Top 10 Opening Tracks From 1950s Rock Albums

Feature Photo: Decca Records: James Kriegmann, New York., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

An album’s opening track has one job: make you want to hear the rest. In the 1950s, when rock and roll was still taking shape, artists such as Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Ray Charles, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley used that first song to make an immediate statement. These are 10 of our favorite opening tracks from 1950s rock albums.

# 10 – “Shake, Rattle and Roll” – Shake, Rattle and Roll – Bill Haley & His Comets

Bill Haley & His Comets opened the 1955 Decca album Shake, Rattle and Roll with their hit version of “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” one of the records that helped push rock and roll into the American mainstream. Big Joe Turner had recorded the Jesse Stone song first, but Haley’s 1954 version tightened the arrangement and gave it the country-and-R&B combination that became central to his sound. Produced by Milt Gabler and recorded in New York City, Haley’s version became a Top 10 pop hit and remains one of the defining records from rock and roll’s first great wave.

# 9 – “School Days” – After School Session – Chuck Berry

After School Session with Chuck Berry + 4 Bonus

“School Days” opens Chuck Berry’s 1957 debut album After School Session with everything that made Berry one of rock and roll’s essential architects: a sharp guitar riff, a driving rhythm, and lyrics written directly about teenage life. The song moves from the boredom of the school day to the freedom of the jukebox and dance floor, turning ordinary adolescent experience into rock and roll mythology. Berry’s storytelling was every bit as important as his guitar playing, and “School Days” remains one of the clearest examples of how perfectly he understood the young audience that was making this new music its own.

Read More: Top 10 Chuck Berry Songs

# 8 – “Oh Boy!” – The “Chirping” Crickets – The Crickets

“Oh Boy!” gets The “Chirping” Crickets moving immediately with Buddy Holly’s unmistakable vocal phrasing, ringing guitar, and the tight rhythm of the Crickets. Written by Sonny West, Bill Tilghman, and Norman Petty, the song was recorded in Clovis, New Mexico, in 1957 and became one of the group’s signature hits. What makes it such an effective album opener is its simplicity: the song is excited about being in love, the band sounds excited to be playing it, and that enthusiasm comes through from the first note.

Read More: Top 10 Buddy Holly Songs

# 7 – “Sweet Little Sixteen” – One Dozen Berrys – Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry opens his 1958 album One Dozen Berrys with “Sweet Little Sixteen,” a song that captures the excitement of teenage rock and roll fandom better than almost anything recorded during the decade. Berry follows a young fan obsessed with the music, the stars, the clothes, and the chance to see rock and roll in person, while his guitar and Johnnie Johnson’s piano keep the record moving with the bounce that defined so many Chess recordings. The song also became enormously influential; its melody later became the center of a famous publishing dispute after the Beach Boys used it as the basis for “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

Read More: Top 10 Chuck Berry Songs

# 6 – “Blueberry Hill” – This Is Fats Domino! – Fats Domino

“Blueberry Hill” opens the 1956 album This Is Fats Domino! with one of the warmest and most recognizable voices in early rock and roll. The song had been written in 1940 by Vincent Rose, Al Lewis, and Larry Stock and recorded by several artists before Domino, but his rolling New Orleans piano, relaxed vocal, and rhythm-and-blues feel transformed it into his signature recording. “Blueberry Hill” became a massive crossover hit and remains a perfect example of how Fats Domino could take an older popular song and make it sound completely at home in the new world of rock and roll.

Read More: Top 10 Fats Domino Songs

# 5 – “Bo Diddley” – Bo Diddley – Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley’s self-titled 1958 album opens with the 1955 single that introduced both the man and the beat that would carry his name through rock history. Built around the instantly recognizable Bo Diddley rhythm, the track combines his tremolo-heavy guitar with percussion, maracas, and a chant-like vocal that sounds unlike almost anything else from the period. The record’s influence reaches far beyond one hit or one album; the Bo Diddley beat became part of rock and roll’s basic vocabulary and was picked up by generations of artists who followed him.

Read More: Top 10 Bo Diddley Songs

# 4 – “I’m Gonna Love You Too” – Buddy Holly – Buddy Holly

“I’m Gonna Love You Too” opens Buddy Holly’s 1958 self-titled album with the light, fast-moving sound that made his records so distinctive. Written by Joe B. Mauldin, Norman Petty, and Niki Sullivan, the track had not been one of Holly’s biggest American hits, but it works beautifully as an album opener because it immediately establishes his combination of rockabilly rhythm, pop melody, and youthful vocal style. Holly could make a compact song feel effortless without making it feel slight, and this one gets the album underway before the listener has any chance to settle in.

Read More: Top 10 Buddy Holly Songs

# 3 – “What’d I Say” – What’d I Say – Ray Charles

What'd I Say [Mono Version Pressed On 180-Gram Black Vinyl]

Ray Charles opens his 1959 album What’d I Say with the song that became one of the defining recordings of his career. Built around Charles’ electric piano groove and the call-and-response between his lead vocal and the Raelettes, “What’d I Say” brings gospel intensity into a secular R&B performance that also became part of the rapidly expanding language of rock and roll. The track reportedly grew out of an improvised live performance before Charles developed it into a record, and that spontaneous quality never disappeared; even on the studio version, it sounds as if the room could break into a party at any moment.

Read More: 10 Essential Ray Charles Songs

# 2 – “Tutti Frutti” – Here’s Little Richard – Little Richard

Little Richard’s 1957 debut album Here’s Little Richard could hardly have opened with anything other than “Tutti Frutti.” Recorded in New Orleans in 1955 with producer Bumps Blackwell, the song announces itself with one of the most famous vocal openings in rock and roll and never lets up. Little Richard’s pounding piano, explosive singing, and the New Orleans rhythm section gave the record a level of speed and excitement that still sounds outrageous. Plenty of artists helped invent rock and roll, but “Tutti Frutti” captured the wildness of the music in a way few records before it had managed.

Read More: Top 10 Little Richard Songs

# 1 – “Blue Suede Shoes” – Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley begins his 1956 debut album with Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” and it is hard to imagine a better introduction to the record that helped make Elvis a national phenomenon. Presley recorded his version on January 30, 1956, at RCA Studios in New York, backed by Scotty Moore on guitar, Bill Black on bass, D.J. Fontana on drums, and Shorty Long on piano. Elvis did not erase the rockabilly character of Perkins’ original; he attacked it with his own urgency and charisma, turning the first track on his first RCA album into a statement about exactly what kind of performer had arrived.