Johnny B. GoodeChuck Berry
Johnny B. Goode
1958 · From Chuck Berry Is on Top
Chuck Berry's intro lick is rock's opening statement, a country boy's origin myth now drifting past the solar system.
★ 9.8
Browse by time · decade
1950s
1950 – 1959
Showing 108 songs from the 1950s
Heartbreak HotelElvis Presley
Heartbreak Hotel
1956
Elvis's first RCA single, all cavernous echo and empty rooms, the loneliest number one ever cut.
★ 9.6
Tutti-Frutti
1955 · From Here's Little Richard
A nonsense holler cleaned up just enough to press, and the moment rock and roll stopped asking permission.
★ 9.5
Hound Dog
1956
Leiber and Stoller wrote it for Big Mama Thornton; Elvis took it, sped it up, and set it on fire.
★ 9.5
So What
1959 · From Kind of Blue
Two chords and all the space in the world, Davis proving that less was the most radical idea in jazz.
★ 9.2
What'd I SayRay Charles
What'd I Say
1959 · From What'd I Say
Twelve minutes left at a Pennsylvania dance, so Charles improvised it on his Wurlitzer and many stations banned it.
★ 9.0
I Walk the Line
1956 · From Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar
Cash slipped paper under his guitar strings for that snare tick, and hums to find each new key.
★ 8.8
(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock
1954
Cut in leftover studio minutes with Sammy Davis Jr. waiting outside, it flopped until Blackboard Jungle put it under the credits.
★ 8.8
Take Five
1959 · From Time Out
Morello kept soloing in five, so the quartet built him a tune in 5/4; Desmond wrote the theme.
★ 8.7
That's Alright MamaElvis Presley
That's Alright Mama
1954 · From The Sun Sessions
Presley started clowning through an Arthur Crudup blues on a break; Sam Phillips heard it and rolled tape.
★ 8.6
Smoke Stack Lightning
1956 · From Moanin' in the Moonlight
One chord, no changes, Sumlin's guitar circling, and Wolf's howl answering the trains whose sparks named the song.
★ 8.5
I Got a Woman
1954 · From Ray Charles
Charles took a gospel record he heard on tour, swapped the subject, and cut soul music's blueprint in Atlanta.
★ 8.4
Maybellene
1955 · From Chuck Berry Is on Top
Ida Red, a 1938 Bob Wills fiddle tune, turned into a car chase, with Johnnie Johnson's piano running underneath.
★ 8.4
Jailhouse Rock
1957
Leiber and Stoller wrote it as a goof; Scotty Moore's solo nearly derails the take and Presley never blinks.
★ 8.3
Don't Be Cruel
1956
Blackwell gave Presley half the writing credit; the Jordanaires hum behind a vocal so relaxed it barely seems to try.
★ 8.2
That'll Be the DayBuddy Holly and the Crickets
That'll Be the Day
1957
Holly took the title from a John Wayne line and recut it in Clovis after Decca shelved the first version.
★ 8.2
Mannish BoyMuddy Waters
Mannish Boy
1955 · From The Anthology: 1947-1972
Waters answered Bo Diddley's answer to his own song in 1955, holding one chord and a stop-time riff throughout.
★ 8.1
Folsom Prison Blues
1955 · From Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar
A prison film in Germany gave Cash the song; he borrowed the melody from Gordon Jenkins and later paid up.
★ 8.1
Your Cheatin' Heart
1953 · From 40 Greatest Hits
A lyric dictated from a car seat, one last Nashville session, and six weeks at country number one.
★ 8.0
Rollin' Stone
1950 · From The Anthology: 1947-1972
One man, one electric guitar, no band; the Chess single that later named a magazine and a British group.
★ 7.8
Long Tall Sally
1956 · From Here's Little Richard
Blackwell built the lyric to run too fast for Pat Boone, and Richard shouted it out at Cosimo Matassa's J&M.
★ 7.8
You Send MeSam Cooke
You Send Me
1957 · From Sam Cooke
Cooke credited it to his brother L.C. to dodge his publisher, then carried it to number one on both charts.
★ 7.8
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
1957
One microphone, Roland Janes muted behind the boogie piano, and a July 1957 television debut that turned it national.
★ 7.7
Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins)
1956
Cash suggested the phrase, Phillips talked him into changing one word, and Sun got its first million seller.
★ 7.7
Peggy SueBuddy Holly and the Crickets
Peggy Sue
1957
Cut in Clovis as "Cindy Lou" until Allison's girlfriend got the title, and his paradiddles never let up.
★ 7.7
Hoochie Coochie Man
1954 · From The Anthology: 1947-1972
Dixon wrote it, Little Walter blew the harmonica, and that stop-time riff spread through blues and rock alike.
★ 7.7
Roll Over Beethoven
1956 · From Chuck Berry Is on Top
His sister Lucy monopolized the family piano for classical, so Berry wrote his rebuttal, with Johnnie Johnson answering back.
★ 7.7
Great Balls of Fire
1957
Lewis argued theology with Sam Phillips between takes at Sun, decided the devil could wait, and cut it anyway.
★ 7.7
All I Have to Do Is Dream
1958
Two live takes in Nashville, Chet Atkins on guitar, and a harmony that topped three Billboard charts at once.
★ 7.7
Blueberry Hill
1956
Nobody in the room had the lyrics, so Bunny Robyn spliced three broken takes into Domino's biggest hit.
★ 7.6
La Bamba (Ritchie Valens)
1958
Cut as the B-side of Donna, a Veracruz son jarocho with Carol Kaye on rhythm and Earl Palmer driving.
★ 7.6
All Blues
1959 · From Kind of Blue
A twelve-bar blues in 6/8, take two the only complete one, and Paul Chambers' bass figure underneath everything.
★ 7.6
Bo Diddley
1955 · From Bo Diddley
Jerome Green's maracas, a tremolo guitar shaking like heat haze, and the beat that took Bo Diddley's name.
★ 7.6
Mystery Train
1955 · From The Sun Sessions
Two years after Junior Parker cut it at Sun, Moore's slapback guitar turned the same train into rockabilly.
★ 7.6
In the Still of the Night
1956
February 1956, a New Haven church basement, and a song Parris had written on Army guard duty.
★ 7.5
Shout (The Isley Brothers)
1959
Ronald Isley improvised the call and response onstage extending Lonely Teardrops, and RCA packed the room with friends answering.
★ 7.5
Rocket 88
1951
Kizart's amp fell off the car, Phillips stuffed the blown cone with paper, and distorted guitar entered the language.
★ 7.5
Ain't That a Shame
1955
Bartholomew and Domino wrote it, Pat Boone's cover took the number one, and Domino's rolling piano triplets outlasted it.
★ 7.5
Dust My BroomElmore James
Dust My Broom
1951
Johnson's 1936 triplet figure run through an amplifier, Sonny Boy Williamson on harmonica, and a riff everybody stole.
★ 7.5
Earth Angel
1954
Cut as a demo in Ted Brinson's garage, pillows on the drums, then three weeks atop the R&B chart.
★ 7.5