rockabilly

rockabilly, early form of rock music originated by white performers in the American South, popular from the mid-1950s to 1960, with a revival in the late 1970s. Record reviewers coined the term rockabilly—literally, rock and roll played by hillbillies—to describe the intense, rhythm-driven musical style introduced by Elvis Presley on his first recordings.

In the late 1940s radio was broadcasting blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel music, exciting listeners across North America and inspiring young, white, working-class musicians—especially those in locales with African-American populations—to mix Black music styles with the country music styles with which they were already familiar (western swing, hillbilly boogie, bluegrass, and honky tonk). The result was initially labeled country-and-western rhythm and blues, but it became known as rockabilly despite the mostly derogatory connotation of the word hillbilly.

In July 1954, in his first session for Sam Phillips’s Sun label of Memphis, Tennessee, Presley recorded two songs that would lay the foundation for rockabilly: “That’s All Right,” written by Mississippi bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and a hopped-up version of “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” a mid-tempo waltz by Bill Monroe, the creator of bluegrass. Presley sang with African-American inflections and more emotional intensity than country singers of the time. He accompanied himself on strummed acoustic guitar, Scotty Moore provided fills with electric guitar, and Bill Black added propulsive upright bass as the trio established rockabilly’s quintessential instrumentation. Following this blueprint, rockabilly records typically featured a wildly expressive vocalist tearing into a bluesy song while flailing away on an acoustic guitar. Backing was provided by a bass played in the slapping style, frequently supported by a drummer; an electric guitarist filled the gaps and took an energetic solo; and the whole sound was enlarged by a studio effect called slap-back, or “Sun echo,” developed by Phillips.

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Presley, Moore, and Black, along with drummer D.J. Fontana, toured the South almost continually in 1954 and 1955, igniting audiences. Moreover, they inspired numerous musicians to make the switch from country to rockabilly, among them Buddy Holly and Marty Robbins, the latter already an established star. Almost all the rockabilly recorded in these early years was produced by musicians who had seen Presley perform. In 1956 Presley, by then signed to RCA and recording in Nashville, Tennessee, captivated millions with his performances on prime-time television and sold millions of records. Labels scrambled for similar performers, finding singers like Gene Vincent, whose “Be-Bop-A-Lula” soon hit the charts.

Sun recorded rockabilly by Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Sonny Burgess, and many others. Among the label’s brightest stars was Carl Perkins, whose “Blue Suede Shoes,” the genre’s best-known song, was a hit for Presley, though Perkins’s own version was much more characteristically rockabilly. Nashville country stars jumped on the bandwagon, as did young female performers such as Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee, and Janis Martin. Other places developed strong rockabilly communities, including Texas (where Buddy Knox, Sleepy LaBeef, Ronnie Dawson, and future country star George Jones were based) and California (home of Ricky Nelson, Eddie Cochran, and the Collins Kids). Still, of the thousands of rockabilly songs recorded in the 1950s, few made the charts. As rockabilly evolved, more sounds entered—piano, saxophone, harmony singing, background vocal groups—thus diluting its sound. By the end of the 1950s, rockabilly was spent.

Several factors, including the death of Presley in 1977, led to a rockabilly revival in the late 1970s that began in Europe. Fans wore 1950s-style clothes, collected old records, and brought veteran rockabillies overseas to festivals. Some erstwhile rockabillies, such as Charlie Feathers and Johnny Burnette’s Rock and Roll Trio, received more recognition in the revival than they had in the genre’s heyday. Younger bands formed, notably the Stray Cats from Long Island, New York. Finding acceptance in England, they brought a hard, lean version of rockabilly back to the United States, where their caricature look made an impact during MTV’s early days. As a result of the revival, rockabilly became popular in countries as different as Japan and Russia.