Kings of Rock and Roll

For a teenager in '50s Britain, everything was different.

They had rationing, national service, they didn't have much money.

But they did have the baddest, maddest, most dangerous pop singers ever.

# Warden threw a party in the county jail... #

Rock'n'roll was the greatest influence since Jesus Christ.

They were trouble, and your mother didn't like it.

The birth of rock'n'roll just came snaking out of his hips.

Fantastic! It just touches nerves all over the place.

Everybody got real wild.

Every parent's worst nightmare at the time.

They were new, noisy and nasty.

Our parents hated it, which made it even better.

They came from nowhere, and that's brilliant!

Punk didn't have the same impact.

They changed the world. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the kings of rock'n'roll.

# Keep on knocking but you can't come in

# Keep on knocking but you can't come in

# Keep on knocking but you can't come in

# Come back tomorrow night and try it again

# You said you love me and you can't come in

# You said you love me and you can't come in woooh!

# You said you love me and you can't come in

# Come back tomorrow night and try it again woooh! #

Rock'n'roll is a river of music which has absorbed many streams - rhythm and blues, jazz, ragtime,

cowboy songs, country songs, folk songs, all have contributed greatly to the big beat.

MUSIC: "Shake, Rattle And Roll" By Big Joe Turner

# Get out from that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans

# Get out from that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans

# Well roll my breakfast... #

I was working at a paper mill, I left school at 15.

I was an apprentice glove-cutter, and they'd play music all day.

And all of a sudden, Rock Around The Clock came on.

# One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock

# Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock... #

I went "Jesus, what is that?"

# ..We're going to rock around the clock tonight... #

That record went round the world and turned the world on its head.

# We're gonna around... #

That rock'n'roll jive stuff was so infectious!

Whip the girls in the air and show their knickers, the guys loved it

but the most dangerous thing most parents had seen was the Can Can.

That was the point at which the jail burst open.

# ..We're gonna rock gonna rock around the clock tonight... #

I think rock'n'roll is a symptom of the young people.

Asserting their right to do as they see fit.

The weird thing was the man who kicked all this off was a boss-eyed

country musician who looked more like your dad than your dad did.

But looks aren't everything, there's timing too.

'The liner, Queen Elizabeth, glided in sedately enough.

'It was Southampton that was rock'n'rolling at the arrival of Bill Halley and his Comets.

'Here on a tour of Britain, Bill left for London, and soon that train was rocking over the rails!'

When he came here, it was the biggest thing that ever happened.

# Giddyup, giddyup, we rock'n'roll the whole night through... #

You're used to this sort of thing, aren't you?

Well, we often have people come to meet us,

but this was the most enthusiastic reception I've ever seen.

Bill Haley was the first one

that British people had ever seen doing rock'n'roll music.

He was the first one who came over here

to Britain to do it.

I thought that kiss curl was a little strange!

Unfortunately, Bill Haley looked like the family grocer.

But the music was fantastic, really great.

Bill had made country records.

He'd discovered rhythm and blues, but it was the combination of white music and black music, that did it.

-Do you get a lift yourself when you hear rock'n'roll?

-Yes, John.

It makes me feel sort a happy... and I enjoy playing it very much.

It's an exhilarating type of music, I'd say.

# See you later alligator... #

We had no idea that Bill Haley's Comets would be a worldwide famous band.

We were just there to make a living.

GIRLS SCREAM AND SHOUT

Every show was sold out, and they'd line up, four abreast.

It was just awesome times.

ALL: We want Haley!

I've spoken to the guys in the band over the years,

they said when they went by train,

there were people all along the lines, and it was a big thing.

When it came to getting Bill Haley tickets, I was desperate.

We took the morning off school. It was just magical to go there.

We had bad tickets in the back of the upper circle of the Regal, Edmonton.

And we heard, # On your marks boom boom

# Get set boom boom Now ready, ready, go!

# Everybody... #

And the curtain opened on a new life.

# ..Hot as a coal Hot dog buddy, well bless my soul

# I'm a-rockin' Rocking on down the line

# Hot dog, birdy birdy

# Hot dog all the time

# I got a shape like a lizard Legs like a frog... #

To me it was worth it.

I know that teachers at the time strongly said, "you'll regret this,

"and you may regret it the rest of your life.

"If you miss something at school, you'll never catch up with it again"

But when I went to that concert,

they could have caned me every day for a month, I'd have done it again.

When Bill and the Comets toured in 1957, the kids went wild, despite the greengrocer image.

But maybe it wasn't so surprising.

Kids in England had nothing - no fashion, no music, it was all

blokes in white suits singing through megaphones and stuff.

# I'm the happy chappy

# Who makes you wanna smile

# I make music just for you

# And I go skiddle-iddle-boo-boo-boo... #

# Hi love love love hi li hi lo hi left

# Hi li hi lo hi love love love hi li hi lo hi left... #

MOUTH ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS

They couldn't go anywhere, couldn't go to the pubs,

and as soon as the boys were 18, straight in the Army, they still had conscription.

It was pretty sad.

Rock'n'roll was delinquents' music.

Delinquents equated to teenagers,

therefore rock'n'roll equals teenagers.

It was almost a lull before the storm.

Because when rock'n'roll did hit, people like me were so blown away.

MUSIC: "Rock-A-B Eatin' Boogie" by Bill Haley and the Comets

Rock'n'roll was flashy and trashy, colourful, exciting, and...American.

