The Music of 1956

1956 was a great year for lead singer Tony Williams and The Platters, with four songs on the charts. Best remembered of these is The Great Pretender.
 
 
 

Good fortune fell upon Frankie Lymon at the tender age of 13. He and his school buddies from Harlem, The Teenagers, scored big with Why Do Fools Fall In Love? Lymon, with his high voice, adorable smile and famous splits was an instant success. He married three times, once to Zola Taylor of the Platters. No divorces. And, some sources credit his dancing with a white girl on Alan Freed's CBS-TV Rock 'N' Roll Dance Party with cancellation of that show. Sadly, Lymon died of a drug overdose in 1968 at the age of 25.

 

In New Orleans a fellow from Macon, Georgia by the name of Richard Wayne Penniman was overheard pounding a rock tune on the piano during a recording session break. Throw in a hint of gospel and alot of mascara and you've got Little Richard. That tune, by the way, was Tutti Frutti. A-wop bop a-loo bop a-lop bam boom.
 
 
 

At Sun Records in Memphis they were known as the Million Dollar Quartet - Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Yeap! Johnny Cash. His early roots were more R&B and a little Rock. Bet you didn't know he's a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. In 1956 he recorded the classic I Walk The Line.