
• Bo Diddley’s self-titled debut record tops the R&B Charts and introduces the tribal “Bo Diddley” beat to rock.
• In May the first Rock long-playing record (LP) is released by Bill Haley & His Comets. Full-length albums with their higher prices limit their appeal for teenagers and remain largely the realm of adult pop singers for another decade.
• The increased attention to R&B has negative impacts with The Midnighters who faced the toughest scrutiny. It killed their hits for four years due to radio blackballing.
• In May a Rock ‘n’ Roll Show in Connecticut to be headlined by Fats Domino is canceled for fear it will lead to rioting. State police subsequently ban all further rock concerts in the state.
• Boston follows suit by assembling a record censorship board to prevent dirty rock records from being played on the air.
• With censorship prevalent, white cover records still hold a slight edge in radio play but not in sales. Pat Boone had the biggest impact with his cleaner versions of R&B hits.
• Miles Dewey Davis III (5/26/1926 – 9/28/1991) abandoned the bebop style he had influenced by turning to the music of pianist Ahmad Jamal. When Davis entered the studio in June 1955 to record Miles Davis Quartet, he wanted a pianist like Jamal and picked Red Garland. The albums Blue Haze (1956), Bags’ Groove (1957), Walkin‘ (1957), and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (1959) were recorded shortly after his recovery from a decade-long addiction to heroin. It was ‘Cool Jazz.’
• In November, Elvis Presley’s contract is bought by RCA for an unheard of price of $35,000.
• Rock ‘n’ roll music warrants a mention in the year-end Encyclopedia Britannica music review, which derogatorily refers to it in racist terms as “jungle music.”
• Patsy Cline began recording for Four Star Records.
• Gibson’s Tune-O-Matic bridge becomes a stock issue on the Goldtop.
• Seth Lover begins work on a new humbucking pickup design at Gibson.
• Ray Butts begins work on a new humbucking pickup design for Gretsch.
• The Gibson Les Paul Special, (a two-pickup version of the Junior) is introduced.

1956

• The Platters open the year on top of both the R&B and Pop Charts with “The Great Pretender.”
• Pop vocalist Kay Starr has a hit with “The Rock & Roll Waltz,” a song that attempts to cash in on the term “rock ‘n’ roll” while appealing to adults rather than kids, proving the industry feels the music is a novelty.
• By spring the white cover craze peters out as Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” beats Pat Boone’s version, Fats Domino’s “I’m In Love Again” beats the Fontane Sisters remake and by years end white pop singers virtually give up covering R&B hits.
• Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show in late January, and a month later his first RCA record “Heartbreak Hotel” races up the charts with his former Sun Records cohort Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” as they claim the #1 and 2 spots.
• Presley scores five #1 hits in a seven-month span and causes a sensation with his performance of “Hound Dog” on the Milton Berle Show. He appears twice on The Ed Sullivan Show in the fall to big ratings, and releases his first film that November.
• Rock ‘n’ Roll enters the movies with cheaply made exploitation films with numerous cameos by artists singing their latest hits. The biggest is “The Girl Can’t Help It” starring blonde sexpot Jayne Mansfield, and featuring performances by Little Richard, Fats Domino and Eddie Cochran.
• Feedback is invented by The Johnny Burnette Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio on their record “The Train Kept A Rollin.”
• On April 10th, Fender patents the Tremolo.
• Gene Vincent is convicted of public obscenity and fined $10,000 by the state of Virginia for singing the erotic “Woman Love” on stage.
• “I Put A Spell On You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins sells over a million copies but faces a radio ban due to its “cannibalistic nature.” It became rock’s first underground hit.
• The Gibson Les Paul Junior hits a record for annual production among Les Paul models, shipping 3,129 units, and Gibson introduces a version of the Junior with a shorter ‘three-quarter scale’ neck.
• By the end of June, Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” reached #29 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.
• In England, Lonnie Donegan released a version of Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line.” It flew up the English charts. Donegan had synthesized American Southern Blues with simple acoustic instruments: acoustic guitar, washtub bass and washboard rhythm. The new style was called ‘Skiffle.’ The term came from America in the late 1920s, and referred to music from people with little money for instruments. The new style captivated an entire generation of post-war youth in England.
• “In God We Trust” was adopted as the official motto of the United States. The Legality of this motto was quickly challenged as the United States Constitution forbids the government to make any law respecting the establishment of a national religion. The United States Supreme Court, however, rejected the legal basis for this claim (“E Pluribus Unum” is the unofficial motto of the United States). “In God We Trust” has appeared on U.S. coins since 1864 and on paper currency since 1957.