America was a richer country and didn't have the problems of the war years that we did.

So they picked themselves up a lot faster.

After the war, they found new, exciting things in cars and music.

And it looked a lot more colourful to us from over here.

# See you later, alligator

# After a while, crocodile... #

Teenagers tried to copy America as much as possible,

through their clothes, hair, music and...all sorts of things, actually.

What do you call that exercise?

It's rock'n'roll and we're rocking tonight!

But it could have been a nightmare.

Rock Around The Clock was only 15 minutes away from never existing,

dumped in favour of a novelty song called Thirteen Women -

And Only One Man In Town, brought in by Bill Haley's producer, Milt Gabler.

He had his own song, Thirteen Women - And Only One Man In Town,

which was flat as a fart.

Nice song, but flat as a fart.

And then when that was all finished, he said, "OK, now do that rock thing you're gonna do."

That was his attitude about Rock Around The Clock.

# We're gonna rock around the clock... #

But the real fire was lit by a nine-year-old American blasting it out in his bedroom.

His dad, actor Glen Ford, was having a meeting about a film downstairs.

Most parents would say, "turn that bloody noise down,"

but instead, Peter Ford gave his dad an idea.

That's the song! That's the song I want in the movie!

And he made arrangements to get it and put it in the film.

And then it became a worldwide hit.

# The clock strikes two, three and four

# If the band slows down we'll yell for more

# We're gonna rock around the clock tonight

# We're gonna rock rock rock till broad daylight... #

Because we could hear it on big speakers for a change, instead of silly little radio speakers,

it really hit you, the rhythm was fantastic.

Riots? Dogs? For Rock Around The Clock?

Given that we think it's quite tame now, and a nice song,

and we think of Happy Days, and we think of the Fonz

rather than smashing up things, when the movie came out, people tore up seats in the auditoriums.

# ..We're gonna rock rock rock till broad daylight

# We're gonna rock, gonna rock... #

Not everybody reacted the same way.

I thought, "Why?" Surely the film's not that bad.

It wasn't just in the two and nines either. Bill Haley's concerts were just as lively.

Some of the things that happened, like the riots in Germany,

the kids when we played...

-..They wanted to dance...

-They were standing in the aisles

and we started playing and this all started happening.

They were dancing and the police came and tried to quiet them down - they didn't want to be quieted down.

They wanted to do what they felt.

Rock'n'roll was exciting.

It was a way to let off steam, it was a boom to cinema seat manufacturers.

But it was a bit more than that too.

It moved from, "children should be seen and not heard"

to the kids going, "we WILL be seen, and we bloody well will be heard!"

So, if Bill Haley, the singing greengrocer,

could produce this sort of reaction, what would happen if you added something else into the mix?

Something like, oh, I don't know, sex?

MUSIC: "Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis Presley

Elvis was the king.

# Warden threw a party in the county jail

# The prison band was there and they began to wail

# The band was jumping... #

Elvis had the voice - the most beautiful voice you'll ever hear.

He was an instant star.

# Everybody in the whole cell block... #

One word - sex. A damn sexy artist that projected it across all - white, black, everyone.

The birth of rock'n'roll came snaking out of his hips.

# ..Crying all the time Well, you ain't never caught a... #

Everything's happened to me so fast in the last year and a half,

so I'm all mixed up, I can't keep up with everything that's happening.

The girls loved him. The boys too, I suppose, really.

But they wouldn't admit it.

The first night that I laid eyes on Elvis Presley,

was just an experience I'll never ever forget.

I really think it was love at first sight.

And he asked me to go out after the show,

and my friend, Glenda, I was with, said, "you lucky dog! So lucky!"

He just had that charisma.

Loved being Elvis Presley.

He said to me one time, "Can you go into restaurants and that?"

I said, "If you go unannounced."

And he said, "I can't" and I said, "you won't with that white suit on! "You look like Elvis Presley!

"You have to try and dress down."

"Yeah, right." He was like, "Mmm-hmm." But he didn't want to!

And why should he?

In 1955, Elvis was 20 years old and having the time of his life.

We were working in Dallas

and there was about 35,000 maybe 40,000 people there.

And these kids were screaming so you couldn't hear nothing nobody said.

And I leaned over to Scotty and I said, "This boy's gonna make it."

# Well that's all right, Mama

# That's all right for you... #

Bill Haley may have pushed rock'n'roll screaming into the world, but Elvis made it rock.

He seemed to have it all - good looks, a quiff that defied gravity, and a truly revolutionary sound.

# ..Anyway you do... #

His music pulled together the country and gospel he grew up with,

and the rhythm and blues he heard from his neighbours in Mississippi.

He was poor white trash.

These were the days of segregation.

They lived right by the black neighbourhood, so all his influences came that way.

Elvis' quest for rock brought him to Sun Records in Memphis, and label boss Sam Phillips.

Sam Phillips was always saying,

"Get me something different." "I wanna hear something different."

Elvis said he'd come to Sun to make a record for his mum's birthday.

But when Phillips heard him, he knew he was on to something, and pulled Elvis back into the studio.

They were all packing up to go, when they got jamming.

He went, # That's all right, Mama That's all right for you... #

They went, "Hang on, guys, just do that again!"

So again, it's that moment that becomes fateful.

He was always very proud of the fact that he had a big range

and he could sing anything.

