All Shook Up - Decade 1

All Shook Up - The First Decade.  This is Part 1 of a very personal selection of music that either I was listening to as a youngster and early teen at the time or a little later came to take me back to my childhood music experience. This first decade of rock 'n roll for me began in 1956 and went on to about 1964. I was in grade school when Elvis Presley was shaking things up and I vividly remember all the fuss. Our babysitter at the time was also our teenaged aunt who lived down the street and she was a big early rock and roll fan who exposed me to music at an early age. We has another aunt who thought it was cute to buy rock 'n roll albums for us that had "twist" in the title. One of my earliest cherished possessions was a little portable record player that played both LPs and 45 singles.

Philadelphia was a rock and roll town in the early sixties and there was already a thriving oldies scene even back then. Fifties Doo Wop was very popular when I was a kid along with every other kind of r&b and soul music in Philly. As the decade progressed the Motown sound became much more important to me.

All the songs on this mix have had some personal influence on me and this is just the first part a four part romp through my memories and musical experiences. My teenaged aunt and uncle down the street were into the Fifties rock and roll and I liked the Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly records they played. Having an older sister exposed me to many of the girl groups of the time and the first wave of Beatlemania which all show up on these mixes. It's hard to imagine all the craziness that the Beatles caused back when I was in seventh grade. It was one of those things where you just had to be there. The girls were screaming about the Beatles but I remember the guys liking the Stones and the Kinks much more back then. The early Sixties British Invasion scene was amazing and it was also a little strange that they were really just sending back the early r&b songs that we were already listening too in Philly but with their cheeky British style and mop top cuteness. Looking back now it's interesting to see how many old r&b covers the British bands played on those early albums.

The whole twist craze had a very funny impact on us back then and for the first time it seemed that adults were also getting into some rock 'n roll. The Twist made it OK for the "mad men" to cut loose a little bit. There was another wave of music coming from California surf bands with their take on early r&b that was also very popular in Philly. In the sixties there were also radio stations that were already specializing in playing "oldies" which at that time meant Fifties rock 'n roll and there were many dances put on by DJs that played the oldies.  Later in high school I would spend a lot of time at Wagner's Ballroom for Jerry Blavat oldies dances where we would hear a lot of the music on these mixes. I also had a very substantial collection of "oldies" by the late sixties.

There are four mixes in this set from my first decade and there are several more decade based sets in the works.The second decade set will go from 1965 to about 1975 and include four mixes. The third decade runs from about 1976 to 1985 and the fourth decade from 1986 to the mid nineties. After that is just seems like recent music. These will be very personal mixes. These will not be collections of the best of the year or most popular. They will be what I had and what I listened to at the time. All of this is part of my 60@60 thing.

This and all of these mixes will be available to listen at Mixcloud.


1.   Elvis Presley - All Shook Up
2.   Buddy Holly - Rave On
3.   Gene Vincent - Be-Bop-A-Lula
4.   Johnny Burnette Trio - The Train Kept A-Rollin'
5.   Howin' Wolf - Wang Dang Doodle
6.   Chuck Berry - Maybellene
7.   Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
8.   James Brown - Think
9.   The Routers - Let's Go (Pony)
10.  Ernie Maresca - Shout Shout (Knock Yourself Out)
11.  The Five Du-Tones - Shake A Tail Feather
12.  The Orlons - South Street
13.  Little Eva - The Loco-Motion
14. The Crystals - Da Doo Ron Ron
15. Martha & The Vandellas - Quicksand
16. Shirley and Lee - Let The Good Times Roll
17. The Marvelows - I Do
18. Hank Ballard - The Twist
19. Chubby Checker - Let's Twist Again
20. Joey Dee & The Starliters - Peppermint Twist
21. The Isley Brothers - Twist and Shout
22. The Beatles - She Loves You
23. The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There
24. The Beach Boys - I Get Around
25. The Beach Boys - Surfin USA
26. Jan and Dean - Surf City
27. The Surfaris - Wipe Out
28. The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird
29. The Ventures - Walk Don't Run
30. The Regents - Barbara-Ann