1957

• Joseph McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2nd, at the age of 48. The official cause of death was acute hepatitis. It is widely accepted that this was brought on by alcoholism.
• On The Road was published by author Jean-Louis “Jack” Lebris de Kerouac (3/12/1922 – 10/21/1969). It was the second book by the novelist/poet, and helped usher-in the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing on topics including Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel.
• This first Humbucker (humbucking pickup) that became known as the PAF (Patent Applied For) was invented by Seth Lover, a Gibson employee.
• Gretsch also introduced a humbucking pickup designed by Ray Butts that year at the Chicago summer NAMM show: the Filtertron. There is still disagreement as to who designed the first humbucker.
• The first test of FM broadcasting was performed by NHK in Japan.
• In March or April, Orphie Strathopoulo called Ted McCarty of Gibson saying that he was ready to sell whas left of the Epiphone company.
• On his final Ed Sullivan appearance, Elvis Presley is filmed from the waist up. The screams from the studio audience only make what the home viewer was missing even more suggestive.
• Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, is considered the best rock film and introduces a precursor to the rock video, as the title song has an elaborate setting in a jail cell choreographed by Presley himself.
• Bill Haley & The Comets tour Europe, setting off riots and bringing rock ‘n’ roll to that continent for the first time.
• An Australian tour featuring Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly follows, making rock a worldwide phenomenon. Lewis’s performance of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” that July on The Steve Allen Show brings rock music more reprimands as Lewis kicks over his piano stool and plays the keyboards with disturbing wild-eyed intensity. The ratings, however, beat the top-ranked Ed Sullivan Show for the first time that year.
• The stroll becomes the first dance associated with rock.
• Alan Freed has his short-lived televised rock ‘n’ roll show canceled when complaints pour in over seeing black teenage singer Frankie Lymon dancing on screen with a white girl.
• In a move to tame rock ‘n’ roll, ABC television launches the national version of a Philadelphia program called American Bandstand, which promotes the more wholesome side of rock.
• The Everly Brothers’ hit “Wake Up Little Susie” is banned from the airwaves in Boston for lyrical content.
• In August, The Weavers reassembled for a series of recording sessions for Vanguard. As Pete Seeger’s college concert bookings grew (unaffected by Blacklisting), the singer began to feel restricted by his obligations to the Weavers. The group was booked by Vanguard for a January 15th, 1958 session to record a rock-and-roll single. The results were embarrassing and Seeger’s frustration grew. In February, Gilbert, Hays, and Hellerman overruled Seeger about recording a cigarette ad (for a tobacco company). Seeger opposed the idea as a sell-out to commercial interests. He decided to resign. Seeger honored his commitment to record the jingle and then left the group on March 3rd, 1958.
• On a tour of Australia in the fall, Little Richard sees the Russian satellite “Sputnik” descending to earth and takes it as a sign from God to quit rock ‘n’ roll and join the ministry.
• Gibson and Epiphone bought by Chicago based CMI (Chicago Musical Instruments).
• In England, John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. Lennon met Paul McCartney on July 6th and added him to the group a few days later.
• On Friday, October 18th, a young Paul McCartney performed with the Quarry Men for the firstrst time for a dance at the New Clubmoor Hall. Following the dance, Paul played a few of his own songs. It was inspirational for John Lennon. White rockers seldom wrote their own music, except perhaps for Buddy Holly.
• Atlantic Records began to record and release stereo records.
• Clarence White (13) and his brother Roland (19) started the Kentucky Colonels to join and expand the tradition of Bluegrass music. As the band grew with experience they pushed the genre into a new form, ‘Newgrass.’ They would become significant influences to players like David Grisman and Tony Rice (who would come to own Clarence White’s Martin dreadnaught after his death in 1973).
• In England, guitar sales reached 250,000 units. This was up from 5,000 in 1950 due, in large part, to the popularity of Lonnie Donegan and Skiffle Music.
• Al Priddy, a disc jockey at station KEX in Portland OR, is fired for playing Elvis Presley’s version of “White Christmas”. The station instituted a ban of the song due to a behind-the-scenes deal with Irving Berlin (the composer), who detested The King’s version. KEX management released a statement stating, “The song is ‘not in the spirit we associate with Christmas'”.
• Jerry Lee Lewis weds Myra Gale Brown, his third wife, his third cousin, and 13 years old.

