What's your favorite pre British invasion musician/band?

[Carl Perkins]

Hi there. When we think about the 60s we think about the Beatles, Rolling Stones etc.

The British invasion didn't really start until 1964 though so there were a 4 year gap between all those bands came. This time was pretty quiet, nearly all the American Rock And Rollers were gone, many dead and others had basically lost their careers because of the music industry or controversy (Jerry Lee Lewis).

Surf music and instrumental rock music was pretty big during this time. Bands such as the Beach Boys and The Ventures.

I myself am a pretty big fan of The Beach Boys, especially their harmony based songs. I also like the Ventures and Surf Rock as a whole, but it gets pretty repetitive.

So what's your favorite pre British invasion band/musician?

 

[Hurdy Gurdy Man]

Throw in the Four Seasons and you've probably pretty much covered the major bases here unless,of course,you delve into the folk arena where there was certainly much progress being made.Before the Fab Four,Stones and the rest,not a hell of a lot of people thought of whole groups,just the hit tunes.I suppose people were as much likely to name the members of the Shirelles and Ronnettes as the Beach Boy's roster.After particularly the Beatles,THEN everyone felt nearly dire urge to properly identify all the bands' position players.Wasn't much interest at first who played bass for Frankie Valli or drums for the Ventures....fun period,though.Spent many a beer guzzling evening with friends tuning into my local oldies station(WODS-FM 103 Boston)and partying into the wee hours with some of the many fabulously gleeful pop of the these times.Both the musical naievetee and teen flavoured innocence are key to the listening pleasurability...

 

[Old Dude]

Throw in the Four Seasons and you've probably pretty much covered the major bases here unless,of course,you delve into the folk arena where there was certainly much progress being made.Before the Fab Four,Stones and the rest,not a hell of a lot of people thought of whole groups,just the hit tunes.I suppose people were as much likely to name the members of the Shirelles and Ronnettes as the Beach Boy's roster.After particularly the Beatles,THEN everyone felt nearly dire urge to properly identify all the bands' position players.Wasn't much interest at first who played bass for Frankie Valli or drums for the Ventures....fun period,though.Spent many a beer guzzling evening with friends tuning into my local oldies station(WODS-FM 103 Boston)and partying into the wee hours with some of the many fabulously gleeful pop of the these times.Both the musical naievetee and teen flavoured innocence are key to the listening pleasurability...

The main thing about that era was that since studio time was so expensive, almost all records had instrumental tracks laid down by professional session players. The actual position players in the band only "covered" their own songs on tour. That's why George Martin brought in a session drummer for the Beatles first recording. That's why only Roger McGuinn played on the early Byrds recordings, and why the Wrecking Crew did all the Beach Boys' tracks.

 

[Old Dude]

There were almost no bands, as we know them today, making hit records in the dark ages between the end of doo-wop and the British Invasion. That was the era of solo artists backed by session players, or "groups" that were all vocals. I liked some of the stuff by people like Del Shannon, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Darin, Elvis, and others of the "teen idol" set. I still like the Phil Spector wall-of-sound treatment of girl groups like the Ronettes, the Chiffons, the Shangri Las, or solo girls like Leslie Gore, Peggy March, or Shelley "Farberries". The instrumental groups like the Ventures, the Shadows, the Tornadoes, and others cranked out some good stuff. And, there was the whole folk music thing with the Kingston Trio, and that whole bunch. Even the old people's lounge act singers managed to make some good songs. I hate to admit it, but I liked singers like Robert Goulet or Gordon Macrae.

 

[Carl Perkins]

Throw in the Four Seasons and you've probably pretty much covered the major bases here unless,of course,you delve into the folk arena where there was certainly much progress being made.Before the Fab Four,Stones and the rest,not a hell of a lot of people thought of whole groups,just the hit tunes.I suppose people were as much likely to name the members of the Shirelles and Ronnettes as the Beach Boy's roster.After particularly the Beatles,THEN everyone felt nearly dire urge to properly identify all the bands' position players.Wasn't much interest at first who played bass for Frankie Valli or drums for the Ventures....fun period,though.Spent many a beer guzzling evening with friends tuning into my local oldies station(WODS-FM 103 Boston)and partying into the wee hours with some of the many fabulously gleeful pop of the these times.Both the musical naievetee and teen flavoured innocence are key to the listening pleasurability...

It was a pretty quiet time. So many great rockers lost their career (Jerry Lee Lewis).