He just loved to perform. I think that really was his life.

They didn't know what to think about him. They thought he was black.

And then saw him on TV and said, "Oh, that's a white guy!"

-Just one moment.

-Hello, Elvis.

-Hello?

Elvis had the sound, he had the image, he also had a pair of trousers with a life of their own.

He was in Mississippi doing a show,

and the girls standing in front of him saw his pant legs shaking.

And they started screaming.

It wasn't the legs moving as much, it was the pants moving.

And Elvis turned to Scotty More, the guitar player,

and said, "what are they screaming about?"

Scotty More said, "I don't know, but keep it up!"

The local girls went crazy. One lept on stage and the cops had to stop her jumping on his blue suede shoes.

They just love him to death!

'When you quake when you sing,

'is that an involuntary response to the hysteria of your audience?"

Er...

I'm aware of everything I do, but it's just the way I feel.

He'd do all his leg movements, then go, "Hah!"

He shocked a lot of people. He was the first person to be shocking.

# Well, since my baby left me

# I found a new place to dwell... #

The old world found Elvis "getting jiggy wi' it" quite scary.

He got a lot of bad press in America cos they said he was like a burlesque act, bump and grind.

It was like one of these strip dancers in a strip joint.

Whatever it might have looked like,

Elvis was a traditional Southern boy who spoke softly and loved his mum.

His mother would say, "Son, don't worry about it, you're not doing anything wrong."

If his mother said it was right, it was right, no matter what they said.

# ..They get so lonely They could die

# As the bellhop's tears... #

It took me a long time to realise how authentic he was, and how truly great he was.

The minute he got in front of a microphone, he came alive.

There's a melancholy in his voice which makes it bittersweet and that's what makes it an interesting voice.

I can remember when we used to buy our 12" vinyl

and they used to wrap them in shop paper, and I used to tear the paper off outside and dump it in a bin.

I wanted everyone to say, "He's got Elvis's new album!" I wanted to be recognised as a fan.

# ..I could die

# W-ell. #

SCREAMING AND APPLAUSE

Even listening to Hound Dog now, the opening words, without music,

is like a flame is soaring into the sky.

# You ain't nothing but a hound dog... #

Now Elvis was underway, there was no stopping him,

with classic single following classic single.

Some were new songs, and some were R'n'B covers like Hound Dog,

originally a hit for Big Mama Thornton.

"We got a big hit." I said, "You're kidding!"

He said, "Hound Dog," I said, "Big Mama Thornton?"

He said, "No, some white kid named Elvis Presley," I said, "Elvis who?"

It was too fast, it was kind of nervous,

and, you know, it didn't have the feel that Big Mama's record had.

# You ain't nothing but a hound dog

# Been snoopin' round my door... #

So we were disappointed,

but after it sold about seven million, eight million records,

we began to see the merit of it.

# Well they said you was high class... #

If he can do it, I can do it, too.

If Helen of Troy launched 1,000 ships,

then Elvis launched a lot more hips, yeah, even into the Home Counties.

And suddenly all us schoolboys were getting the Brylcreem, curving the hair up and slicking it back

and trying to look like Elvis. I even tried using lard once.

It looked good, but smelt unbelievable.

You never had your collar down, it always came up.

You became someone else.

So, screaming girls, screaming boys come to that, thousands hanging on

your every move, it was a complete change in the way audiences behaved.

Nobody's lives would ever be the same.

Kids would not hurt you intentionally, but they didn't know how much power they had in masses.

They could knock another child down or knock us down, and then stomp on you, just go over you.

They didn't mean to do it but it happened.

I'd get scratched when we went through mobs.

People grabbing at you, tearing off his clothes, it was just unreal.

That's why we went out in the middle of the night - to avoid crowds.

Everybody else was sleeping, we were out trying to make do and have fun and party.

He was a victim of his fame.

# Warden threw a party in the county jail

# The prison band was there and they began to wail... #

There must have been an easier way, and there was - hurray for Hollywood!

Rock'n'roll and the movies made a perfect partnership in the '50s.

Movies were bigger then, the threat from TV wasn't as great, there was no such thing as video and whatever.

It was probably the only way you could see your artist.

But working in films had its trial and tribulations.

His first trip to Hollywood to do Love Me Tender, they made some crowns

for his teeth but they were just temporary, he couldn't eat with them.

He'd give me his teeth to hold during dinner or whatever.

I didn't have a pocket, "What am I gonna do with the teeth?"

I stuck them up in here and let 'em hang out and I looked like a vampire.

It's just the beast in me.

And then they put mascara on his eyes, and that brought out these deep-set eyes.

He liked the look and kept it.

He felt pale when he went out in public, if he didn't have on his movie make-up.

It was the wildest thing - he had on make-up, I didn't!

# Please take another chance and let me

# Let me have another dance

# With yo-o-o-u. #

You couldn't go any higher or get any bigger than Elvis.

He represents somebody that flew fast, high and absolutely aflame.

My music changed my life. It stopped us being poor,

but that's an inevitable thing, but I didn't do it to stop being poor.

I did it cos I wanted to look and sound and sing like Elvis. Simple, pure and simple.

# To a heart that's true... #

You know, you always remember your first love...

My first love was Elvis Presley and how can you forget him, even today?

# Baby, it's still you I'm thinking of. #

John Lennon said if you were to change the name of rock'n'roll, you may as well make it "Chuck Berry".