1958

• On January 6th, Gibson patented the Flying V guitar. Sales were not good initially but the iconic shaped guitar eventually found a home in electric blues.
• On February 6th, George Harrison was invited to watch the Quarrymen. Harrison joined the band as lead guitarist shortly after. John Lennon & Paul McCartney both played rhythm guitar at the time.
• Elvis Presley is inducted into the Army in March for a two-year hitch overseas.
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti (3/24/1919 – ) is an American poet, painter, liberal activist and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and film narration is best known for A Coney Island of the Mind (New York: New Directions, 1958), a collection of poems that has been translated into nine languages, with sales over 1,000,000 copies.
• Gibson introduced the ES-335 is an attempt to find a middle ground — a warmer tone than a solid body but still capable of producing little or no feedback. Though semi-hollow bodies like the ES-335 are essentially a compromise of earlier designs, for the same reason they are extremely flexible as evidenced by the ES-335’s popularity in a wide range of music, including blues, jazz, and rock. They paved the way for the 1960s.
• In April, singer/songwriter Chuck Willis dies of a perforated ulcer at age 30.
• In May, Alan Freed is indicted by Boston authorities for inciting a riot at a recent rock ‘n’ roll show he promoted where the audience stormed the stage during both Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry’s closing sets.
• In June, Jerry Lee Lewis’ first English tour results in scandal when it is learned his 3rd wife is his 13-year-old second cousin. He cuts the tour short and is blackballed by American radio and television.
• Billboard magazine begins the Hot 100, expanding the Pop Charts to allow more records to become certified hits.
• Rock’s songwriting connection to its audience becomes more apparent with the hits “Summertime Blues” by Eddie Cochran, “Sweet Little Sixteen” by Chuck Berry, and Leiber & Stoller’s #1 hit for the Coasters “Yakety Yak.”
• Chuck Willis’s double-sided posthumous hit “What Am I Living For” / “Hang Up My Rock ‘n’ Roll Shoes” is the first rock record released in stereo, engineered by Tom Dowd of Atlantic Records.
• The power chord first appears in records by guitarists Link Wray and Eddie Cochran.
• Distortion for electric guitar is first used by Lowman Pauling of The “5” Royales and a primitive form of fuzz bass is found on some of their records of this time as well.
• “Hard Headed Woman” by Elvis Presley becomes the first Rock Record to go Gold, a new designation for singles established earlier in the year.
• During the summer, some of the Gibson Goldtop models were replaced with a new sunburst finish. This later became known as the Les Paul “Burst.” That small visual alteration provided the basis for some of the most desirable and collectible Les Paul guitars ever made. Gibson produced a combined total of 434 Goldtops and “Bursts” that year.
• The Gibson Les Paul Junior, Junior three-quarter, and TV models were redesigned with new double-cutaway bodies.
• The EIA and RIAA established the 45/45 system for recording and reproducing stereo phonograph records.
• Andrés Segovia wins his first Grammy.

