"Stairway to Heaven" is the greatest song of the classic rock radio format. It's not the greatest song of rock 'n' roll. Somewhere between fifteen and thirty is fine for it.

I don't necessarily disagree with that but wouldn't some of Bill Haley's earlier recordings qualify as rockabilly as well?

Yes, but those records didn't have anywhere NEAR the same effect.

Still Bill Haley, whose western swing recordings since the late 1940's laid much of the groundwork of what was to become rockabilly in the mid-1950's (and some of his recordings from 1954 should already count as rockabilly as I see it), should get some credit for the evolution of rockabilly as well, even if there isn't one certain Bill Haley recording that had the musical impact "That's All Right" had in 1955. You're mixing up innovation/influence and inspiration/musical impact again.

Haley was important, I never said otherwise.

But it took Elvis to make rockabilly a true marketable genre that was loved by everyone.

And I, too, never said otherwise. Brian called "That's All Right" the first true rockabilly record though. I think that's quite an overstatement, and I'd like to hear why he thinks that. That was the deeper meaning of my initial response to his post.

To me, rockabilly is a southern mixture of blues and country, while Haley was a northerner who mixed R&B and western swing. Haley also, at least sometimes, used instruments that aren't normally used in rockabilly. For a couple of sources that agree with my interpretation, first there's Bruce from the Rockabilly Songs page:

'Rockabilly' was born in 1954 when Elvis Presley recorded a blues song with a 'country & western' rhythm ("That's All Right"). The instruments in Rockabilly were simple, guitar, stand-up bass, drums, and sometimes piano. The vocals were uptempo, and often included hiccups, stutters, and vocal swoops from falsetto to bass and back. This was quite a change from the standard radio tunes of the time and brought a sense of excitement, rebelliousness, and freedom that teenagers hungered for. By the end of the 1950s the original Rockabilly sound, for the most part, had evolved into mainstream Rock 'n' Roll.

http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_songs-rbilly.html

Then some quotes from Peter Guralnick (Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock 'n' Roll, p. 67-68):

"Rockabilly ... is preserved in perfect isolation within an indistinct time period, bounded on the one hand by the July 1954 release of Elvis's first record..."

"It was called rockabilly, because it was not the clankety rock of Bill Haley & His Comets nor the hillbilly sound of Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb but a fusion of the two."

I would agree with that, but I always though rockabilly was a combo of country and r&b?

Isn't that nitpicking? Western swing is a form of country, and R&B can also be seen as a form of blues. And the place of origin itself shouldn't be a deciding factor.


Referring to the saxophone? There's none in "Rock the Joint" from 1952.


Bruce is not a legitimate source. Notice which song he has at #70? So much for "That's All Right" as the first one. Sadly they don't provide any further sources.


Does he give an explanation on why Bill Haley's "clankety rock" differs so much from the musical style of "That's All Right" that it would justify putting them into different genres?

ugghh...Bohemian Rhapsody out of top 15 is just...so wrong.

I would have to agree.

Elaborate.

Stop with this obsession about artists/songs/albums needing to be a certain number to "suit" their greatness.

Guys, Bo Rhap is my favorite song, but honestly, it's essentially lucky to have a place in 16-20. I actually like it where it is.

Base ten will be the death of DDD.