Education Department Research Portal: The 1950's

Story of Alan Freed the "Moondog" at Cleveland's WJW, rock & roll's first prominent spokesman and promoter.

The world-famous musician talks about his childhood, his blindness, the years on the road developing and perfecting his musical style, and his attitudes toward women, drugs, religion, and death.

Recounts the second half of Elvis Presley's life, from his army service in 1958 Germany through his death in 1977, and focuses on his relationship with manager Colonel Tom Parker.

Basses burbled low, tenors soared, leads wailed, and choruses chanted in harmony in the earliest doowop groups as this cutting-edge early rock 'n' roll music captured the atmosphere of the era, a long-ago sound that touches the emotions even today. Doowop rose out of teen culture on the streets of Chicago and other big cities in the 1950s, creating a new type of music that largely supplanted the old forms of rhythm and blues and pop music.

Peppermint and pickles -- "Look what the mailman brung!" -- Forces' sweetheart -- "The girl is dead" -- Ahmet, Herb and me -- Lighthouse keeping -- With Mr. B and the Count -- The "Great" Bundini -- Oh, what a dream -- Rock children -- Mama, he treats your daughter mean -- Mrs. Showbiz -- "Nurse Blunt" -- Redd Foxx to the rescue -- Bundini returns; Swanson too -- A brand-new bitch -- Black and blue -- Howell in action -- On Capitol Hill -- Motormouth meets Jesse Jackson -- Hall of Fame -- Skeletons in the closet -- Love of my life -- Atlantic settles -- "Ain't no band playin' this time" -- Long live royalty reform -- My way of evangelizing

Includes discography, filmography, and index