OT: Oh Baby, You Know What I Like!

[JavaMan]

Hard to believe it was on this day 58 years ago that the music died. I've always wondered what we never got to hear. Anybody else old enough to remember their tunes?

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[bags27]

 

[bags27]

I love the intro to this....

 

[bags27]

 

[Sonny44]

Oh yes, have all their songs.
I wept, still do.

 

[Bliss]

I'm old enough. Sad time for sure.

 

[Ron and Vida]

Hard to believe it was on this day 58 years ago that the music died. I've always wondered what we never got to hear. Anybody else old enough to remember their tunes?

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You bet. It happened on my 16th birthday so was an unforgettable da y for me

 

[meyers7]

Wasn't born yet. But still sad.

 

[JordyG]

I'm old enough to remember these guys. I've always found however this phrase "The day the music died" to be at best specious. I grew up just a few minutes from the Paramount Theater is Brooklyn. R & R didn't die that day man, it wasn't even stillborn. It thrived, and I've the memory of seeing over 100 live music acts before the age of 12 to prove it.

 

[McFly]

I love the intro to this....

Different time, to be sure. My favorite singer at the time. Speaking of hair, the drummer's TC reminds me that egregious transgressions of convention, such as that and the DA, were forbidden at the high school I attended.

 

[Scud49]

The music never really died, it flourished:

 

[donalddoowop]

That was the day their music died. Rhythm and Blues, Doo Wop and Soul continued. I am one of the people who is helping to keep it alive in St. Louis by still performing with my vocal group. People here who grew up in the 50's and 60's still like to see groups perform the music from back then. I remember the day it happened. I was leaving Jr. College when I heard it on the radio. JordyG, I envy you. You got to see some acts that never came to St. Louis and you were there where so many shows were put on on a regular basis. Some Big Shows came here but we usually had to settle for talent shows and the talent here was as good as any anywhere. I guess you got to see The Spaniels, The Dells, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and so many other acts including the groups from New York, those nationally known and those regionally known. I have read about those shows. And yes, I remember all of the songs of those who were on that plane. I still have "Donna" by Richie Valens.

 

[JordyG]

That was the day their music died. Rhythm and Blues, Doo Wop and Soul continued. I am one of the people who is helping to keep it alive in St. Louis by still performing with my vocal group. People here who grew up in the 50's and 60's still like to see groups perform the music from back then. I remember the day it happened. I was leaving Jr. College when I heard it on the radio. JordyG, I envy you. You got to see some acts that never came to St. Louis and you were there where so many shows were put on on a regular basis. Some Big Shows came here but we usually had to settle for talent shows and the talent here was as good as any anywhere. I guess you got to see The Spaniels, The Dells, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and so many other acts including the groups from New York, those nationally known and those regionally known. I have read about those shows. And yes, I remember all of the songs of those who were on that plane. I still have "Donna" by Richie Valens.

Go 'head man. I never saw Frankie, but The Dells and The Spaniels, with my (10 years older) sisters, yeah. Later when Freed got fried for the payola scandals and the show was taken over by first Clay Cole and Murray the K, then Murray alone, I was old enough to become a real regular. The 1961 Easter Parade of Stars at the Paramount and the shows at the Fox are most indelible.

 

[Sonny44]

Betcha don't remember this one.

 

[wire chief]

I too grew up in the NY environs and traveled to the NY Paramount, Brooklyn Paramount and Fox.
I remember too this Crickets song left me queasy. Such an anomaly among the love tales and broken hearts.
I imagine it was the first straightforward expression of rock star entitlement.

 

[Icebear]

I'm old enough to remember these guys. I've always found however this phrase "The day the music died" to be at best specious. I grew up just a few minutes from the Paramount Theater is Brooklyn. R & R didn't die that day man, it wasn't even stillborn. It thrived, and I've the memory of seeing over 100 live music acts before the age of 12 to prove it.

Then you don't understand where the music died. It wasn't all of Rock and Roll that died.

 

[Husky pride]

How could anyone around, at the time, ever forget these guys and their music? Every time I see a photo-- or hear their sound-- it brings a smile!! ( If you haven't already seen it, you shouldn't miss "The Richie Valens Story". Heart-breakingly sad, but great movie)!!

 

[donalddoowop]

How could anyone around, at the time, ever forget these guys and their music? Every time I see a photo-- or hear their sound-- it brings a smile!! ( If you haven't already seen it, you shouldn't miss "The Richie Valens Story". Heart-breakingly sad, but great movie)!!