Chuck Berry took the guitar and gave it life, gave it purpose.

# We're back up in the woods among the evergreens... #

Chuck Berry, like all those guys, was a one-off.

The framework of rock'n'roll music, the guitar breaks, the grooves, that wouldn't exist without Chuck Berry.

# Go! Go, Johnny go! #

Genius is reflected in his lyrics, his music, his dress, the dance he invented...

This is his originality - his art.

# Johnny be good... #

When I was in first or second grade,

and the class goes, "My dad's a fireman, cool."

"My dad's a policeman." "Well, my dad's the king of rock'n'roll."

Not half, he wasn't,

but the poet laureate of teenage America was already 30

with a jail term behind him by the time rock'n'roll came a-knockin'.

# Studying hard and hoping to pass... #

He ended up in Chicago where blues legend Muddy Waters took him under his wing.

The door Chuck ended up banging on belonged to Chess Records.

The next day he went to my father, and when he said Muddy Waters sent him my father brought him in.

He played two songs.

When they heard the second one,

they looked at each other, my father and uncle, because we were very aware

that different, unusual, unique sounds

were very popular to the Black community.

We weren't even thinking white.

# You just started doing the things you used to do... #

Maybe they weren't, but what Chuck had was a plan, and a cunning one.

The road to success was modern and fashionable,

but Chuck's songs were full of farm animals and girls called Ida Red.

A make-over was needed, and Ida Red became Maybelline, renamed for a brand of mascara.

In those days, radios had buttons you pushed for each station.

He was compulsively pushing the buttons and listening for our records.

Suddenly, he pushed a button and then came Maybelline by Chuck Berry.

He looked at me and said, "Wow! "We're on WIME. We've got it!"

Because they never played black music, and when Chuck Berry broke,

many of the disc jockeys in American radio stations didn't realise he wasn't white.

When they found out he was black, a lot of them pulled the record.

We only had one station that blacks could be heard on from a certain time.

Blacks couldn't even drink water from the same water fountain that the whites did.

We couldn't walk into the front door of a restaurant to get food.

They'd put a rope in the auditorium

and put whites on the one side and blacks on the other - they never met.

Chuck resented that. He was a black man in America prevented from doing things.

Chuck wrote about things he couldn't ever be part of -

he was the ultimate outsider, looking in and taking notes.

The frustration he felt was transformed into songs about teenage angst, opening up a whole new world.

You all remember Maybelline - the young man with the guitar who couldn't catch her with his car?

Well, here is with a new automobile - Chuck Berry and You Can't Catch Me.

Chuck's brilliance was he understood he could play to a black audience

but what he was aiming for was white teenage America.

# I bought a brand-new air-mobile

# Custom-made, 'twas a Flight De Ville

# With a powerful motor and some hideaway wings... #

Chuck Berry was into the psyche of white teenagers, he wasn't writing for black ones.

I don't know how he knew it,

maybe he had a couple of teenage white girlfriends.

At that time, it would have had to have been a big secret.

He knew what he was doing.

He knew that if he kept playing to everybody as opposed to one particular group, that rock'n'roll

as we knew it then and as it is today would be where it was.

When they start playing rock'n'roll,

and white folks started listening to it that was instant integration.

Because then, there were whites coming down into the black community just to hear the music.

# ..Down in Louisiana 'cross to New Orleans... #

Chuck Berry influenced certainly all the great guitarists today.

# ..A log cabin made of earth and wood

# Where lived a country boy named Johnny Be Good... #

They say he only has four or six chords.

I said, "Yeah, but the combination of those chords... is the foundation of rock'n'roll."

# Go, Johnny go, go! #

Everyone's ripped off that riff many times over.

The crazy thing about that one particular riff in Johnny Be Good

is that it's gone on for over 50 years now.

I hear the Chuck Berry double riff.

"Uh-oh! You stole that from Johnny Be Good."

"Uh-oh! I know that song." You can't fool me!

At the start when he's going, er...

That played on the guitar sounds really exciting.

The other thing about Chuck is his words have a certain metre to them

that almost the words make you wanna dance.

# I'm gonna write a little letter gonna mail it to my local DJ

# It's a jumpin' little record that I want my jockey to play... #

# ..I want my jockey to play... #

Just hearing the words on their own gets you going.

# Riding along in my automobile... #

His lyrics are so natural.

No Particular Place To Go is about a guy and a girl going for a ride, they want to go for a walk

because the moon's out, and he can't get the safety belt off.

The seat belt gets stuck so they have to drive on,

he's all aggravated and they still can't get the safety belt loose.

It's about what could have happened to anybody and probably did happen to thousands of kids.

Actually, Cliff, I think it's about sex.

# So I told her softly and sincerely... #

Nobody had ever written about 20th-century life about cars

and about jet planes whizzing over freeways night and day.

# With no particular place to go. #

# Sweet little 16

# She's just got to have

# About a half a million... #

Sharp words, sharp tunes... Sharp suits?

You'd never seen anything like it.

The suits... the way he performed, like the old duck-walk thing he did,

and that guitar playing which was really rough and raw

and slightly out of tune, too.

The first time I remember seeing him on stage,

I was awe-struck - like wow!

My dad is on national television, wow!

He's playing the guitar that I just saw him buy.

He knew how to get the audience up, and keep them there.

