Some 50's & 60's Rockers

Larry Collins ~ 79 ~ American 1950's Rockabilly guitarist w/The Collins Kids and songwriter ("Delta Dawn")

THE COLLINS KIDS ~ "HOY HOY";


THE COLLINS KIDS ~ "STAGGER LEE";


THE COLLINS KIDS ~ "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE";


THE COLLINS KIDS ~ "JOHNNY B GOODE";


THE COLLINS KIDS ~ "SHAKE RATTLE & ROLL";


Jimmy Van Eaton ~ 86 ~ Rockabilly drummer with Sun Records, played with Jerry Lee Lewis, Billy Lee Riley, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, Charlie Feathers, Bill Justis, Hayden Thompson and Ray Smith

JERRY LEE LEWIS ~ "WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN";


JOHNNY CASH ~ "I WALK THE LINE";


ROY ORBISON ~ "CRYING";


BILLY LEE RILEY ~ "HIGH HEEL SNEAKERS";


Johnny Knight ~ 86 (real name Johnny Mangiagli, AKA Johnny Donn, Johnny Marlo, Johnny Manjelli & the Gamma Goochee, 1950's New York Rockabilly singer/guitarist

JOHNNY KNIGHT ~ "THE ROCK & ROLL GUITAR";




Mary Weiss ~ 75 ~ Singer with 1960's Girl Group the Shangri-La's ("Leader Of The Pack", "Remember Walking In The Sand")

THE SHANGRI-LAS ~ "THE LEADER OF THE PACK";


THE SHANGRI-LAS ~ "REMEMBER WALKING IN THE SAND";


THE SHANGRI-LAS ~ "GIVE HIM A GREAT BIG KISS";


THE SHANGRI-LAS ~ "SHOUT";


John Lowe - 81 - Pianist with early 60's UK band The Quarrymen

THE QUARRYMEN ~ "IN SPITE OF ALL THE DANGER";


THE QUARRYMEN ~ "THAT'LL BE THE DAY";


John Blunt ~ 80's ~ Drummer with UK 60's Beat band the Searchers ("Needles & Pins", "Sugar & Spice")

THE SEARCHERS ~ "NEEDLES & PINS";


THE SEARCHERS ~ "LOVE POTION NUMBER 9";


THE SEARCHERS ~ "SWEETS FOR MY SWEET";


THE SEARCHERS ~ "SUGAR & SPICE";


Ian Amey - 79 - Guitarist/singer with 1960's English band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH ~ "THE LEGEND OF XANADU";


DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH ~ "HIDEAWAY";


DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH ~ "BEND IT";


Gavin Webb - 77 - Bassist with Australian rock band The Masters Apprentices

THE MASTERS APPRENTICES ~ "IT'S BECAUSE I LOVE YOU";


THE MASTERS APPRENTICES ~ "TURN UP YOUR RADIO";


David Libert - 60's - Singer with 1960's American Pop group the Happenings, songwriter w/the Chiffons, the Tokens and Gerry & the Pacemakers, manager & agent for Alice Cooper, the Runaways, Vanilla Fudge, Parliament Funkadelic, Living Color, Shelia E

THE HAPPENINGS ~ "I GOT RHYTHM";


THE HAPPENINGS ~ "SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER";


Melanie - 76 - American singer-songwriter ("Brand New Key", "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)") and guitarist

MELANIE - "LAY DOWN (CANDLES IN THE RAIN)";


MELANIE ~ "LOOK WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO MY SONG";


Bill Hayes - 98 - American singer 1950's Pop & Country singer ("The Ballad of Davy Crockett") and later actor ("Days Of Our Lives")

BILL HAYES ~ "BALLAD OF DAVY CROCKETT";


BILL HAYES ~ "WIMOWEH";


BILL HAYES ~ "WANDERING";


Steve Lawrence - 88 - American singer ("Go Away Little Girl", "Footsteps") and actor (The Blues Brothers)

STEVE LAWRENCE ~ "GO AWAY LITTLE GIRL";


Frank Ifield - 86 - Australian 1950's & 60's Pop singer ("I Remember You", "Lovesick Blues", "The Wayward Wind")

FRANK IFIELD ~ "I REMEBER YOU";

RIP to Jerry Leiber

Exhibit A;
"Hound Dog" ~ Big Mama Thorton w/ Buddy Guy;




Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were the greatest songwriters of the early rock & Roll/R&B era bar none. Their catalog reads like a how-to list for everything Rock & Roll, was, is and always should be. Which it is.

