Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early-1950's.

The term "rockabilly" is a convergence of "rock," from rock and roll, and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music (often called "hillbilly music" in the 1940s and '50s) that contributed strongly to the style's development. Other important influences on rockabilly include Western Swing, blues music, boogie woogie, and Jump blues. Although there are notable exceptions, its origins lie primarily in the Southern USA.

There was a close relationship between the blues and country music from the very earliest country recordings in the 1920s. Jimmie Rodgers, the first true country star, was known as the "Blue Yodeler," and most of his songs used blues-based chord progressions, although with very different instrumentation and sound than the recordings of his black contemporaries like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bessie Smith.

During the 1930s and 1940s, two new sounds emerged that mixed country with current black musical styles. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys were the leading proponents of Western Swing, which combined country singing and steel guitar with and big band jazz influence and horn sections; Wills' found massive popularity. After blues artists like Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson launched a nationwide boogie craze starting in 1938, country artists like Moon Mullican, the Delmore Brothers, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and the Maddox Brothers and Rose began recording what was known as "Hillbilly Boogie," which consisted of "hillbilly" vocals and instrumentation with a boogie bass line and the slapped bass that Fred Maddox developed.

Zeb Turner's February 1953 recording of "Jersey Rock" with its mix of musical styles, lyrics about music and dancing, and guitar solo, i is another example of the mixing of musical genres in the first half of the 1950s. Bluegrass was a staple of "country" music in the early 1950s, and is often mentioned as an influence in the development of rockablly.

The Honky Tonk sound, which "tended to focus on working-class life, with frequently tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness, alcoholism, and self-pity", also included songs of energetic, uptempo Hillbilly Boogie.

Sons of sharecroppers, Carl Perkins and his brothers Jay and Clayton, along with drummer W. S. Holland, had been playing their music around Memphis. The Perkins Brothers Band, quickly established themselves as the hottest band in the get-hot-or-go-home cutthroat Jackson, Tennessee honky tonk circuit. Hillbilly songs were delivered as jived up versions - classic Hank Williams standards infused with a faster rhythm. It was here that Carl started composing his first songs with an eye toward the future. Watching the dance floor at all times for a reaction, working out a more rhythmically driving style of music that was neither country nor blues, but had elements of both.

Younger musicians around Memphis, Tennessee were beginning to play a mix of musical styles. Paul Burlison, for one, was playing in nondescript hillbilly bands in the very early 1950s. One of these early groups secured a fifteen minute show on radio station KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas. The time slot was adjacent to Howlin' Wolf's and the music quickly became a curious blend of blues, country and what would become known as rockabilly music. In 1951 and 1952 the Burnette's and Burlison played around Memphis and established a reputation for wild music. They played with Doc McQueen's Swing Band at the Hideaway Club but hated the type of music played by "chart musicians." Soon they broke away and began playing their energetic brand of rockabilly to small, but appreciative, local audiences. They wrote "Rock Billy Boogie," while working at the Hideaway.

Although the term was in common use even before the Burnettes wrote "Rock Billy Boogie", one of the first written uses of the term "rockabilly" was in a June 23, 1956 Billboard review of Ruckus Tyler's "Rock Town Rock".

In 1951, a western swing bandleader named Bill Haley recorded a version of "Rocket 88" with his group, the Saddlemen. Considered one of the earliest recognized rockabilly recordings, it was followed by versions of "Rock the Joint" in 1952, and original works such as "Real Rock Drive" and "Crazy Man, Crazy", the latter of which reached #12 on the American Billboard chart in 1953.

On April 12, 1954, Haley with his band (now known as Bill Haley & His Comets) recorded "Rock Around the Clock" for Decca Records of New York City. When first released in May of 1954, "Rock Around the Clock" made the charts for one week at number 23, and sold 75,000 copies. A year later it was featured in the film Blackboard Jungle, and soon afterwards it was topping charts all over the world and opening up a new genre of entertainment. "Rock Around the Clock" hit No. 1, held that position for eight weeks, and was the #2 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 1955. The recording was, until the late 1990s, recognized by Guinness World Records as having the highest sales claim for a pop vinyl recording, with an "unaudited" claim of 25 million copies sold.

Maine native, and Connecticut resident Bill Flagg began using the term rockbilly for his combination of rock 'n' roll and hillbilly music as early as 1953.[19] He cut several songs for Tetra Records in 1956 and 1957.[20] "Go Cat Go" went into the National Billboard charts in 1956, and his "Guitar Rock" is cited as classic rockabilly.