 

[Carl Perkins]

There were almost no bands, as we know them today, making hit records in the dark ages between the end of doo-wop and the British Invasion. That was the era of solo artists backed by session players, or "groups" that were all vocals. I liked some of the stuff by people like Del Shannon, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Darin, Elvis, and others of the "teen idol" set. I still like the Phil Spector wall-of-sound treatment of girl groups like the Ronettes, the Chiffons, the Shangri Las, or solo girls like Leslie Gore, Peggy March, or Shelley "Farberries". The instrumental groups like the Ventures, the Shadows, the Tornadoes, and others cranked out some good stuff. And, there was the whole folk music thing with the Kingston Trio, and that whole bunch. Even the old people's lounge act singers managed to make some good songs. I hate to admit it, but I liked singers like Robert Goulet or Gordon Macrae.

I’m a big fan of the instrumental bands and singers. Duane Eddy was great. Peter Gunn is my favorite Duane song.

The good stuff from those times sadly dissapeared because of the British Invasion.

 

[Old Dude]

The good stuff from those times sadly dissapeared because of the British Invasion.

If you read histories of American rock bands that started getting record contracts and hit records after the British Invasion, you'll see many of the bands were struggling in obscurity before the British Invasion made the self-contained band a big deal again. They would either change their names, or the personnel would shift around, but most of the post-British Invasion bands in America were in their embryonic stages before the Beatles came along. Jefferson Airplane emerged from a folk group called the Town Criers, that Marty Balin joined in 1963, after his failed release of a folk song in 1962. The Lovin' Spoonful grew out of the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the early 60's. So did the Mamas and the Papas, which evolved from The Mugwumps, which included Sebastian and Yanovsky who formed the Spoonful. Musicians who became stars in their own right like Leon Russell and Glen Campbell were working studio musicians in the early 60's. The Band started out in 1958 as the support band for Ronnie Hawkins, called "The Hawks". Some of them eventually backed up Bob Dylan, who was also a top selling folkie before the British Invasion, until one by one all of the Hawks ended up as Dylan's backup band before they decided to call themselves "The Band".

And then there's R&B and Soul music. Labels like Motown, Chess, and Stax just kept cranking out hits as if the British Invasion never happened. Granted, most of their acts had very short shelf lives anyway, but the hits from those labels just kept on coming. The Brill Building style song-pluggers, like Carol King, Neil Diamond, Ellie Greenwich, and others, had a tough time of it for a while, but eventually the record labels realized that just because some bands had people in them who could write original songs, most didn't. So, the market for songs written by professional songwriters eventually returned. And, some of the songwriters, like Carol King and Neil Diamond, realized they could make more money, and enjoy their work more, if they performed their own songs.

Those are just some recollections off the top of my head. With some research, I could probably find more examples.

 

[Carl Perkins]

If you read histories of American rock bands that started getting record contracts and hit records after the British Invasion, you'll see many of the bands were struggling in obscurity before the British Invasion made the self-contained band a big deal again. They would either change their names, or the personnel would shift around, but most of the post-British Invasion bands in America were in their embryonic stages before the Beatles came along. Jefferson Airplane emerged from a folk group called the Town Criers, that Marty Balin joined in 1963, after his failed release of a folk song in 1962. The Lovin' Spoonful grew out of the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the early 60's. So did the Mamas and the Papas, which evolved from The Mugwumps, which included Sebastian and Yanovsky who formed the Spoonful. Musicians who became stars in their own right like Leon Russell and Glen Campbell were working studio musicians in the early 60's. The Band started out in 1958 as the support band for Ronnie Hawkins, called "The Hawks". Some of them eventually backed up Bob Dylan, who was also a top selling folkie before the British Invasion, until one by one all of the Hawks ended up as Dylan's backup band before they decided to call themselves "The Band".

And then there's R&B and Soul music. Labels like Motown, Chess, and Stax just kept cranking out hits as if the British Invasion never happened. Granted, most of their acts had very short shelf lives anyway, but the hits from those labels just kept on coming. The Brill Building style song-pluggers, like Carol King, Neil Diamond, Ellie Greenwich, and others, had a tough time of it for a while, but eventually the record labels realized that just because some bands had people in them who could write original songs, most didn't. So, the market for songs written by professional songwriters eventually returned. And, some of the songwriters, like Carol King and Neil Diamond, realized they could make more money, and enjoy their work more, if they performed their own songs.

Those are just some recollections off the top of my head. With some research, I could probably find more examples.

There must have been bands who continued to play the American Rock’n’Roll from the 50s. They may have been obscure though and may have not been signed to any record labels. Are there any American bands from that time who played Chuck Berry styled Rock’n’Roll and had that 50s sound during that time? If so could you name some?

 

[BikerDude]

Little Richard and "The Killer" Jerry Lee Lewis.

 

[Carl Perkins]

Little Richard and "The Killer" Jerry Lee Lewis.

Jerry Lee Lewis is a great musician. I do not not about his career in the 60s though, there was a lot of controversy when he married his cousin.