1954-1963 -- Rock's Early Years
1954

January 4 -- Sam Phillips figures out what to do with Elvis. "That's All Right" was released July 19, 1954, taped on the two Ampex 350 recorders Phillips used to create the "slapback" audio delay that became a trademark sound of Sun records.

April 12 -- Bill Haley and the Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" and "Shake, Rattle and Roll".

July 5 -- Elvis records "That's All Right."

July 7 -- "That's All Right" gets airplay in Memphis.

First transistor portable radio introduced.

RCA Victor sold the first prerecorded open reel stereo tapes for $12.95.

1955

Variety assesses rock and roll -- "It will be gone by June."

78 rpm disc production had ceased.

70% of U.S. households have telephone service.

November 10 -- Sam Phillips sold his recording contract with Elvis to RCA and Colonel Tom Parker for $35,000.

The third time it is released, Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" hits #1, the only legit rock song in the Top Ten that year. Initially, the song bombed. It was only after appearing in the movie The Blackboard Jungle that it struck gold, establishing rock and roll as a commercial genre.

1956

January 10 -- Elvis Presley recorded "Heartbreak Hotel" in Nashville at his first session for RCA.

January 31 -- John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) born.

1957

American Bandstand joins ABC Television and becomes the single most powerful record promotion since the advent of Top 40 radio. Bandstand sells more records than any previous avenue of exposure.

May 28 -- The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) was founded in Hollywood by Paul Weston of Columbia, Lloyd Dunn of Capitol, Sonny Burke of Decca, Jesse Kaye of MGM and Henri Rene and Dennis Farnon of RCA Victor, with Jim Conkling of Columbia as its first president, and began to grant the annual Grammy Awards in 1959 for the best recordings and performers of 1958. Tom Stockham received the first Technical Grammy Award in 1994.

"Rock and roll is the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression - lewd, sly, in plain fact, dirty - a rancid-smelling aphrodisiac and the martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth." -- Frank Sinatra

July 6 -- John Lennon meets Paul McCartney

1958 World standard for stereo records established, and first stereo LPs sold
1959 Seeburg sold the "Background Music System" with 16-2/3 rpm records.
1960

Payola declared illegal. Dick Clark, who owned the rights to "Sixteen Candles," managed Duane Eddy and mercilessly plugged him on American Bandstand, gets off because he's such a "nice young man." Alan Freed, having taken an undeserved songwriting credit on "Maybelline," gets crucified because he was not Dick Clark.

Networks ban news documentaries other than their own.

The Untouchables leads U.S. Senate to study televison violence.

FCC chairman resigns over fraternizing with industry.

Working Laser produced.

1961

Guitarist Hank Garland, writer of "Jingle Bell Rock", has an auto accident, just as he has begun to question the fact that he never received any royalties. Garland was put in a mental institution, where some electro-shock therapy effectively erased all chances that Garland's career might continue, although he did play one song at the Grand Ole Opry in the 70s. Garland died in December, 2004. He never did get paid.

Or maybe he did (see comment #10, by Cheryl Garland). Or not (with quotes from Hank Garland like, "I have reason to believe somebody might have shot my tire because I knew too much").

1962

January 1 -- The Beatles record several demos only to receive a rejection from Decca Records saying, "We don't like their sound and guitar music is on the way out.

Aug 17 -- Beatles replace Pete Best with Ringo Starr

Sept 11 -- Beatles record "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You"

1963

The Mellotron electronic music sampler recorded musical notes on loops of tape for each key on a keyboard. The Mellotron could create realistic sounds of different instruments such as a clarinet or violin. It was used by the Beatles and Pink Floyd, and by Led Zeppelin to create the flute sound at start of the 1971 recording of Stairway to Heaven. Music samplers would not be able to record digitally until Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie in 1979 developed the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument (CMI) that used 500k floppy disks.

Philips demonstrated its first compact audio cassette using high-quality BASF polyester 1/8-inch tape that ran at 1-7/8 ips; sold the next year in the U.S. with the Norelco Carry-Corder dictation machine, but the demand for blank tape used for personal music recording was unanticipated by Philips.

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