1959

• The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War or the Vietnam Conflict, (and in contemporary Vietnam, known as the American War), began. It had been brewing with French involvement for years but saw a ramp-up of American advisors and servicemen in 1959.
• Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson die in a plane crash while on tour in Clearlake, Iowa on February 3rd. It will become known as “The Day The Music Died” and memorialized in Don McLean’s 1972 hit, “American Pie.” All three were at the peak of their popularity and had collectively, in 12 months, sold over 10 million records worldwide. Holly had assembled a band for the winter tour made up of Tommy Allsup on guitar, Carl Bunch on drums and Waylon Jennings on bass, to be billed as The Crickets. Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on the small plane to go by bus. Holly joked to Jennings, “I hope your bus freezes up.” Jennings joked back, “I hope your ‘ol plane crashes.” The joke would haunt Jennings for years.
• Congress opens the payola hearings designed to squash rock ‘n’ roll DJ’s who receive money from record distributors in exchange for airplay, a common practice in all forms of radio for years. Alan Freed is its main target and becomes its biggest casualty, as he is found guilty and taken off the air as a result.
• Radio stations respond by voluntarily putting severe restrictions on what they will play, including widely adopting the Top 40 format which limits how many songs are approved for airing.
• Dick Clark acts quickly to distance himself from rock ‘n’ roll’s bad image as he increasingly showcases teen idols on American Bandstand.
• The first Grammy Award is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Originally titled the Gramophone Awards, the song of the year was awarded to Domenico Modugno for “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” (Volare).
• The rock instrumental has its biggest year ever in response to rock music facing bans for lyrical content.
• “Chega de Saudade” is the debut album by Brazilian musician João Gilberto (6/10/1931 – 7/6/2019) and is credited by some as the first ‘Bossa Nova’ album. The title roughly translates as “enough longing,” though the Portuguese word ‘Saudade’ carries some more complex meaning(s). Bossa Nova is a style of Brazilian music fusing samba and jazz, developed and popularized in Brazil during the 1950s and ’60s. The phrase ‘Bossa Nova’ means “new trend” or “new wave”. As a style, it washed over America well into the 1960s by artists including Laurindo Almeida, Badi Assad, Luiz Bonfá, Charlie Byrd, Oscar Castro-Neves, Stan Getz, João & Astrud Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Sérgio Mendes, and many others.
• Ray Charles bursts into the mainstream after years as an R&B star with “What’d I Say.”
• A new version of the Drifters is produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who become the first to use strings and introduce Latin rhythms to rock with the hit “There Goes My Baby.”
• The Newport Folk Festival was founded by Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger, George Wein (founder of the Newport Jazz Festival) and his partner Albert Grossman. The concept was to elevate the music of the people to greater public prominence.
• On August 17th, Columbia released Miles Davis’ studio album Kind of Blue, which sold over 4,000,000 copies in the US alone. It’s viewed by some as the most popular Jazz album of all time, making Miles Davis among the most influential figures in the history of jazz in the 20th century. By 1959, he had freed himself of a decade-long heroin addiction and emerged a stronger musician. His sound had evolved to include a Harmon mute (wah-wah mute) held close to the microphone. He began to distance himself from his ‘cool jazz’ & BeBop background with the use of more relaxed phrasing and greater space between notes and phrases. The resulting sound was referred to as ‘hard bop’, slower & less radical than BeBop in both harmony and melody. He frequently chose songs from the Great American Songbook as starting points for improvisation. Hard bop was a departure from cool jazz with a harder beat and blues-inspired roots. Some critics consider “Walkin'” (April 1954) to be the album that started the hard bop genre. In 2009, the US House of Representatives voted 409 to 0, passing a resolution to honor Kind of Blue as a national treasure.
• On August 25th, During the rise of popularity of Kind of Blue, Miles Davis had a run-in with the law. During a recording session for the US Armed Services in New York City at the Birdland nightclub, he stepped outside the front of the club during a break. As he was escorting a blonde-haired woman to a taxi, a policeman named Gerald Kilduff told him to “move on.” Davis explained that he was working at the club. Kilduff grabbed him and put him under arrest. Witnesses said the policeman used a nightstick to punch Davis in the stomach without provocation. Two detectives held back the crowd while a third came up behind Davis and beat him about the head. Davis was taken to jail and charged with assaulting an officer. He was then taken to the hospital and received five stitches. He was released on a $525 bail. By January 1960, he was acquitted of disorderly conduct and third-degree assault. He later stated the incident “changed my whole life and whole attitude again, made me feel bitter and cynical again when I was starting to feel good about the things that had changed in this country.”
• Berry Gordy starts Tamla-Motown Records. It will eventually become the most successful black-owned and operated company in American history, not just in music, with 600 million records sold.
• Gibson shipped 643 Les Paul Bursts during the year.
• In December, Chuck Berry encountered legal problems after inviting a 14-year-old Apache waitress he’d met in Mexico to work as a hat check girl at his night club. After being fired from the club, the girl was arrested on a prostitution charge and Berry was arrested under the Mann Act. After a trial and retrial, Berry was convicted, fined $5,000, and sentenced to five years in prison. This event, coupled with other early rock and roll scandals such as Jerry Lee Lewis’ marriage to his 13-year-old cousin and Alan Freed’s payola conviction, gave rock and roll an image problem that limited its acceptance into mainstream U.S. society.
• In December, The Weavers reunited to play a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. By the late 1950s, folk music was surging and McCarthyism fading. Following the April 1957 LP release of the Carnegie Hall concert by the independent label Vanguard Records (The Weavers at Carnegie Hall), the Weavers launched a month-long concert tour.
• A recent fatal human disease was identified and carefully documented in the Congo. It would later become known throughout the world as HIV.
• Since 1955 the market share for rock ‘n’ roll has increased from 15.7% to 42.7%, making it the fastest-growing style of music ever.