And once he got 'em up, and he did the duck-walk, he didn't have to work any more.

A real example of Chuck Berry is when they sent the Voyager

to space, they put a disc on it with Beethoven and Bach

and Shakespeare and representing rock'n'roll was Chuck Berry with Johnny Be Good.

# Johnny be good tonight, go go

# Go Johnny go, Go, go, go, Johnny go... #

Will there be something that is as cool as rock'n'roll? Well...

Personally, with what my father does... I don't think so, but I'm biased, all right?

Rock'n'roll has got to go.

If I hung out with Jerry Lee Lewis, I'd avoid mentioning his 13-year-old wife.

He's been a naughty boy over the years, apparently.

# You know what I am Whoo! #

-It's other-worldly, it could be the dark side.

-I'm pretty sure it's the dark side.

It's cooler up here.

He had one foot in heaven and one foot in hell.

# Well, shake, baby... #

He don't care if he hits a bad note or anything.

Doesn't bother him a bit.

He thinks everything he does is great and because of that it is.

I got myself a rock'n'roll singer, rock'n'roll country singer

rock'n'roll country and western rhythm and blues singer, a stylist...

# Jerry's got the blues by the horn

# Yeah and I ain't fakin'

# I got the whole lotta shakin' goin' on... #

And what a stylist he was.

The man they call The Killer came from Louisiana, born into a family of true believers.

It was never said at my house if Jerry could make a hit

with his music, it was always WHEN Jerry makes a hit with his music.

# The news is out

# All over town... #

It didn't take long for Jerry's precocious talent to surface.

Jerry was about eight years old at that time, and he just walked over to the piano and started playing it.

A lot of people don't believe that, but that's how talented Jerry Lee Lewis is.

# ..Should leave, but then... #

It wasn't an easy life for the young Jerry Lee.

They moved time and time again and were just very poor.

And when you're very poor, and you live in the South,

religion is one of the things that will give you solace.

He was playing in church but he was starting to boogie things up.

They had this song and they wanted him to sing it like this...

# There are some things

# I may not know... #

And my brother would do it like this...

# There are some things I may not know... #

And that's what got him into trouble at Bible school.

I liked his version of it better!

We gathered dozens and dozens of eggs and my daddy sold those eggs

to get the money to buy the gasoline to take my brother up to Nashville.

He was turned down in Nashville,

and he came through Memphis and Jack Clement made a tape for Sam Phillips.

I played a tape for Sam and he loved it,

and before it ever got to the singing he stopped it, and said, "Now, I can sell that."

But what Sam didn't realise was that Jerry was not controllable.

Jerry did what he wanted to do.

And what Jerry wanted to do was make a big hit.

He did a Whole Lot Of Shakin'.

One take, no dry-run, nothing. That was it.

Once a Whole Lot Of Shakin' came out, then it was just explosive.

He went from making this 200 a night to thousands.

So he was like, "Look at this!

Look at me! "I've arrived!"

We were living in this shack one day, and we had nothing,

and then suddenly, Jerry bought us this brand-new Fleetwood Cadillac.

We went to Doris' Dress Shop in Faraday, Louisiana,

and we bought all the clothes they had. We had boxes of clothes.

It was fantastic.

And as Jerry got bigger, more and more of the world went looking for that pumping piano.

We were going through Pontypridd and a Whole Lot Of Shakin' came on.

My friend said, "Is that what you're talking about?" I said, "Exactly."

# Shakin'... #

And if you thought the songs were wild, then wait until you saw the stage shows.

In one song he stood up and kicked the piano stool away which became his trademark.

He's flicking his hair around...

He was jealous of all the guitarists.

He was on the same bill as Chuck Berry and was on before him - to outdo him he set fire to his piano

at the end of his set so it was almost impossible for Chuck Berry to follow him.

# You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain

# Too much love drives a man insane

# You broke my will but what a thrill

# Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire... #

Great Balls Of Fire was Jerry's next huge hit,

and the religious imagery wasn't lost on the Bible school dropout - caught between heaven and hell.

# Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire... #

I remember Sam saying that rock'n'roll is the greatest influence since Jesus Christ,

and Jerry Lee saying, "Rock'n'roll is of the devil!"

-'You can save souls!'

-'No! NO!

How can the devil save souls?

What are you talking about?! I have the devil in me!'

Sam said, "Well if you think it's the devil's music, don't do it."

He said, "I'm saying that's what I was taught to believe."

I'm Christian-minded,

but I'm not living it. Now I regret that I don't.

I regret that I haven't, that I know I should have.

# You better listen to me, sugar All the cats are at the high school rockin'... #

Preachers preached against it.

"It was the devil, it was the devil's music."

# Got everybody hoppin' Everybody boppin'

# Boppin' at the high school hop... #

There's people that'll stand up against it.

There's people that will feel the fear of God, that will say it's wrong, it's sick...

# I been movin' at the high school hop

# Well, everybody's boppin'... #

What style of music would make people go, "We're gonna ban it.

"We're gonna burn the records, and we're going to arrest people who play it." That sounds ludicrous now.

# Yeah, check out the heart beatin' rhythm

# And my feet are movin' smooth and light... #

They were told to tone it down.

The stuff was too wicked, too wild.

# I've been rollin' at the high school hop

# I've been movin' at the high school hop... #

It's you, teenager! You're involved, you're sunk,

you're pulled down, you're forsaken by the devil.

