1960-1962: The Pre-Beatles Slump

At the start of the 60s, a strange brew of records found themselves at number one…was rock n roll dead?

As we’ll find in the decades ahead, British music nearly always enters a bust before it booms. There were increasingly dreary and convoluted prog record before punk punched through in 1977, Robson and Jerome before britpop, and no-mark boybands before Franz Ferdinand. Perhaps the biggest slump that we’ll see sits between 1960 and the early 1963.

Much like Elvis’ records which regularly hit the top spot in this era, real rock n roll seems to have vanished. Instead, we find ourselves travelling backwards, even beyond the 1950s origin of the album chart, into a dreary desert of middle class, middle aged easy listening. Presley was still producing some joyous singles in his pop era, but the energy has already started to wane by this point, and some of the weakest albums of his career are about to dominate. Cliff Richard, the biggest British name of the period, had an even shorter rock n roll period—the sensational Move It was less than two years old, but by now his music is so sight that it’s hard to even notice that it’s there. He wouldn’t even sound vaguely awake again until 1981’s Wired For Sound, which we will get to in due course.

And all of that is before we even get to 101 Strings (an act so safe you’d happily leave your house keys and your PIN with them) and, gulp, the George Mitchell Minstrels…

Thank goodness for two acts in this era: one who hit hard then immediately vanished into obscurity, another who hung around for a good ooh 50 years from this point: Freddy Cannon and The Shadows. The latter of course pull a double shift here as Cliff’s backing band, but when they’re let loose from beneath Mr Light Entertainment’s, well, shadow, you really get a sense of what Hank and co can do.

So is rock n roll dead by 1960? On the evidence here, sadly yes. It would be down to The Beatles to bring together that sound with pop music to create simply “rock”- though it wouldn’t be called that for a few years until the Fab Four started raiding the psychedelic dressing up box. Before we get there, please join us on a journey through the wilderness to see if there be treasure in them hills…