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Chapter 35: All Shook Up

50s rock & roll

Once you've discovered the groundbreaking R&B that led to the explosion of rock n’ roll, a figure like Elvis Presley seems less like an innovator than a charismatic, reverent interpreter. (If you are less charitable, you could call him a ripoff artist.) He’s a hell of a singer, though, and practically every song he touched became the definitive version. In fact, each of these songs, from the guileless “Rock Around The Clock” to the one-good-joke “Tequila,” can still shake up a dance floor, possessed by the electricity of a whole musical universe cracking open.
1. Bill Haley & His Comets

Rock Around the Clock

2. Elvis Presley

All Shook Up

3. Johnny Burnette & The Rock N' Roll Trio

The Train Kept a Rollin'

4. Elvis Presley

Mystery Train

5. Gene Vincent

Be-Bop-A-Lula

6. Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley

7. Carl Perkins

Blue Suede Shoes

8. Elvis Presley

Blue Moon of Kentucky

9. The Champs

Tequila

10. Ray Charles

What'd I Say, Pts. 1 & 2