Adding fuel to the fires of sin was the fact that in 1957, Jerry,

not divorced from his first wife, married his 13-year-old cousin.

He said, "Girl, I loved you the first time I laid eyes on you."

And I said, "What?"

Now, being a 13-year-old girl, idolising this man...

..what are you gonna do?

Of course, she is our cousin, but...

I believe it's our second cousin.

That would be considered unusual anywhere, except in our family.

Things came to a head in May 1958 when the newlyweds travelled to Britain for a sell-out tour.

When I answered the reporter who'd asked, "Who are you, miss?"

and I'd said, "Oh, I'm Jerry's wife."

When I saw the reaction on his face, I knew I'd said the wrong thing.

And he said, "And how old are you?"

And I thought, "Oh, my God, he's too anxious to know that answer." So I just lied to him and said I was 15.

Like that would make a big world of difference!

I thought, "I'm not gonna miss this. I don't care who he's married to."

So we went, and the audience gave him a terrible time booing him.

He just played on.

# I'm a wild one, whoo, yeah... #

No, I don't regret it.

The criticism didn't mean nothing to me cos I had enough talent to overcome it.

I've always done what I wanted to do, as long as I felt it was right.

To him, because he felt that having sex outside marriage was a sin,

because he fell in love with his second cousin, he married her, before he had sex with her.

Five days and three shows later,

Jerry Lee and Myra were back on the plane, Jerry's career heading for a tailspin of its own.

The papers reported you were greeted with silence over there, and with cat-calls from the audience.

-Is that right?

-Well, I can't agree with all that.

It was very nice and very good.

Were you there, Mrs Lewis?

I was there but I wasn't at the shows.

You weren't at the shows?

Did you notice any sort of reception like that?

-No, it was a good reception.

-When were you married?

-Pardon?

-When were you married?

-We'll leave our personal questions out of this.

-All right. Good luck.

They didn't want any part of us.

They pulled Jerry's record off the air, they cancelled TV shows...

10,000 a night to 250 a night is a pretty big disappointment.

# Lovin' me, lovin' me right... #

We were, of course, disappointed.

There goes our meal ticket.

Those things that happened to us, will always be us.

It didn't just happen to one of us, it happened the two of us together,

it joined us together in history, and that's where we'll always be.

# Well, I saw Uncle John with bald-head Sally

# He saw Aunt Mary coming... #

Little Richard - I'd never heard anything like it.

# Baby, whoo-hoo... #

And that was it for me. Hello, rock'n'roll!

# Yeah... #

And suddenly this sound came out of the radio, a man singing,

and I'd never heard the like of it before, it was fantastic.

When he stepped out, you said, "My God, who is that?"

# You ran away from me... #

He left an impression on you at all times.

# Lucille

# Please come back where you belong... #

He sort of "ate" a lyric - he grabbed it and spat it out.

It was sexual, it was hot, it was rebellious, it was everything.

It was that breed of rock'n'roll pianist that use their pianos like guitars.

His music was the perfect mix,

with his looks, hair, the way he played the piano, his whole act.

He was a clever, creative artist.

# I'm ready, ready ready Teddy I'm ready

# Ready, ready Teddy, I'm ready

# Ready, ready Teddy, I'm ready to rock'n'roll... #

I created rock'n'roll, and I didn't even know what I was doing.

# I'm ready Ready, ready Teddy, I'm ready... #

Little Richard shocked people. Not only was he black and screaming Lucille...

# Lucille... #

..up in your white kids' bedroom, he was practically a drag queen, and it really confused parents.

It never confused kids. They loved him!

# You got it, whooo!... #

The moment Richard stepped on that stage it was like someone turned on a light switch

and you could feel the love and the energy just sparking from one person to the other, it was a love-fest.

To the strait-laced sections of the 1950s, Little Richard was a brother from another planet.

He was loud, he was lewd, and he was black.

Wildly attractive to the new rock'n'roll audience, but the devil incarnate to a lot of other people.

Richard used to sing in church with a quartet which was his family's group.

The Bible was pulverised into these youngsters at that age.

At the end of a concert, Richard often used to say, "I am the only thing left, I am the king.

"My music is the healing music, it makes the blind see, the lame walk, the dead rise up..."

That's Little Richard.

The wild abandonment of gospel made Richard's records sound

like speaking in tongues, but what really made them fly was when he let loose his...ambiguous sexuality.

Richard was looking out of a fourth-floor hotel window, and saw me and sent for me.

The first thing that I said was, "Does he know I'm a girl?"

I remember standing in the door, and he was lying on a bed.

And...there were stars, there were bells, I got dizzy.

Sex to me was like a smorgasbord, you could pick whatever you want.

If you wanted it, get it all. That's what I did.

He just liked to watch all the time, and hang around

with black strippers and he'd look at them, all this kind of stuff.

I must admit, he kept Vaseline stocked up.

When he crossed the excitement of his music with a flamboyant image - equal parts drag queen, stripper

and monster from outer space, he even startled his own friends.

Earl Palmer is the most marvellous drummer.

He sounds like 1,000 drummers.

But he said when Little Richard came in the studio all dressed up

with make-up and a pompadour in 1955, they were terrified.

We looked up and saw him and said, "What the f... is that?"

We didn't say, "Who is that?", we knew who it was.

We told Richard about it and he had a big laugh.