1960

Sam Cooke signed with RCA Records where he continued to write and record such No. 1 hits as “Chain Gang,” “Twisting The Night Away,” “Bring It On Home To Me,” “Having A Party,” and “Cupid”.
John Lennon’s friend Stuart Sutcliffe joined the Quarrymen on bass in January. Stuart Sutcliffe suggested the name The Beetles as a tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets. They went through several band names, including Johnny and the Moondogs and Long John and The Beatles. After a tour in May through Northeast Scotland as The Silver Beetles, they settled on the name The Beatles. The drummer for the tour was Tommy Moore.
The Beatles invited Pete Best to become their drummer on August 12th. Best had played with The Blackjacks in The Casbah Coffee Club, owned by his mother, Mona Best. Together, they began a 48-night residency in Hamburg at Bruno Koschmider’s Indra Club, and then moved to the Kaiserkeller in October.
On November 21st, Harrison was deported for having lied to the German authorities about his age. A week later, after setting a condom on fire (which they had hung on a nail at the Bambi Kino where they had been living), McCartney and Pete Best were arrested for arson and deported. Lennon returned to Liverpool in mid-December while Sutcliffe stayed behind in Hamburg with his new German fiancée Astrid Kirshner. The reunited group played an engagement on December 17th at the Casbah Club, with Chas Newby on bass.
Gibson ships 635 Les Paul Bursts before ceasing production of the model. The model is described in the Gibson catalog as the Les Paul Standard.
In September, the FCC banned Payola — the common practice of record companies paying radio disc jockeys to play their new releases. The payment was not always in dollars.
On May 11th, pharmaceutical company Searle received FDA approval to sell Enovid as a birth control pill. Searle is the first and only pharmaceutical company to sell an oral contraceptive and gain a lucrative monopoly. The pharmaceutical industry suddenly awoke to the substantial market for effective contraception and 13 major drug companies (nine of them American) began work to develop their own versions of the Pill. The sexual revolution began.

1961

• March 1st: The Peace Corps was established by President John F. Kennedy by Executive Order 10924. The Act was then authorized by Congress on September 22nd, by passage of the Peace Corps Act (Public Law 87-293). The act describes the purpose of the program: “To promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower”.
• April 11th: Adolf Eichmann’s trial began in Jerusalem, Israel. Eichmann was charged with 15 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership in a hostile organization. The charges accused Eichmann of being responsible for the enslavement, starvation, persecution, transportation and murder of millions of Jews as well as the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Poles and Gypsies. Eichmann’s defense was that he was just following orders. The trial was intended to shed light on the horror and reality of the Holocaust. The resulting press helped educate the world about the Third Reich. Three judges found Eichmann guilty on all 15 counts. On December 15th, Eichmann was sentenced to death (see 1962.)
• April 12th: The Soviets launched the first man into space. On the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the 1st person to enter space and the 1st to orbit the Earth.
• April: In an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro, less than 3 months after John F. Kennedy became president, The Bay of Pigs Invasion began. It was an unsuccessful action by CIA trained Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba. The Cuban armed forces (trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations) defeated the invaders within thee days.
• August 12th & 13th: A little past midnight during the night of the 12th, while most Berliners were asleep; East German soldiers with construction workers defined the border of West and East Berlin with the construction of concrete posts and barbed wire. When the Berliners awoke, they found themselves settled on the side of the border they had slept on. The Berlin Wall stood for nearly 3 decades.
• September 26th: Television presented the first Presidential debates for public scrutiny and entertainment, Richard M. Nixon vs John F. Kennedy.
• Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bassist of The Beatles, left the band to pursue studies at the University of Fine Art in Hamburg; Paul McCartney became the band’s bass player. McCartney purchased his first Höfner bass from a music shop in Hamburg, Germany, for a modest £30. The bass would be featured on early Beatles hits like “Love Me Do” and “She Loves You.”
• The FCC adopted the Zenith/GE system standard for FM broadcasting.
• FM broadcasts begin in the United States.
• A new Les Paul Standard is introduced by Gibson. The double-cutaway design will later be renamed the Les Paul SG.

