Max Picks …songs from 1957

I usually run this on Wednesdays after the Star Trek. We finished up season 2 and we are starting the last season…season 3 tomorrow!  Thanks for visiting the third installment of Max Picks. If you missed the first or second just follow the links.

1957

Let’s start this year with two brothers with some of the best harmonies ever in Rock/Pop…The Everly Brothers. Many guitar players could get close to the intro to this song but never exactly. The reason is Don Everly was using open G tuning…what Keith Richards later learned and made a career out of it…and that’s not an exaggeration. If you tune your guitar to open G tuning…you could play over half of the Stones catalog…believe me I do. Enough of guitar talk… this song was written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. This song has sheer beauty to it and also drive. I love Elvis but I’m leaving him off of this one since we featured him in the last two.

Now we get to the one…the only Pat Boone! NOT. I had to make sure you were paying attention. Now lets get to the bad boy of the fifties and all the decades that followed. He made other “bad boys” look tame. Jerry Lee Lewis was the real deal. Pure Rock and Roll that made Elvis look subtle. I can imagine he was public enemy number one with a lot of parents. Forget that though… his music is like an adrenaline rush to get up and move. The song was written by Dave “Curlee” Williams and James Faye “Roy” Hall.

I promised more Buddy Holly in the last post so I’m coming through on that promise. I could not believe the songs I could pick from in 1957. Take a look at the singles he had this year. Oh Boy, Not Fade Away, Peggy Sue, Everyday, Rock Around With Ollie Vee, and last but not least…That’ll Be The Day. That simple intro to this song is magic. I could have picked any of those songs. This song was written by Jerry Allison, Buddy Holly, and Norman Petty.

Now we have a singer who had a voice that was as smooth as silk. Sam Cooke‘s voice still gets to me. It was named as one of the 500 most important rock and roll recordings by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Many artists have covered it but I’ll take Cooke’s version of it any day. It was written by the man himself.

I want to add a doo-wop vocal group because they were very popular then and this song is great. This song is called Come Go With Me by The Del-Vikings. The first time Paul and John met…John and his band The Quarrymen were playing this song with Lennon making up the words “Come and Go with me to the penitentiary” and probably some obscene words here and there. It was written by Clarence Quick.

As always…thanks for reading and listening!

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

36 thoughts on “Max Picks …songs from 1957”

  2. Couldn’t have come up with a better list myself. Not a song there I don’t love. Interesting about the opening G Chord i somehow think I should have known that, but hey I’m not a musician. There’s a great portrayal of the recording of Come Go With Me in the movie American Hot Wax, one of my favourite soundtracks.

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    1. I have shown that tunning to beginners and within 10 minutes they have played Start Me Up, Can’t Always Get What You Want, and etc…if he wouldn’t have found that tunning…their history would be different.

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  4. What; no Pat Boone? 😉 That was a good one. My parents had a 45 of his ‘Love Letters In The Sand’ in their collection when I was little. Graham Nash wrote in his book quite a bit about how the Hollies were influenced by the Everlys. It’s nice to have Sam Cooke in there too.

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    1. Yea I think the record companies a few years later was really pushing Boone hard. I really liked that Nash book. I have to say he believes in his causes…

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      1. My reaction to Nash’s book is not as favorable as yours. It completely changed how I see him, and not in a good way. I thought the early career stuff was very interesting, though.

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      2. The only complaint I had…was his constant politics…I didn’t mention that but that was my problem with it. I don’t like hearing about anyones politics that much.

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      3. Yeah, I didn’t appreciate paying money for that nonsense. My other big gripe was that he came across to me as a big time user. Over the years, I’d elevated him to a fairly high pedestal in my mind, so I was sorry I read the book because it disappointed me so much.

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      4. Yea I was warned about the ego part before I read it. What I liked was the Hollies stories and how CSN got together… I didn’t like the last few years of his writing it. He did have an inflated view of himself. I felt bad for his wife also.

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  5. Good list, all classics…and all that without even getting to Elvis who had the #1 seller 25 weeks of that year according to Billboard! Maybe the first great year of rock?

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    1. Very well could be Dave… I’m a little ahead and I’m getting to 59 and 60…not as good!
      I love this music though.

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  6. Love this soundtrack “Max On Wax’ E Bros are so good. I cant help thinking of them when I hear the Beatles. The bad boy shows up with a fave. All good ones Max. Southside brougt me to Sam’s music. Is there a better soundtrack than Graffiti?

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  7. Completely about the heavenly harmony singing by the Everly Brothers – nearly impossible to beat. I also love Buddy Holly. He may have looked a bit geeky, but he undoubtedly was one of the greatest early rock & rollers. What can you say about the Killer? Nobody else except perhaps little Richard could work the piano like a madman. I wonder how many piano strings he killed. Sam Cooke – what a vocalist! I didn’t known the name of the doo-wop group, but immediately recognized the song. Another great set!

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    1. Thanks Christian…BTW…I’m just about to start that documentary you sent me…thanks! I had some busy nights.
      From 55-58 it was easy to put these together… after that it gets a little harder.

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  8. Yes, stellar Rock’n’roll years- the tail of the 50s and first three years of the ’60s is so tame and lame in comparison. Interesting to see what you unearth that pops and rocks rather than shuffles.

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  10. Some great tunes there… I remember 1957 was one of the best years, in music terms, that I wrote about. Rock n roll went centre stage, so to speak, for the first time. And then, like you said, things tailed off a bit until 1963.

    I love that Jerry Lee live performance, you can feel his energy and the thrill he must have given folks… And he makes a hand gesture at the 1 minute mark that must have raised a few eyebrows back home : )

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  11. My dad was a highway Buddy Holly fan and when Holly died in that plane crash my dad at the time gave up on rock music and turned to country. A few years back my dad and mom went and visited Hollys site where he played his last show….

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    1. I can understand why he gave up on rock music because…all the great ones weren’t doing anything. It was the lowest point in early rock. Little Richard quit, Elvis was in the army, Buddy died, and Jerry Lee Lewis got cancelled. Marrying your 13 year old cousin will do that.
      All this setup a band from Liverpool quite nicely to change the game in a few years.

      That is cool deKE…I would love to go to the Surf Ballroom where your parents did.

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  13. Great stuff. In addition to what is being written in these first three entries, the Everly Bros played an important part in the development of country rock. WB had them record an album, Roots, that laid a strong groundwork for what was to come. Still my favorite version of T for Texas.

    As for Jerry Lee Lewis, ever heard of the rock version of Othello? Catch My Soul. It did a try out in Los Angeles at the very respectable Ahmanson Theatre. Jerry Lee played Iago. It was a respectable performance, which is not what you want to say about Jerry Lee Lewis and didn’t help this production at all.

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    1. I LOVED doing this series! I had a lot of fun going through the decades. I had some people upset. I picked what I liked the best…not what was the most popular.
      I never heard of that with Jerry Lee. That would have been interesting. I would not have ever wanted to meet the man…but he really put a charge into rock and roll.

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