Earl met Richard in 1955, when the Georgia peach fetched up

in New Orleans to work at one of rock'n'roll's shrines, J&M Studios.

His first songs were slow, bluesy and not very special, then they went for a drink.

So they had a break and went to this Dew Drop Inn, which is a place where all the pimps, the...a...

the prostitutes, the low-down life, all the good-time folks were there.

Richard loves the spotlight and he went over to the piano and suddenly went....

# A-whop-bop-a-loo-bop a-whop-bam-boom

# Tutti frutti au rutti Tutti frutti au rutti

# Tutti frutti au rutti Tutti frutti... #

The producer said, "That's what I want from you." They only had 15 minutes left, the rest is history.

# A-whop-bop-a-loo-bop a-whop-bam-boom I got a girl her name's Sue... #

They changed many of the lyrics in his songs, you know.

Because rhythm and blues lyrics were very suggestive and Richard just kept on singing those

when he started singing with a little more of a rock feel.

# She's the gal that I love best

# Tutti frutti au rutti

# Tutti frutti au rutti, ooh... #

You can't think of them being nonsensical, silly sometimes,

but silly for a reason and the reason was exhilaration,

This great feeling of stuff happening.

So you shout, you scream, you babble things that are...you know, it's almost like speaking in tongues.

# She knows how to love me, yes indeed... #

Once they tell your voice is black,

it didn't matter what you were singing, they didn't play you.

# A-whop-bop-a-loo-bop a-whop-bam-boom... #

Even cleaned up Richard's Tutti Frutti was still too much for a lot of radio stations to take.

If you couldn't play the original, what could you do?

Bring on the white boys.

# ...au rutti A-whop-bop-a-loo-bop... #

When I sang his songs that was not my tradition.

I wanted to capture as much of his feel as I could because I wanted to be faithful to the music.

# Tutti frutti au rutti Tutti frutti au rutti... #

Pat Boone covered the record and he came out polished, white boy - offbeat, no time

and made millions off of it just with the white buck shoes.

People say your record of Tutti Frutti wasn't as exciting as Little Richard's, no it wasn't,

because if I'd sounded like him my record wouldn't have played either.

# A-whop-bop-a-loo-bop a-whop-bam-boom... #

But gradually, and rather quickly, the kids and their DJs said, "Let's play the original records."

And the era, then, of the cover record was over.

They would buy Pat Boone's and put it up on the table and put mine under the table.

We were in the same house but different locations.

# Tutti frutti au rutti

# A-whop-bop-a-loo-bop a-whop-bam-boom. #

He sang in a completely different way, I used to love Elvis,

then Little Richard came and I listened to that, there'd be this raucous screaming...

# Jenny, Jenny, Jenny Won't you come along... #

Fantastic! It just touches nerves all over the place.

# Jenny, Jenny, Jenny Won't you come along with me?... #

Like Elvis, Little Richard had a huge impact in the UK, especially in Liverpool.

Paul McCartney was asked, "Are you still imitating Little Richard?" He said, "Who isn't?"

He always says, AS LITTLE RICHARD: 'I taught you everything you knew child.' And it's true, he did.

-How did you do it?

-He was standing in the wing of the stage and I was,

# Whoo-oh-oh-oh... #

He said, "Who-who."

Between 1955 and 1957, Little Richard could do no wrong.

Every single single was a classic and the concerts - the concerts were something else again.

Have you ever seen his show?

Jesus. Little Richard would play that piano with his hands and everything.

He'd be on top of the piano turning flips, doing everything - jumping off with capes and things.

# Yeah... #

We were in Chicago in '57.

I was introduced as Little Richard's fiance by Richard.

I mean the kids just had to have a piece of me.

My dress was all over Chicago.

I thank God Richard was using capes in those days because that was the only way I could...

CHEERING AND SCREAMING

Richard was gorgeous.

The girl can't help it.

You see that movie...

You see my Richard.

# Good God I'm ready Ready, ready Teddy, I'm ready

# Ready, ready Teddy, I'm ready Ready, ready Teddy I'm ready ready to rock'n'roll... #

He is that explosive, that outgoing...

And er...his ambition is that you pay attention to no-one but him.

So when he's performing he's the centre of the world.

# Ready, ready Teddy I'm ready, ready ready to rock'n'roll. #

# There you go inviting Here am I will you... #

He was influential in a lot of subtle ways.

He wasn't overtly sexy like Elvis.

There was this instant appeal to a lot of guys

because he looked like he could be, literally, the guy next door.

Immediately that must give everybody who wears glasses or has pimples a chance.

Yeah, it helps if you're really good-looking

and that also helped with the girls but with Buddy the girls even love him too with his glasses on, so.

I know that because I had to shoo them away a lot.

# ...a-crying... #

But importantly he was one of the first of the rock'n'rollers to write his own songs.

# I've thrown away my nights... #

Every single was a smash.

Peggy Sue was a classic. It didn't matter what he looked like.

Nowhere was safe from rock'n'roll and there weren't many places

more nowhere than Lubbock, a dry, dusty city on the Texas plains.

That was where Charles Buddy Holly came from,

ending up, a geeky-looking teenager with bad teeth and his own band.

Heaven alone knows what they did when the music stopped.

We were a bunch of guys in west Texas that played all kinds of music

mostly country and a bit of swing.

And we'd go round and play dances and when they opened a new garage

they'd have a truck and we'd play on it.