1962

• On January 24th, The Beatles signed a five-year contract with Brian Epstein for band management.
• Bob Dylan reached New York City and played the Gaslight Cafe. Here he transformed himself from a singer to a songwriter. On March 19th, Columbia Records released his debut album Bob Dylan, produced by John Hammond.
• April: David Michael Gordon “Davey” Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (11/26/1940 – 12/15/2008), of Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England, released his debut album ¾ AD. On the album was an acoustic guitar instrumental named “Anji” (after his current girlfriend). He wrote the tune at age 19 in 1960. “Anji” captured the imagination and mood of a generation of guitarists including Bert Jansch (who got a tape copy before the album was even released), Paul Simon (who recorded it as “Angie” on the 1966 “Sounds of Silence” album), Arlen Roth, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Jimmy Page, Ralph McTell, Wizz Jones, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, Ritchie Blackmore, and many others as well as folk-rock bands including Fairport Convention & Pentangle. Though not the first instrumental of it’s kind (consider Chet Atkins recording of “Windy and Warm”), it appears to have emerged at the right place and the right time. For those that could manage to learn and play it well, it was a passport to folk club bookings.
• Andy Warhol (August 6th, 1928 – February 22nd, 1987) as a precursor to the Pop Art movement, exhibited 100 Soup Cans with the iconic image of the can of Campbell’s Condensed soup.
•  The Rolling Stones formed after guitarist Brian Jones put an ad out in Jazz News seeking bandmates for an R&B group.
• May 29th: Adolf Eichmann was hanged, cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.
• Chester Burton ‘Chet’ Atkins (6/20/1924 – 6/30/2001) released his 19th studio album “Down Home” that included two of his signature guitar instrumentals, “Trombone” and “Windy and Warm.” Like Davey Graham’s “Anji”, it was a seminal piece of instrumental acoustic guitar music that surged through the acoustic folk and country communities of the day.
• Stuart Sutcliffe dies from a brain hemorrhage.
• Producer George Martin signed the Beatles to EMI’s Parlophone label for a one-year renewable contract.
• Brian Epstein dismissed Pete Best from the Beatles on August 16th.
• Richard Starkey, known as Ringo Starr, joined the Beatles; Starr had performed occasionally with The Beatles in Hamburg.
• The September EMI recording sessions with the Beatles produced the minor UK hit “Love Me Do,” which peaked on the charts at number 17. “Love Me Do” would reach the top of the U.S. singles chart in May 1964.
• Willie Nelson, a staff songwriter at Pamper Records, released his debut album ….And Then I Wrote in September.
• James Meredith won a lawsuit to secure admission to the segregated University of Mississippi. He first tried to enter the campus on September 20th, then the 25th, and again on the 26th. He was blocked by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, who said, “No school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your Governor.” The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held Barnett and Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson, Jr. in contempt with fines of $10,000 for each day they refused to allow Meredith to enroll. On September 30th, Meredith entered the campus under US Marshal escort sent by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Students and other whites began rioting that afternoon. They threw rocks and fired on the U.S. Marshals guarding Meredith at Lyceum Hall. Two people, including a French journalist, were killed; 28 marshals had gunshot wounds, and 160 others were injured. The Mississippi Highway Patrol withdrew from the campus and President John F. Kennedy responded by sending regular US Army forces to restore law and order. Meredith began classes the day after the troops arrived.
• The Beatles first televised performance was on the People and Places program, live from Manchester England by Granada Television on October 17th.
• October: A 13-day confrontation between the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States became known as The Cuban Missile Crisis. During the Cold War and following the Bay of Pigs Operation, the Cuban and Soviet governments secretly began to build bases in Cuba for medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles giving them the ability to strike most of the continental United States. Earlier, in 1958, America had provoked the Soviet Union by deploying Thor IRBMs in the UK (Project Emily) and in 1961 deploying Jupiter IRBMs in Italy and Turkey. By late 1961 there were more than 100 U.S. missiles in Europe capable of striking Moscow with nuclear warheads. On October 14th an Air Force U-2 plane established photographic proof of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba. The period that followed is generally regarded as the time the Cold War was closest to becoming a nuclear conflict. It also marked the first instance of the threat of Mutual Assured Destruction (M.A.D.) being a determining factor in a major international arms agreement. The U.S. set up a military blockade at sea and demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases in Cuba and remove all offensive weapons. Through secret communications initiated by Khrushchev, a proposal evolved to resolve the crisis. The confrontation ended on October 28th when President John F. Kennedy and United Nations Secretary-General U Thant reached a public and secret agreement with Khrushchev. The Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba subject to United Nations verification – in exchange for a US agreement never to invade Cuba. Secretly, the US also agreed to dismantle all U.S. built Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey and Italy. The blockade ended at 6:45 pm EDT on November 20th. An additional result of the crisis was a Hotline Agreement and a direct communications link between Moscow and Washington, D.C. was established.
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was published. Author Kenneth Elton ‘Ken’ Kesey (9/17/35–11/10/01) was a 1960s countercultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the ‘50s and the hippies of the ‘60s: “I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie.” . Kesey volunteered to participate in a secret study named: Project MKUltra (sometimes called the “mind control program”), financed by the CIA, at the California Menlo Park Veterans Hospital where he worked as a night aide. The purpose of the study was to assess the effects of psychotropic drugs on people (LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, AMT and DMT). One of the results was the inspiration to write the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He went on to entertain friends and acquaintances at chemically enhanced parties he called ‘Acid Tests’. The live music was frequently provided by Kesey’s favorite band, The Warlocks, which evolved into the Grateful Dead. These parties appeared in Alan Ginsberg’s (6/3/26–4/5/97) poems, Tom Wolfe’s (3/2/31-5/14/18) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Hunter S. Thompson’s (7/18/37–2/20/05) The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and Frank Reynolds (Secretary of the Hell’s Angels) Freewheelin’ Frank.

