HOW TORONTO STIMULATED THE ORIGINS OF ROCK AND ROLL

The Idol and Got Talent TV shows are high tech copies of several early versions.  From 1934 to 1945 Major Edward Bowes MC'd the Original Amateur Hour.   Frank Sinatra appeared in a show with The Hoboken Four.  Bowes passed away and Ted Mack brought the show to television, running until 1970.  Discovered were Gladys Knight and Irene Cara in their early youth, Teresa Brewer, Pat Boone,  Jerry Vale, Ann-Margaet, and Tanya Tucker.

Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts ran on CBS from 1946 to 1958, finding Pat Boone (before Ted Mack), the Chordettes, McGuire Sisters, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, The Diamonds, Eddie Fisher, Connie Francis, Steve Lawrence, Al Martino, Jonathan Winters and Patsy Cline.  Buddy Holly, The Four Freshmen and Elvis Presley auditioned, but did not make the cut.  Arthur Godfrey can be given credit for putting Toronto on the map for helping spur the early days of Rock and Roll.

It took me 60 years, but I finally figured out that Toronto, Canada was the origin of several of my favorite songs and can be credited with helping kick-off Rock and Roll:

• Istanbul (1953):  Four Lads
• Sh-Boom (1954):  Crew-Cuts
• Moments to Remember (1955):  Four Lads
• Little Darlin' (1957):  Diamonds

In fact, you can get a lot more specific, for both The Four Lads and The Crewcuts came from St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto.  Mitch Miller signed The Four Lads to  in 1951 sing back-up for Johnny Ray's Cry and The Little White Cloud that Cried.  Then in 1953 came their first hit, Istanbul (not Constantinople, #10), followed in 1955 with Moments to Remember, (#2), No Not Much (#2) and Standing on the Corner (#3).  They never made it to #1.

Two originals from The Four Lads, joined two others to form The Crew-Cuts in 1953, named for their hair style, got their break on Arthur Godfreys's Talent Scouts, and were an opening act for Gisele MacKenzie.  In 1954 they covered The Chords hit, Sh-Boom, and hit #1.  Later that year, they did it again, besting The Penguins by reaching #3 with Earth Angel.  Over time, though, The Penguins sold 10 million copies of Earth Angel.

In 1953, David Somerville was working as a sound engineer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, and teamed with three others to form The Diamonds.  In 1955 they came in first on Talent Scouts, and after a few minor hits, released Little Darlin' in 1957, reaching #2.  Their Stroll that year peaked at #4.

In 1956 four students at Hollywood High School (in California) formed The Four Preps and in 1957 wrote and performed on 26 Miles (Catalina), reaching #2 in 1958.  They also did Big Man in 1960, hitting #13.  I mention them because in 1966, David Somerville replaced one of the originals, and now sings for both The Diamonds and The Four Preps.

Here is Somerville (extreme left) as a Four Prep from PBS' Magic Moments:

I toss in The Lettermen, because Jim Pike of that group also is part of the Four Preps.  I recall watching The Lettermen entertaining us in Toyon Hall on the Stanford Campus around 1961 with The Way You Look Tonight (#13) and When I Fall in Love (#7).  

Here is a great million dollar question.  Link The Association with these groups.  They had two #1 songs, Cherish in 1966 and Windy in 1967.  The answer?  Go do this research yourself.  In any case, Toronto was an important influence in the very early days of Rock and Roll.  I get many pleasant memories of my stops in Toronto, from picking raspberries to admiring the progressive society for which they're proud.  On the other hand, maybe, with former Mayor Rob Ford, too much so:

Can't end with that, so let me say that a long, long time ago I actually went to a Bubblegum Pop concert there, a genre which featured Tommy James and The Shondells (Mony Mony), The Partridge Family (C'mon Get Happy) and The Lemon Pipers (Green Tambourine).  Of course, the Archies (Sugar, Sugar).  But they were a fictional garage band and never performed.  Oh, unless you really like freezing weather, go to Toronto only during the summer months.

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COVID-19: The Roots of Rock and Roll

From Worldometer, I have adjusted this table to show how new deaths best determine the phase of COVID-19:

DAY     China   Italy   USA   Spain   Germany   S. Korea  WORLD

May   1         0    269   1897      281          113               1        5624
          2         0    474    1691     276            76               2        5215
          3         0    174    1154     164            54               0        3481
          4         0    195    1324     164          127               2        4096
          5         0    236    2350     185              ?               2        5787
          6         0    369    2528     244          282               1        6811

          7         0    274    2129     213          117               1        5589
          8         0    243    1687     229          118               0        5550
          9         0    194    1422     179            39               0        4248
        10         0    165      750     143            20               0        3510
        11         0    179    1008     123            92               0        3403
        12         0    172    1630     176            77               2        5328
        13         0    195    1772     184          123               1        5314
        14         0    262    1715     217            67               1        5317
        15         0    242    1595     138            73               0        5072

Summary:

• New deaths were generally down yesterday.
• Brazil has become a hotspot, with 15,305 new cases and 824 new deaths.  The USA still leads the world with 26,692 and 1595.  
• However, if you add the new deaths yesterday of Spain, Russia, the UK, Italy, France, Germany Turkey, Iran, India, Peru, China, Canada and Belgium, that grand total is still less than that of the USA.  These are the countries ranking #2-#15 in total cases.
• President Donald Trump keeps bragging that we are by far the most testing country in the world.  He avoids mentioning that we are behind these countries in tests/million people:  USA = 33,532
• Iceland =  164,883
• UAE = 158,068
• Bahrain = 131.434
• Luxembourg = 96,034
• Lithuania = 79,308
• Denmark = 63,715
• Portugal = 58,828
• Israel = 56,255
• Belgium = 55,711
• Kuwait = 55,370
• Spain = 52,783
• Qatar = 51,545
• Estonia = 51,339
• Italy = 47,553
• Russia = 43,953
• Switzerland = 38,659
• Ireland = 38,371
• Germany = 37,585
• New Zealand = 45,002
• Norway = 39,947
• Austria = 39,039
• Australia = 38,639
• UK = 34,685
• Belarus = 34,044

• Yup,  we are right up there with Belarus.  There are several other places with a lot more tests, but they're kind of small, like Faeroe Islands with 179,750 tests/person (and they have zero deaths), Gibraltar (also no deaths) with 146,652 and Falkland Islands (zero deaths) with 115,984.

Little Richard once said:  The Blues had an illegitimate baby and we named it rock 'n roll.  That was between 1949 and 1954 when disc Jockey Alan Freed popularized the phrase, which was black slang for having sex.

No one person started rock 'n' roll. It was a black and white alloy of Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Ike Turner, Hank Williams, Joe Turner, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly - and Elvis Presley.

Certainly Black gospel was influential.  Remember Hound Dog by Elvis?  Well, that was made popular by Big Mama Thornton in 1953.  Shake Rattle and Roll by Bill Haley and the Comets?  It was a cover of the same by Big Joe Turner.

Reported The Guardian:  The most widely held belief is that the first rock'n'roll single was 1951's Rocket 88, written by Ike Turner, sung by Jackie Brenston (the saxophone player from Turner's backing band The Kings of Rhythm--who unfortunately became an alcoholic and faded away), and recorded by Sam Phillips, who later went on to found Sun records and discover Elvis Presley.

Note that the only female above is Big Momma Thornton.  In the Twenties, African American soldiers returned from World War I to a Harlem Renaissance leading to Rhythm and Blues.  Mary Lou Williams became a popular pianist and on came Ethel Waters, Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald.

But you need to trace back further to the South and slavery, which brought African tribal percussion, rhythmic syncopation and spiritual sounds.  This was the root of Rock 'n Roll.

I grew up in those days when only the White cover of Black songs became popular throughout the nation.  Of course segregation and just population numbers were responsible.  For example, in 1954 the Crew Cuts came out with Sh-Boom, but the Chords were first.  Bill Halley/Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock that year, exploding into society in the 1955 film, Blackboard Jungle.  Remember Klinger from MASH, Jamie Farr?  He was a detective in this flick.

The inimitable Chuck Berry's Maybellene came in 1955.  By then he had already been convicted of robbery and been to jail, and in 1959 of the Mann Act, and again jailed.  

He hit the charts 28 times, and of all the songs, his only #1 was My Ding-a-Ling.  He was said to be a pedophile.  He died at the age of 90 in 2017, and received the same string of accolades accorded to Little Richard, who passed away this past week at the age of 87.

• Three years ago Billboard published, A Brief History of Little Richard Grappling with his Sexuality and Religion:  Richard (born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Ga., in 1932, the third of twelve children) often acknowledged his lifestyle as a gay man.  Left home at the age of 13 and was taken in by a white family.  His father was a deacon, sold bootlegged moonshine and was shot dead outside a local bar when his son was 19. Richard was nicknamed "Little" because he was small and skinny. 

• He was also a voyeur and transvestite:  the original lyrics (he wrote this song) of "Tutti Frutti" were about another gay man: "Tutti Frutti, good booty / If it don't fit, don't force it / You can grease it, make it easy."  He finally settled on omnisexual as what he really was.
• From 1956-1959 he had 18 hit songs.  Women threw their panties on to the stage.  
• Said to have in 1956 a 16-year old girlfriend, Audrey Robinson, who went on to become Lee Angel (right).  They went on to have an amicable relationship for 68 years until she passed away

• In 1959 quit entertaining, studied theology, became a traveling evangelist, got married to Ernestine Campbell, adopted a son, recorded gospel music...then returned to tour performing in 1962.  The Beatles and Rolling Stones opened for him in Europe.  But drugs and alcohol almost ruined him.  
• Made another comeback in 1985 and kept entertaining until 2015, when he was 83.
• Was in the first group of inductees in 1986 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• He opened the door to Chuck Berry, who made it the following year.

I'm now into 1984.  Billboard's #1 hits of 1984 in less than three minutes.  Too short?  The 100 most popular from 100 to 1 in eleven minutes.  Click on this to access jukebox oldies, once you figure out how to use it.