We'd play for the opening of a pack of cigarettes.

# Maybe baby... #

His parents were very, very poor. They didn't have enough money.

When you start playing rock'n'roll you make 5 a night instead of 40 cents stacking groceries.

-Where do you come from Lubbock, Texas?

-Yes.

You go to school down there?

-We did until we got out of school.

-Then you played together?

-Yes.

Buddy could've been a steel worker or driven cattle,

except one day Elvis Presley came to town and changed everything.

When Elvis came we thought, "What a way to attract girls."

# That's all right That's all right... #

I first saw Elvis, he'd played the Fair Park Coliseum which was the big venue in Lubbock, Texas.

The next day after Elvis left town, well we started to playing Elvis songs. We became Elvis clones.

# Well, it's one for the money Two for the show

# Three to get ready Now go, cat, go... #

He had something that you didn't realise at the time. He was him.

He always said to me,

"A lot of people tried to get me not to wear glasses on stage,

"I want them to love the music and if they love my music, I come second."

If you looked from his shoulders up, you'd think surely this is Buddy Holly's accountant.

From the shoulders down, guitar low, strat...rock'n'roll.

# Oh... #

He was ground-breaking.

He was making things different.

# All my love All my kisses

# You don't know what you've been missing... #

He felt rock'n'roll had a short lifespan, if it didn't move forward.

# That the world can see That you were meant for me. #

They'd try anything.

We didn't have access to tom-toms and bongos and congas.

-# I'm gonna tell you how it's gonna be

-Ta ta tum tum...

-#

There were interested in their sound and spent days getting it right.

# We're all right so I'm being foolish

# Well all right... #

Little Richard was a favourite of ours. He'd say "Well, all right.

-"Let's get this on, all right."

-Well, all right.

ALL: All right.

That's where that song came from.

He did that on everyday and we were working on that

and he was teaching us the songs.

So the songs flooded out of him in no time and they were great songs.

Everything was grist to Buddy's mill.

There was nothing that was out of bounds. It was so dangerous to say somebody's the first about anything

but from their own view they weren't copying anybody else.

This was them in this situation.

# If you knew Peggy Sue

# Then you'd know why I feel blue

# A-bout Peggy

# My Peggy Su-u-ue... #

We had so many songs and everybody

started to believe their parents, like, "This is not going to last."

We said while this stuff is selling we better get all we can as they're going to quit doing this next month.

Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.

Six classics in a year isn't bad.

Also on board manager and producer Norman Petty.

He helped them in the studio but he kept a firm grip on the cash as well.

One of the things I saw was that they never signed contracts. They always put their hand on the bible.

Another rock'n'roll first - the first wife to have doubts about the management.

Petty still had his hands on the purse strings

and he jerked the band strings too. But Buddy wanted control too.

He treated us like kids but we didn't have to be treated like kids.

We wanted to get our own money and so they just told Alan Freed, "Hey, give us the money this time."

So they paid us in cash and I went back to the room.

They said, "Here's how we split it up. We throw it on the bed and everybody gets as much as they can."

"That's our split."

# Well I love you gal... #

We had a very tough time trying to get our money.

I realise that Norman Petty was taking advantage of the kids.

Buddy and the boys planned to move to New York but at the last minute

Norman Petty persuaded the Crickets to stay in Lubbock.

# Heartbeat, why do you... #

Norman convinced them not to come to New York saying,

"They're going to eat you alive - those New Yorkers."

The last time we talked to Buddy,

we were sitting out front of the studio and they said,

"It may not work in New York and if it doesn't we'll get back together."

New York, new wife, no money, no mates but he had to do

what a boy had to do and headed out on a winter dance party.

At that time, I was pregnant.

I had my suitcases out the door when they were leaving.

I said, "No, no, you have to take care of our baby and it will be

"just two weeks, you'll be back before you know it."

There wasn't to be a happy ending.

When the plane crashed in snowy conditions Buddy was killed. He was just 22.

# A long, long time ago

# I can still remember how that music used to make me smile... #

I didn't believe it. I said, "No, that's impossible.

We were trying to call him last night.

"He was going to call us back. We were waiting for the phone call."

# ...for a while... #

We was more sad when Buddy was killed that we hadn't been hanging out and you look back and say,

"Why did we...this was such a dream come true and we all just got nuts!"

# One more step... #

One of his dreams that he always kept saying is,

"I'm doing my music and I want my music to be remembered."

His dream has come true.

# The day the music died. #

# All my love, all of my kisses You don't know what you've been missing

# Oh, boy When you're with me, oh, boy

# The world can see That you were meant for me. #

By the end of the '50s, it looked like your parents might have been right all along.

Buddy was dead, Elvis was in the army, Chuck Berry was in jail,

Jerry Lee was in disgrace and Little Richard had found God, again, and Bill Hailey was still your dad.

But once the tiger had got out of the cage, it was pretty difficult

to get it back in again and in the caverns of Liverpool, something stirred.

# Oh, baby

# Yeah, oh, baby Who-o-o

# Baby

# Having some fun tonight

# I saw Uncle John with long, tall Sally

# He saw Aunt Mary comin' and he ducked back in the alley

# Oh, baby

# Yeah, oh, baby

# Who-o-o

# Oh, baby Having some fun tonight. #

Subtitles by BBC Broadcast - 2004 E-mail us at [email protected]