Sun Records was a small independent label run by Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee. For several years, Phillips had been recording and releasing performances by blues and country musicians in the area. He also ran a service allowing anyone to come in off the street and for $3.98 (plus tax) record himself on a two-song vanity record. One young man who came to record himself as a surprise for his mother, he claimed, was Elvis Presley.

Presley made enough of an impression that Phillips deputized guitarist Scotty Moore, who then enlisted bassist Bill Black, both from the Starlight Wranglers, a local western swing band, to work with the green young Elvis. The trio rehearsed dozens of songs, from traditional country, to "Harbor Lights", a hit for crooner Bing Crosby to gospel. During a break on July 5, 1954 Elvis "jumped up ... and started frailin' guitar and singin' "That's Alright, Mama" (a 1946 blues song by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup). Scotty and Bill began playing along. Excited, Phillips told them to "back up and start from the beginning." Two or three takes later, Phillips had a satisfactory recording, and released "That's All Right," on July 19, 1954, along with an "Elvis Presley Scotty and Bill" version of Bill Monroe's waltz, Blue Moon of Kentucky, a country standard.

Presley's Sun recordings feature his vocals and rhythm guitar, Bill Black's percussive slapped bass, and Scotty Moore on an amplified guitar. Slap bass had been a staple of both Western Swing and Hillbilly Boogie since the 1940s. Commenting on his own guitar playing, Scotty Moore said, "All I can tell you is I just stole from every guitar player I heard over the years. Put it in my data bank. An when I played that's just what come out."  But what really sets this recording apart is Elvis's vocal, which soars across a wide range and expresses both a youthful humor and a boundless confidence. The overall feeling the song communicates is one of limitless freedom.

Nobody was sure what to call this music, so Elvis was described as "The Hilbilly Cat" and "King of Western Bop." Over the next year, Elvis would record four more singles for Sun. Together, the upbeat numbers can be used as a touchstone for the rockabilly style: "nervously uptempo" (as Peter Guralnick describes it), with slap bass, fancy guitar picking, lots of echo, shouts of encouragement, and vocals full of histrionics such as hiccups, stutters, and swoops from falsetto to bass and back again.

By the end of 1954 Elvis asked D.J. Fontana, who was the underutilized drummer for the Louisiana Hayride, "Would you go with us if we got any more dates?" Presley was now using drums, as did many other rockabilly performers; drums were then uncommon in country music. Each of Presley's Sun singles combined a blues song on one side with a country song on the other, but both sung in the same vein. In the 1955 sessions shortly after Presley's move from Sun Records to RCA, Presley was backed by a band that included Moore, Black, Fontana, lap steel guitarist Jimmy Day, and pianist Floyd Cramer. In 1956 Elvis acquired vocal backup via the Jordanaires. The 1957 recording of Jailhouse Rock for the film of the same name clearly features piano and saxophone.

1955 was also the year in which Chuck Berry's hillbilly influenced Maybellene reached high in the charts as a crossover hit, and Bill Haley and His Comets' Rock Around the Clock was not only #1 for 8 weeks, but was the #2 record for the year. Rock ‘n' roll in general, and rockabilly in particular, was at critical mass.

The distinctive reverberation on the early hit records such as "Rock Around The Clock." (April 12, 1954 released May 15) by Bill Haley & The Comets was created by recording the band under the domed ceiling of Decca's studio in New York, located in a former ballroom called The Pythian Temple. It was a big, barn like building with great echo. This same facility would also be used to record other rockabilly musicians such as Buddy Holly and The Rock and Roll Trio.

In Memphis Sam Phillips used various techniques to create similar acoustics at his Memphis Recording Services Studio. The shape of the ceiling, corrugated tiles, and the setup of the studio were augmented by and ingenious and entirely original system of "slap-back" tape echo which involved feeding the original signal from one tape machine through a second machine with an infinitesimal (capable of having values approaching zero as a limit) delay. The recordings were thus an idealized representation of the customary live sound .

Other influential artists "discovered" by Sun studios were Carl Perkins, who would score Sun's first million-seller with his classic composition "Blue Suede Shoes." Carl's career was sidetracked by a terrible auto accident he suffered on his way to New York to appear on television. He and his band members were in the hospital for months, recovering, as "Blue Suede Shoes" stormed up the charts and slowly worked its way back down. Although Carl's body recovered from the wreck, his career never did. Despite producing many of the wildest and most heartfelt rockabilly records of the 1950s, he never had another hit.

