Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay!

Today in rock history, Chuck Berry hits #2 on the R&B chart and #29 on the pop chart with the Chess single "Roll Over Beethoven." Little Richard hits #2 on the R&B chart and #33 (6/30) on the pop chart with "Slippin' and Slidin' (Peepin' and Hidin')" and #1 on the R&B chart and #17 (8/04) on the pop chart with "Rip It Up". Both singles are released on Specialty Records. This, then, is a red-letter day for fans of ‘50’s rock; these songs have been covered countless times by everybody from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to Meat Loaf and Otis Redding, as well as just about every high school ‘50’s band (mine included). In 2004, "Roll Over Beethoven" was ranked number 97 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Here are a couple of the more (shall we say) unkown cover versions of these songs. Thanks to http://rockhall.com/story-of-rock/today-in-rock/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_Over_Beethoven for the info, and keep on rockin’!





2 comments:

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

Brilliant!

I first heard all 3 of these songs on Lennon's underrated cover ablbum, Rock 'n Roll but as you suspected I never heard any of these covers.

You saved the best for last though -- the Band really ripped it up on Slippin' and Slidin'. Love the organ too ...

Charlie_Mac said...

Aw thanks man!