Song 483: This week the playlist applauds Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I knew very little about Elvis until I got to college in the fall of 1969, whereupon my musical horizons greatly expanded due to a new wider circle of friends with extensive LP collections and varying tastes. The early 1970s also brought along a 1950s RnR revival of sorts on the Chicago-area radio, plus, a subscription to Rolling Stone filled in a lot of the history for me of those RnR pioneers, so I got to hear and read about a bunch of the performers who had laid the groundwork for the next generation of music that had rocked my world during my HS era. It didn't take long, in that context, to appreciate Mr. Presley's role in rocking the 1950s, and at a certain point I acquired a greatest hits collection of his, which of course included this chart topper, and that 33 got plenty of spins on my turntable. I would say that EP's suggestion from six decades ago still sounds good: Let's rock, everybody, let's rock! Regardless of how many times I've heard it, it still makes me wanna stick around a while and get my kicks.
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