What was the first rock ‘n’ roll song on American TV?
Rip-roaring rock ‘n’ roll was a uniquely American phenomenon when it first hit the airwaves in the 1950s. It was electrifying for the masses and invigorated a new sense of blazing purpose within the youth of the day to rebel against conformity.
In many ways, it was also a natural offshoot of the country’s previous popular sonic styles, as well as its social and political demographics, and thus made it the genre to change music forever. As Muddy Waters put it in his famous song, “The blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll.”
Having been borne out of the forms of rhythm and blues seen most predominantly in the 1940s, the first ever rock stars carved out their own special places in history for laying the groundwork of the genre that would go on to birth so many more transcendental musical efforts as the years wore on.
These included the likes of Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and Johnnie Ray, whose often evocative performances whipped up a firestorm on the emerging scene and subsequently soon gathered them a mass following. Meanwhile, braggadocio entered the mix too, with Little Richard saying with a wry smile and a straightface, “I believe I am the architect of rock ‘n’ roll”.
But beyond the record stores and the live gigs, the next natural progression to bring rock ‘n’ roll music truly into the mainstream was to showcase it on TV. There, it’s appeal would be unavoidable. As the genre picked up traction, many artists performed their songs on chat shows or televised concerts, but in fact, this was actually not where the first rock song on TV was ever heard. It entered the airways long before many might expect.
Indeed, rock ‘n’ roll first hit the box in America as part of the soundtrack for a TV drama, namely the CBS drama Omnibus. Additionally, the star in question graced with the honour of bringing rock on to the small screen was Billy Haley, alongside Haley’s Comets, whose song ‘Crazy Man, Crazy’ was featured in a 1953 episode of the show called ‘Glory in the Flower’.
How did American TV affect rock ‘n’ roll?
While the first rock song to appear on American TV came in dramatic form, there’s also no denying that live broadcast performances also played a pivotal role in propelling the genre to new heights and open bands up to global media opportunities in widening the expanse of their fanbase. Bill Haley and His Comets once again made history on this front, performing ‘Rock Around the Clock’ as the first live TV performance of a rock song two years later in 1955, on The Ed Sullivan Show.
That show also played its own pivotal role in putting rock stars on a pedestal of national attention in America, hosting early performances from the likes of Presley, Buddy Holly, and later, most famously, The Beatles. As such, the introduction of rock on to American TV was one that was crucial to the genre perhaps unlike any other emerging form of music before it, as a true cultural zeitgeist across different mediums was beginning to take hold.
For a long while, Bill Haley certainly didn’t expect this fate for the genre. “I busked around the country riding freight trains, the usual story, playing in radio stations and what have you. I did a stint in Chicago at the International Barn Dance, and played in St, Louis and Dallas, Louisiana and out through the Midwest,” he recalled in 1979.
Adding, “Then I returned home. My mom and dad were living near Philadelphia and I returned there with disillusion at the grand old age of 22. I had had what I felt was a halfway decent career, but I felt I wasn’t going to make it, and I returned with the idea of getting out of show business. Then I became a disc jockey on a local station, WPWA in Chester (Pennsylvania), because it was in me, but I was still singing country and western.”
When we consider the trajectory that the relationship rock music and TV has taken on since – from the birth to death of MTV and all that came in between – we can truly witness how the world has massively changed in the space of only 70 years in how songs are consumed and promoted.
Who knows, if a CBS drama hadn’t taken a chance on a popular youthful tune, we may not have the same rock genre as we know it today. As Haley said, “Everybody hates us – except the kids.” Suddenly, it was the kids that mattered. Youth culture was now popular culture.
