1950s Rock and Roll Dance Songs We All Danced To

What Made These the Great 1950s Rock and Roll Dance Songs

The best 1950s rock and roll dance songs did not need instructions. A needle dropped onto a 45, a drummer kicked in, and a school gym, a living room or a jukebox corner filled with dancers.

This episode counts down ten records that got America moving. Below is the story behind each one, with chart positions and dates checked against reliable sources.

The Countdown: 10 Rock and Roll Songs of the 1950s We Danced To

#10: Rock Around the Clock — Bill Haley and His Comets (1954)

Bill Haley and His Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock" in New York on April 12, 1954. Decca issued it that May as the B-side of "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)," and at first it was only a modest seller.

Its second life came from a boy's record collection. While making Blackboard Jungle, director Richard Brooks borrowed records from Peter Ford, the son of actor Glenn Ford, and chose this song for the opening credits. The film opened in March 1955, and at an early preview young viewers danced in the aisles.

On July 9, 1955, the song became the first rock and roll record to top Billboard's pop charts, holding on for eight weeks. In Britain, it reached number one that November and became the country's first million-selling single.

#9: Hound Dog — Elvis Presley (1956)

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote "Hound Dog" for Big Mama Thornton, whose 1953 record spent seven weeks at number one on the R&B chart. Elvis based his version on a comic arrangement he had seen Freddie Bell and the Bellboys perform in Las Vegas.

After his hip-shaking performance on The Milton Berle Show in June 1956 caused an uproar, Steve Allen presented a tamer Elvis on July 1. Dressed in a tuxedo, he sang to a basset hound wearing a top hat.

The very next day, July 2, Elvis drove his band through 31 takes at RCA's New York studio. Released on July 13 with "Don't Be Cruel" on the other side, "Hound Dog" spent eleven weeks at number one, a record that stood until 1992. By 1958, the single was only the third record ever to pass three million copies.

#8: Johnny B. Goode — Chuck Berry (1958)

Chuck Berry recorded this one in Chicago for Chess Records, with Lafayette Leake on piano, Willie Dixon on bass and Fred Below on drums. Released on March 31, 1958, it reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the R&B chart.

The song tells of a country boy who could play guitar like ringing a bell. Berry acknowledged that his first draft said "colored boy," and he changed it so radio would play it.

In 1977, a committee chaired by Carl Sagan chose the song for the Voyager Golden Record, carried into space by both Voyager probes. Folklorist Alan Lomax objected that rock music was adolescent. Sagan replied that there are a lot of adolescents on the planet.

#7: Great Balls of Fire — Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)

Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer wrote the song, and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded it at Sun Studio in Memphis on October 8, 1957. Lewis worried the song was sinful. The tape caught him arguing about it with producer Sam Phillips before he finally sat down and played it.

The record sold about a million copies in its first ten days. It reached number two on the Billboard pop chart, number three on R&B and number one on country. In January 1958 it went to number one in Britain, often cited as the first Sun recording to top the British chart.

#6: Tutti Frutti — Little Richard (1955)

In September 1955, Little Richard was recording in New Orleans with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, and the session was not going well. During a break at the Dew Drop Inn, Richard pounded out a rowdy song called "Tutti Frutti."

The lyrics were far too risqué for radio, so Blackwell hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to rewrite them. Recorded at J&M Studio on September 14, 1955, it reached number two on the R&B chart.

Pat Boone's cleaner cover reached number 12 on the pop chart, higher than the original. Still, the Library of Congress added Little Richard's record to the National Recording Registry in 2009.

#5: Blue Suede Shoes — Carl Perkins (1956)

Two stories explain this song. Johnny Cash said he told Carl Perkins about an airman who called his military shoes "blue suede shoes." Perkins said he saw a young man at a dance scold his date for stepping on his suede shoes.

Perkins told NPR that when he sat down to write, he could not find paper, so he emptied potatoes from a brown paper sack and wrote on the sack. His wife, Valda, kept it.

He recorded the song at Sun on December 19, 1955, with W.S. Holland on drums. It went to number one on the country chart, number two on the pop chart and number three on R&B. On March 22, 1956, on his way to The Perry Como Show, Perkins was badly hurt in a car crash in Delaware, with three fractured vertebrae in his neck.

#4: At the Hop — Danny and the Juniors (1957)

Artie Singer, John Madara and David White first wrote the song as "Do the Bop." Dick Clark of American Bandstand thought the bop was already fading and suggested changing the chorus to "hop." The group, first called the Juvenairs, became Danny and the Juniors.

According to several accounts, the Philadelphia group got on Bandstand when another act, reportedly Little Anthony and the Imperials, canceled. ABC-Paramount reissued the record that November, and it reached number one in January 1958.

Sha Na Na sang it at Woodstock in 1969, and it turned up again in the 1973 film American Graffiti.

#3: Peggy Sue — Buddy Holly (1957)

The song began as "Cindy Lou," named after Buddy Holly's niece, with a Latin cha-cha feel. In an NPR interview, guitarist Niki Sullivan recalled producer Norman Petty saying that beat would not work. Drummer Jerry Allison then asked Holly to rename it after his girlfriend, Peggy Sue Gerron, who later became his wife.

Recorded in Clovis, New Mexico, in the summer of 1957, it features Allison's steady paradiddles. Petty made the drums swell and fade in real time. It reached number three on the Billboard chart.

Gerron said she first heard the song at a 1957 concert in Sacramento and was so embarrassed she could have died. Holly was killed in a plane crash on February 3, 1959, at just 22.

#2: Splish Splash — Bobby Darin (1958)

The famous opening line was not Bobby Darin's idea. New York disc jockey Murray "the K" Kaufman bet Darin that he could not write a song starting with words suggested by Murray's mother, Jean. The song is credited to Bobby Darin and Jean Murray.

Darin recorded it in New York on April 10, 1958. It reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the R&B chart.

#1: La Bamba — Ritchie Valens (1958)

"La Bamba" is a folk song from Veracruz, Mexico; the earliest known recording dates to 1938 or 1939. Ritchie Valens, born Richard Valenzuela in Los Angeles, learned it from his cousin. His aunt later said he did not know Spanish at all, so he learned the words by sound.

In 1958, it came out as the other side of "Donna," which reached number two. "La Bamba" itself peaked at number 22. In 1987, Los Lobos recorded it for the film La Bamba, and their version spent three weeks at number one in America and also topped the British chart.

Valens did not live to see it. On February 3, 1959, he died in the plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. He had won his seat in a coin toss with Holly's guitarist Tommy Allsup. Valens was 17.

Why These Songs Filled the Dance Floor

Every song on this list has a beat that does the talking. The piano in "Great Balls of Fire," the drums in "Peggy Sue" and the steady strum of "La Bamba" are easy to dance to without a single lesson.

They also arrived just as teenagers had their own records, radios and TV dance shows for the first time.

Where These Records Live On Today

Many of these songs now sit in national archives or turn up at weddings and reunions. One even rides through space aboard Voyager.

Which of these 1950s rock and roll dance songs got you onto the floor first, and who were you dancing with?

Sources and Further Reading

• Rock Around the Clock (Wikipedia)
• Hound Dog (Wikipedia)
• Peggy Sue — NPR 100
• Voyager Golden Record (Wikipedia)
• Ritchie Valens (Wikipedia)