You can get a little jaded going through these collections and take some years for granted but take a look at 1955! Whew!! What a smoking year!
"... 1955 was a pivotal year for jukeboxes across the United States as rhythm & blues and rock & roll collided in
the cultural atom smasher. This volume contains 29 affirmed classics of the early postwar years. The more well-known tunes of the era are given great balance by some nearly forgotten gems that are juxtaposed in the brilliant sequencing -- by producer Dave "Daddy Cool" Booth. This batch opens with LaVern Baker's awesome "Tweedle Dee," and is followed by Lowell Fulson's stellar "Reconsider Baby." The big names of the era are packed in tight here, from Etta James and Jimmy Reed to Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. But there are tunes that have all but disappeared into the smoke and ether of pop culture history such as the Jacks' "Why Don't You Write Me," the Nutmegs' "Story Untold," and Nappy Brown's ' "Don't Be Angry." Add to this Louis Brooks' gorgeous "It's Love Baby," and the spectrum is complete...." Thom Jurek
"... 1955 was a pivotal year for jukeboxes across the United States as rhythm & blues and rock & roll collided in the cultural atom smasher. This volume contains 29 affirmed classics of the early postwar years. The more well-known tunes of the era are given great balance by some nearly forgotten gems that are juxtaposed in the brilliant sequencing -- by producer Dave "Daddy Cool" Booth. This batch opens with LaVern Baker's awesome "Tweedle Dee," and is followed by Lowell Fulson's stellar "Reconsider Baby." The big names of the era are packed in tight here, from Etta James and Jimmy Reed to Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. But there are tunes that have all but disappeared into the smoke and ether of pop culture history such as the Jacks' "Why Don't You Write Me," the Nutmegs' "Story Untold," and Nappy Brown's ' "Don't Be Angry." Add to this Louis Brooks' gorgeous "It's Love Baby," and the spectrum is complete...." Thom Jurek 
7 comments:
Jimmy Reed, Etta James, Bo Diddley, Ray Charles, Little Walter, Fats Domino, and all of the other talent on one disc, hot damn!!! All of the volumes of the series have been great for their diversity and selections but this one highlighting the music of the first full year of my life is so good that words fail me beyond noting that I couldn't sit still listening to it. My feet had to move! This and other albums in the series from the early 1950s give the lie to the notion that the 1950s was a gray, banal, wonder-era era that merely served as a prelude to the musically richer and more experimental 1960s.
I hope you got 45-49 too because they all are terrific, THIS one is especially heavy tho - just so much influential stuff all hitting in that same year, it's a wonder the planet didn't shake apart
Ya what a year indeed. So far my faves have been 1949 and 1953, but you can see by the songs that rock is now firmly established on 1955. I liked the description of atom smasher.
I was born in '77 but I find huge romanticism with the 50's music. All the fun they were havin! The dancin and groovin, must have been a glorious time to be young. Can you imagine gettin your ears on Chuck Berry's 30 Days, after listenin to the schlock that had been served in the mainstream up to that point?!?!
It's no wonder the powers that be were hugely offended, they had never felt such motion in their hips. They had never been powerless to their body's movements - must be Satan!!
I think of all the posts at Chitlins, these Blowin The Fuse have served as a real anchor to the history of this music.
Thanks again for sharin KC!!!
Thanks KC
Poppa C (Good to have you back) expresses my sentiment - These compilations are an education for those new to Blues/R&B and what classics ! I love them too still - Can anything be more exhilarating than Ray Charles or Little Richard on this disc....I doubt it !
Cheers
Mr. KC, I have all of what you have posted and had commented on the subsequent year's posting about what the series represents to me before reading your and GuitarGus's remarks. Your and his remarks communicate better what I was trying to express about the series in music history for the last half of the twentieth century. I am so glad to have been alive for much of it. I still remember when I was a young boy in the projects and the ice cream man would come to our neighborhood with Little Richard's Tutti Frutti blaring from his radio. It definitely wasn't the dull wonder-bread era
portrayed by the media. The culture was in turmoil and changing and the music reflected it.
Nice image - we still have ice-cream trucks here in New Orleans by the way - every neighborhood all summer long - hysterical to watch workmen from a construction site dash for the trucks when it is 100 degrees in the shade - we all turn into little kids when we hear the music
WE still have the same thing here in the UK - Corny
ice-cream jingle to announce it's presence - But we don't get very good summer weather
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