Exhibit B;
"Jail House Rock" ~ Elvis Presley;



How it took a couple of nice Jewish kids from New York to figure out how to take the the raw sounds of blues and doo-wop and modernize them for an new audience of white kids is one of those great unanswerable questions of pop culture history but Leiber and Stoller were there even before Phil Spector, Alan Freed, Bill Haley or Elvis. If not Sam Phillips. But while Phillips was a producer with a fine ear, he was no songwriter Leiber and Stoller were.

Exhibit C;
"Love potion number 9" ~ The Searchers;



The list of songs in their catalog includes no less than a hundred chart hits for a bewildering array of artists including, but not limited to;
The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Walker Bros, Rolling Stones, Ben E King, Drifters, Coasters, Wilbert Harrison, Beach Boys, Dion, Billy Thorpe, Searchers, Little Richard, The Crystals, Drifters, Brenda Lee, Bad Company, Tony Sheridan, The Hollies, Diamonds, Cheers, Freddie Bell, Big Mama Thorton, Jimmy Witherspoon, The Kinks, Lords, Groupies, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr.Feelgood, Otis Redding, Mickey Gilley, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Burnett, Gene Vincent, Albert King, Koko Taylor,Dave Clark Five, Manfred Mann, Paramounts, Del Shannon, Animals, Merle Haggard, Link Wray, Frankie Lymon, Carl Perkins, Wayne Fontana, Ventures, Freddie & The Dreamers, Sha Na Na (of course) and ...ummm...Alvin and the Chipmunks, several times.

Exhibit D;
"Poison Ivy" ~ Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs;




The Duo started out in the 1950's as writers with hits for such blues and R&B figures as Big Mama Thorton, Wilbert Harrison and Jimmy Witherspoon before they were surprised to find one of those songs, "Hound Dog", become a hit for a young largely unknown white kid named Elvis. They would write a series of other hit song for him including "Love Me", "Loving You", "Don't", "Jailhouse Rock" and "King Creole". However most of their time would be writing numerous hits for black artists like the Coasters and Ben E King throughout the 1960's.

Exhibit E;
"I'm a hog for you" ~ The Lords;




They would also also branch out into owning record label Red Bird Records, which issued the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" and the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love" which they did not write however. As producers they also acted as mentors to the young Phil Spector. They also won a ton of awards.

Exhibit F;
"Kansas City" ~ The Beatles;



As time went on their tastes went to more elaborate pop songs that would lead to hits for Edith Piaf and Peggy Lee. They would continue into the 1970's with hits for Stealer's Wheel, Earth Wind and Fire, Elkie Brooks, George Benson, Steely Dan and Mezzo-soprano Joan Morris and her pianist-composer husband William Bolcom, which had little to do with rock and roll.

Exhibit G;
"Ruby Baby" ~ Dion;



However they also lived to see their early Rock and R&B hots are still covered down to the punk era by the likes of Dr.Feelgood, The Lambrettas, Los Straitjackets, Mink DeVille, El Vez, Queen, Mötley Crüe, Brownsville Station, Patti Smith, ZZ Top, Twisted Sister, The Cramps, AC/DC, MDC, White Stripes, Flotsam & Jetsam, Motorhead, Pennywise and The Blues Brothers (This version was the ending song of the movie, performed with other musicians such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway), even Negativeland and John Oswald. They were usually good sports about that, if somewhat bemused.

Exhibit H;
"Searchin'" ~ The Coasters;




Jerry Leiber died at the age of 78 on August 22, 2011, from cardio-pulmonary failure.

Exhibit I;
"Stand by me" ~ Ben E. King;



Exhibit J;
"There goes my baby" ~ The Walker Bros.;



Exhibit K;
"Stand by me" ~ John Lennon;