Best-Selling 1950s Rock Songs That Time Forgot

About These Best-Selling 1950s Rock Songs

The best-selling 1950s rock songs were everywhere in their day, on kitchen radios, jukeboxes and school dance floors. Yet the stories behind them are often far less familiar than the tunes.

This episode counts down ten of them. Below is what really happened, with chart positions and dates checked against reliable sources.

The Countdown: 10 Best-Selling 1950s Rock Songs That Time Forgot

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

On April 12, 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets recorded at Decca's studio in the Pythian Temple in New York. Producer Milt Gabler made them work first on "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)," so "Rock Around the Clock" ended up on the B-side. The vocal was drowned out on the first take, and engineers later combined two takes into one.

Haley was 28 and had been blind in his left eye since childhood. His famous kiss curl reportedly drew eyes away from it. Guitarist Danny Cedrone reused a solo he had first played on "Rock the Joint" in 1952. He died after a fall down a stairway on June 17, 1954.

At first the record was a modest seller. Then Blackboard Jungle played it over its opening credits in 1955, and on July 9 it reached number one, staying eight weeks. Haley's version is estimated to have sold around 15 million copies.

#9: Heartbreak Hotel — Elvis Presley (1956)

Elvis recorded "Heartbreak Hotel" on January 10, 1956, at RCA's studio in Nashville. To get something like the Sun Records echo, the crew used a hallway as an echo chamber.

Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden said they were inspired by a newspaper report about a man who died at a hotel, leaving a lonely note. Researchers long failed to find that story, though a 2016 Rolling Stone article linked it to a real case.

RCA executives disliked it; one memo said they certainly could not release it. Sam Phillips called it a "morbid mess." Elvis did not sing it on his first two Stage Show appearances, but on the third he did. By April it was his first million seller, spending seven weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 100 and also topping the country chart.

#8: Tutti Frutti — Little Richard (1955)

Little Richard once worked as a dishwasher at the Greyhound bus station in Macon, Georgia. He later said he could not talk back to his boss, and that frustration helped spark the famous nonsense opening of "Tutti Frutti."

In September 1955, a stalled session in New Orleans led producer Bumps Blackwell to take him to the Dew Drop Inn, where Richard played a rowdy early version. Blackwell hired Dorothy LaBostrie to clean up the lyrics, and on September 14 the record was cut at J&M Studio in about 15 minutes.

Pat Boone's 1956 cover reached number 12 on the pop chart, higher than Little Richard's original. In 2007, Mojo magazine ranked it first among records that changed the world, and in 2009 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.

#7: Blueberry Hill — Fats Domino (1956)

"Blueberry Hill" was published in 1940, and Glenn Miller's version reached number two that year. Fats knew it from Louis Armstrong's 1949 version.

At a 1956 session at Master Recorders in Los Angeles, Fats insisted on cutting it despite strong objections from producer Dave Bartholomew, who felt the song had been done too often. The band struggled to get a clean take, and engineer Bunny Robyn assembled the final record from several takes spliced together.

It became Fats's biggest pop hit, reaching number two on the Billboard chart and spending eight weeks at number one on the R&B chart. In December 2010, Vladimir Putin sang it at a charity concert.

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

At Sun Studio on October 8, 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis argued with Sam Phillips over whether this Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer song was too sinful to record. The tape caught the argument. Then Lewis sat at the piano, backed only by bass and drums.

It sold about a million copies in its first ten days, reaching number two on the pop chart and number one on the country chart. It also topped the British chart, and Lewis performed it in the 1957 film Jamboree.

In May 1958, news broke during his British tour that he had married his cousin Myra Gale Brown, who was 13. The tour was canceled after three shows. The song entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

#5: Maybellene — Chuck Berry (1955)

Leonard Chess reportedly named this song after spotting a box of mascara, changing the spelling to avoid trouble with the cosmetics company. Berry said the name came from a cow in a third-grade reader. The tune grew out of Bob Wills's 1938 "Ida Red."

Recorded in Chicago in 1955 with Johnnie Johnson on piano, Willie Dixon on bass and Jerome Green on maracas, it tells of a chase between a Ford and a Cadillac. It reached number one on the R&B chart and number five on the pop chart, selling about a million copies by year's end.

Disc jockey Alan Freed and Russ Fratto were added as co-writers. Berry fought in court to regain full credit, and the extra credits were withdrawn in 1986. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988.

#4: That'll Be the Day — Buddy Holly and the Crickets (1957)

In June 1956, Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison watched John Wayne say "that'll be the day" again and again in The Searchers. Holly recorded the song in Nashville for Decca that July, but Decca shelved it.

On February 25, 1957, he recorded it again at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. Because his Decca contract barred him from re-recording those songs, Petty credited the Crickets, and Brunswick released it that summer. It reached number one in the United States and spent three weeks at number one in Britain that November.

In July 1958, a Liverpool group called the Quarrymen, with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, recorded it in Percy Phillips's home studio as their first disc.

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

Artie Singer, John Madara and David White first wrote this song as "Do the Bop." It came out on the small Singular label before Dick Clark suggested changing "bop" to "hop" and the group's name to the Juniors.

ABC-Paramount reissued it in November 1957, and by January 1958 it was number one. It also topped the R&B chart and reached number three in Britain. Sha Na Na played it at Woodstock in 1969.

#2: Diana — Paul Anka (1957)

Paul Anka was 15 and living in Ottawa when he developed a crush on Diana Ayoub, a slightly older girl he knew through church and community events.

In May 1957 he recorded it in New York with arranger Don Costa, with George Barnes on lead guitar and Bucky Pizzarelli on the calypso-style riff. Released by ABC-Paramount, it reached number two on the Billboard Top 100 and number one on the R&B chart. In Britain it held number one for nine weeks and sold about 1.25 million copies; worldwide sales are reportedly over nine million.

Anka went on to write the English lyrics for "My Way," which Frank Sinatra made his own. Diana Ayoub died in 2022.

#1: Donna / La Bamba — Ritchie Valens (1958)

On January 31, 1957, two planes collided over Pacoima, California, and wreckage fell on the junior high school grounds, killing three students on the ground. Fifteen-year-old Richard Valenzuela was away at his grandfather's funeral, but nightmares about the disaster left him with a fear of flying.

In May 1958, Bob Keane signed him to Del-Fi Records and suggested shortening his name to Valens. "Donna" was written about his girlfriend Donna Ludwig, whose father strongly objected to the romance. Paired with "La Bamba," it reached number two, sold over a million copies and earned a gold record. "La Bamba" peaked at number 22.

On February 3, 1959, Valens died in a plane crash in Iowa with Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. He had won his seat in a coin toss with guitarist Tommy Allsup. Valens was 17.

Why These Hits Still Matter

Almost none of these records looked like a sure thing. A song was buried on a B-side, another stitched together from spliced takes, another shelved by its own label.

They lasted because listeners kept choosing them.

How the Stories Got Lost

Songs travel faster than their stories. A guitarist's name or a coin toss rarely makes it onto a record label.

Which of these best-selling 1950s rock songs still plays in your head, and where were you when you first heard it?

Sources and Further Reading

• Rock Around the Clock (Wikipedia)
• Heartbreak Hotel (Wikipedia)
• Maybellene (Wikipedia)
• That'll Be the Day (Wikipedia)
• Ritchie Valens (Wikipedia)