I became director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute.  President Ronald Reagan had decimated the Department of Energy budget, and we were close to extinction with no paid positions.  Director of the Solar Energy Research Center, Hub Hubbard, when we met, looked at this more positively:  we were doing okay and increasing our market share of available funds.  SERI because they were important and HNEI from congressional interference.  Fifteen years later when I retired we had nearly a hundred researchers, staff, and students.

Let me end with some photos sent to me by my most prolific source.  Some of them might not be naturally real, but they're either gorgeous or fascinating:

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Typhoon Vonfong (Also called Ambo) slammed into the Philippines at 93 MPH and is heading for Taiwan:

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THE 1950'S ARE DISAPPEARING

 I today received this video clip of the 1950's.  This is Sunday, click on that and reminisce a bit.  Of course, you need to be really old to appreciate those days.

I don't remember much of my years from zero to 9.  I am what I am today because of my experiences from 10 to 19. That's a period from 1950-1959.  Those days are disappearing.  Really.

To begin, on my cable system there are 50 Music Choice channels.  Starts with 800 Hawaiian.  Then from 801, too too much noise of today, with three even for toddlers.  Then 826 has music from 2000 to the present, followed by 90's, 80's, 70's, solid gold (essentially 95% 60's), into four country stations, a mix of stuff through jazz and swing (meaning 1940's) and classical into #850.  There is nothing from 1950-59.  Of course zero from 1939 backwards, but most of those people are long gone anyway or can't hear too well.

Was that just accidental?  Nope.  As  you know, I now have Echo with Alexa.  I ask her to play all kinds of music.  60's?  Sure, a whole Prime channel for those.  50's?  Initially, she got confused, and asked me to purchase the full Prime package first.  

However, today, I tried again, and something has changed:

• I asked her, please play music from the year 1950, and she did Beethoven's Fifth.  Hmmm.
• Then what about 1951, and some country song came on.
• 1952?  She played Elvis.  Needs some work here, for he was 18 in 1953 when he released My Happiness.
• 1949?  Came on songs of that year.
• So Amazon is actually expanding their offerings, for free.

For those still alive, there was the Spanish Flu and intolerance of the '20's, while the '30's were economically difficult, for the Great Depression was still ongoing, and the '40's had World War II, so were even more terrible.   But our Greatest Generation was created.  All settting the stage for the wonderful '50's.

1950 began with the Korean War, saw the start of the early Vietnam War, suffered through nuclear testing, and saw the U.S. appearing to drop behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War, especially in space.  There was the Suez Crisis, Cuban Revolution and the Mau Mau in Kenya.  However, African de-colonization began to occur, the European Common Market formed, the U.S. ended our occupation of Japan, the Nationalists escaped to Taiwan, Alaska and Hawaii became states, success of the Marshall Plan (Berlin), inflation only ranged from 1-3%, the transistor was developed, television took over, photovoltaic cells were invented, the double-helix was discovered, polio was cured, first nuclear power plant opened in the Soviet Union, NASA was organized, and here were the top ten films (half are foreign and half came from 1957):

1. 
   Seven Samurai (1954), Rotten Tomatoes 100 reviewers / 97 audiences
2. Rear Window (1954), RT 99/95
3. Paths of Glory (1957), RT 95/95
4. Ikiru (1956), RT 98/97
5. 12 Angry Men (1957), RT 100/97
6. Witness for the Prosecution (1957), RT 100/95
7. Wild Strawberries (1957), RT 95/94
8. The 400 Blows (1959), RT 100/94
9. Sunset Boulevard (1950), RT 99/95
10. The Cranes are Flying (1957), RT 96/94

From Wikipedia, the music of those days:

Popular music in the early 1950s was essentially a continuation of the crooner sound of the previous decade, with less emphasis on the jazz-influenced big band style and more emphasis on a conservative, operatic, symphonic style of music. Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Patti Page, Judy Garland, Johnnie Ray, Kay Starr, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, Georgia Gibbs, Eddie Fisher, Teresa Brewer, Dinah Shore, Kitty Kallen, Joni James, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Toni Arden, June Valli, Doris Day, Arthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Guy Mitchell, Nat King Cole, and vocal groups like the Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, The Four Lads, The Four Aces, The Chordettes, The Fontane Sisters, The Hilltoppers and the Ames Brothers. Jo Stafford's "You Belong To Me" was the #1 song of 1952on the Billboard Top 100 chart.

Radio stations don't play their songs anymore.  Save for PBS, TV ignores them. Then from mid-decade:

Rock-n-roll emerged in the mid-1950s with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran, Brenda Lee, Bobby Vee, Connie Francis, Johnny Mathis, Neil Sedaka, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson being notable exponents. In the mid-1950s, Elvis Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. Chuck Berry, with "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), refined and developed the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, focusing on teen life and introducing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.^[12] Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Johnny Horton, and Marty Robbins were Rockabilly musicians.

You also don't hear them anymore.  Here are the top 65 songs of the 50's, in ten minutes.  Every #1 Billboard #1 hit of the 1950's, in nine minutes.

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