Blue Suede Shoes

…break came in 1956 with “Blue Suede Shoes,” which he wrote after observing a dancer taking pains to preserve his new footwear. The song made the Top Five on the pop, country, and rhythm-and-blues charts, an unprecedented feat. En route to New York City to perform on national television, Carl…

…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…