Rock & Roll's Growing Pains
All was not well with "the establishment" when Alan Freed, among other radio and TV teen gurus,
ushered in what Freed would term "Rock & Roll." It was preached against in church pulpits.
Politicos, especially Mc Carthy, deemed it "an invention of Communism to bring moral decay
in America. Bible belt congressional leaders termed Rock & Roll "Jungle Music," referring
to black artists who sang the doo wops and Rhythm & Blues upbeats.
DISCUSS THE EARLY, ROCKY DAYS OF
Artists like Pat Boone and The Crew Cuts would homogenize R&B rock by recording
"white versions" covering songs by Little Richard (yes, Boone sang on Dot Records "Tutti Fruiti") and
Fats Domino (Boone also released his version of "Ain't That A Shame." The Crew Cuts
almost single handedly covered every doo wop hit released.
Elvis Presley was nicknamed by the press as "Elvis The Pelvis," his hip swirls were deemed
immoral and, until Ed Sullivan stepped in, could be seen on television only from the
abdomen up.
The term "juvenile delinquency" was a police and school umbrella term for every rascally act
perpetrated by teenagers, from truancy to graffiti. And when rumor spread that then fifteen
year old Frankie Lymon danced with a white girl on either Dick Clark's "American Bandstand"
or Alan Freeds "Big Beat Show," furor rose that Lymon should be banned from public
entertainment (no one bothered to mention he got screwed out of his hit record royalties
by white record company executives). No teen dance show producer ever affirmed the
rumor, most shows had girls from the audience dance with male guest stars and vice
versa).
Freed, however, got the idea for someone to write "I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent" and that
Frankie Lymon and his Teenagers should record and perform the angelic ditty in his movie,
"Rock Rock Rock." Fact was, Lymon never lost his huge following and drew crowds at every
Freed rock concert, until the feds closed them down.
You can read Frankie Lymons biography on our other Classic Oldies Video Juke Box
performances:
JUKE 10 GOODY GOODY
JUKE 12 WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE
ROCK & ROLL
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