THE SONGS THAT MADE ROCK AND ROLL

The Stories Behind the Recordings, the Artists and the Pioneering Innovations

From its first disreputable steps in 1940s America, rock and roll set out on an extraordinary musical journey. Along the way it assimilated an enormous diversity of ideas, constantly evolving as artists came up with striking innovations to create the music we know today.

In his extensively researched account of the musical evolution of rock and roll, Graham Bennett tells the fascinating stories of 27 seminal recordings which introduced a novel innovation that inspired and was then adopted by other musicians – the songs that made rock and roll. He delves into each song’s history, explaining how the recording came about, why it was innovative and the way it influenced rock and roll.

Who, for example, introduced the backbeat to rock and roll (and it wasn’t the famous drummer who is credited as the pioneer)? How were acoustic bass players inspired to switch to the electric bass guitar, despite the fact that the bassist they saw couldn’t find an amplifier to plug it in? Why did every guitarist suddenly want to buy a fuzz box, a device that for years had been virtually unsellable?

The detailed accounts explain the surprising ways in which the innovations arose and how they shaped a revolutionary form of music. Readers will discover that the decisive developments came about not only through artistic creativity but also with the timely assistance of accidents, mistakes and luck.

The Songs That Made Rock and Roll will give anyone interested in the genre’s musical development an understanding of the remarkable story of how it evolved into a uniquely rich, diverse and vibrant style that became the most popular form of music in the modern world.