It had one BIG lie. It was said in the movie something to the effect that Valens was the one who started rock and roll. He did not become nationally known until 1959 and that was well after the Golden Age of Rhythm & Blues. He came along about the time that music was starting to decline. Rock & Roll was the name given to Rhythm & Blues by Alan Freed and other white music people involved back then so that it would be more attractive to the white audience.

 

[Bestiarius]

My friends and I attended the first Alan Freed Rock & Roll show at the Brooklyn Paramount and some of the subsequent shows. It was scary to attend that first show. We were from Northern NJ and took the bus to the NY Port Authority terminal at the George Washington bridge, then the subway to Brooklyn from there. All this was new and exotic to us, and we worried about being accosted by teen-aged gangs in the big city. All went smoothly, but we were uncomfortable being out of our element.

The 1st show was great, but the subsequent shows were better because increasingly they included the R&B groups we were interested in - The Flamingos, Cleftones, Cadillacs, etc. By 1957, the shows were truly great, so many acts! The backup band for all these shows was the same. Heavy on the Sax and they were great musicians.

We were totally not into the pop acts of the day. When Pat Boone covered Little Richard songs like Tutti Frutti, we were outraged. I still have all the old 45 RPM records, most of which weren't carried in our local record stores. The 50's, a great time to grow up.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

When the Jester sung for the King and Queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean ....

 

[donalddoowop]

My friends and I attended the first Alan Freed Rock & Roll show at the Brooklyn Paramount and some of the subsequent shows. It was scary to attend that first show. We were from Northern NJ and took the bus to the NY Port Authority terminal at the George Washington bridge, then the subway to Brooklyn from there. All this was new and exotic to us, and we worried about being accosted by teen-aged gangs in the big city. All went smoothly, but we were uncomfortable being out of our element.

The 1st show was great, but the subsequent shows were better because increasingly they included the R&B groups we were interested in - The Flamingos, Cleftones, Cadillacs, etc. By 1957, the shows were truly great, so many acts! The backup band for all these shows was the same. Heavy on the Sax and they were great musicians.

We were totally not into the pop acts of the day. When Pat Boone covered Little Richard songs like Tutti Frutti, we were outraged. I still have all the old 45 RPM records, most of which weren't carried in our local record stores. The 50's, a great time to grow up.

I envy you just as I envy JordyG. I never saw any of those groups in person but I have ALL of their hits.

 

[Carnac]

I'm old enough to remember them, and where I was when I first heard the news of their deaths. It was the first time in my childhood that I saw on the news the reports of deaths of a group of famous entertainers at the same time. Their music was on all of the top 40 (format) radio stations in the LA area (KRLA, KDAY, KFWB, KHJ, etc. Some of them produced special "tribute" shows to them that aired in the days and weeks that followed. There are some news stories that we hear/see, that we'll never forget. This for me is one of them. The music world was cheated the day the music died.

 

[JordyG]

Further, the phrase "Rock and Roll" was a slang word in black culture at the time that meant to have sex. So earlier did the word "Jazz". So really in the black community on both occasions, it was a kind of "in" joke when others began to call R & B, Rock and Roll and the music before it, Jazz. Alan Freed was not stupid and realized there was a money making opportunity in this music for both the musicians and those who advocated for it. R & B was called race music. R & B concerts were being raided, performers were being put in jail, records were being smashed, recording studio's were being threatened, burned and boycotted, and producers were being hit with lawsuits and threatened with jail time. Freed smartly realized the phrase R & B had a connotation, a stigma, and changing the name ultimately changed the perception and the paradigm for the greater majority of the people in this country. He positioned himself at the forefront of a musical movement. The powers that be saw through the disguise and ultimately he was set up for the payola scandal which ruined him.

 

[donalddoowop]

Freed and so many other Disc Jockeys. Dick Clark was just as guilty but for reasons I won't discuss, what he did was ignored by the powers that be.

 

[JordyG]

Freed and so many other Disc Jockeys. Dick Clark was just as guilty but for reasons I won't discuss, what he did was ignored by the powers that be.

Yeah. True. But Clark redeemed himself in my eyes with the financial support he gave to Jackie Wilson's medical costs as he wasted away in a coma. Elvis Presley too, who also paid for Jackie's grave and tombstone.