1963

• The first compact cassette recorder is released by Phillips.
• Davey Graham records and releases From a London Hootenanny (EP), with the first recording of guitar open tuning DADGAD. “She Moved Thro’ The Fair” is also on this EP with the Thamesiders, with Marlon Grey and Martin Carthy on guitars, and Pete Maynard on bass. The album was recorded in front of a live audience in the Decca studio.

• August: Swan Records released the Beatles “She Loves You,” which failed to get airplay. A testing of the song on Dick Clark’s TV show American Bandstand produced laughter from American teenagers when they saw the group’s distinctive hairstyles.
• On November 10th, a five minute news story shot in England about the Beatlemania phenomenon was shown on the CBS Evening News. The segment first aired on the CBS Morning News on November 22nd and had originally been scheduled to be repeated on that day’s Evening News, but regular programming was canceled following the assassination of John F. Kennedy that day.
• President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime but was murdered two days later by Jack Ruby before he could be put on trial.
• The Beatles second album With The Beatles was released on November 22nd – the same day John F. Kennedy was shot. By the end of the first week of release, the album had sold more than 500,000 copies. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was released as a single near the end of the year and reached the top of both the American and English charts. The way was clear for the Beatles to launch an American tour.
• Chuck Berry was released from prison.
• The Twist craze was diminishing and record companies began to shift toward the surf music boom.
• Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy released Muddy Waters: Folk Singer on Chess Records.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15th, 1929-April 4th, 1968), delivered his I Have A Dream speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial toward the Mall in Washington DC for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 (police) to over 300,000 (leaders of the march). 22-year-old Bob Dylan sang “Only a Pawn in Their Game” and was then joined by Joan Baez for “When the Ship Comes in.”Peter, Paul and Mary performed Lee Hayes’ “The Hammer Song (If I Had a Hammer).”
• Odetta performed the song “I’m On My Way” in front of the Lincoln Memorial and with Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. right behind her during the March on Washington. The song became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.
• Violinist John Berry joined with audio engineer Les Barcus to develop the Barcus-Berry piezo pickup system. This was the first pickup suitable for acoustic guitar.

1964