Jerry Lee Lewis-"The Killer," as he was known, had a piano sound like no one else and a stage presence somewhere between an explosion and a riot. He attacked the piano with his feet, threw the piano stool across the stage, charged at the audience with the mike in his hand to astonish his listeners. There is a general myth that he once set his piano on fire in order to intimidate Chuck Berry. However, he and others have denied this ever happened. His musical approach was similarly anarchic and exciting. Jerry Lee would enjoy four million-selling records in a row on Sun, before the news broke that he had married his 13-year-old cousin. America's conservative establishment was horrified and the Killer was quickly blacklisted. His records disappeared from the charts and he struggled in obscurity for a decade.

Roy Orbison-Although Roy is best known for the beautiful ballads he recorded during the early 1960s on Monument Records, he began his career singing rockabilly at Sun. Some of his Sun recordings, such as "Ooby Dooby," were regional hits and many of them have remained popular with later rockabilly artists and listeners.

Johnny Cash-If Elvis was King, then J.R. Cash was the Prince of Rockabilly. He recorded hits like "Home of the Blues," "Train of Love," "I Walk The Line," "So Doggone Lonesome," "Country Boy," "Rock and Roll Ruby," "Cry Cry Cry," "Get Rhythm," "Big River," and, perhaps the greatest rockbilly hit of all time, "Folsom Prison Blues." Cash's sound was revolutionary, with only himself on rhythm guitar, Marshall Grant his stand-up bassist, and Luther Perkins, who is considered the father of the modern electric guitar style. Cash's sound may have been simple, but it was so simple it appealed to everyone -- the Man in Black will not be forgotten anytime soon. Cash signed on with Columbia, but stayed true to his rockabilly roots while expanding into folk, gospel, and even novelty songs. At the height of his popularity in 1968-69, he even outsold the Beatles. His albums At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin are considered the greatest live albums of all time.

Other artists who pushed the boundaries of Rockabilly were Buddy Holly, from Lubbock, Texas, who made several records for Decca's Nashville division before finding success recording for Decca's Coral and Brunswick subsidiaries in New Mexico with Norman Petty. Holly was a gifted songwriter and guitarist, as well as a unique vocalist. Most of his big hits, including "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue," were his own compositions. Holly's band, the Crickets, were first-rate and quite influential themselves.

Johnny Burnette-and his Rock ‘N' Roll Trio were from Memphis. When Elvis starting having success in music, Burnette and his cohorts landed a slot on Ted Mack's TV talent show. They went on to make some of the wildest rockabilly records of the 1950s. Unfortunately, none of these records were chart hits. Burnette would have a few big hits with more teen-oriented pop songs a few years later, such as "You're Sixteen".

Gene Vincent-Clad in black leather and singing uncontrolled songs of sex and menace, Vincent would establish the crucial image of what a rock musician looks like. His band, the Blue Caps, were extremely talented and contributed to the great power of his rockabilly recordings. Although his sales declined in the USA after his initial million-seller "Be-Bop-A-Lula"/ "Woman Love," he remained very popular in Europe and helped inspire the next generation of musicians there.

Eddie Cochran-Humorously captured the details of teen life in his songs, much like Chuck Berry. Cochran was a gifted guitarist and songwriter, best known for hits like "Summertime Blues," "C'mon Everybody," "Sittin' in the Balcony," and "Something Else." His slow songs generally showed a light touch and his rockers were exciting. He toured England to great success with Gene Vincent in 1960, but died in a car crash on his way to the airport to return to the USA.

Rick Nelson-Although Rick Nelson's career was launched on his parents' TV show, his recordings show a very real talent and enthusiasm for rockabilly music. He had dozens of hits during the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Hello Mary Lou," "Lonesome Town," "Travelin' Man," and "Poor Little Fool." On these records, Nelson worked with major rockabilly musicians, such as Johnny Burnette and James Burton. He had only two hits after 1964 and spent the last two decades of his career struggling for audience acceptance, as he was unwilling to become just a nostalgia act.

Sun also hosted performers, such as Billy Lee Riley, Sonny Burgess, Charlie Feathers, and Warren Smith. There were also several female performers like Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin, Jo Ann Campbell, and Alys Lesley, who also sang in the rockabilly style. Tommy (Sleepy) LaBeef (LaBeff) recorded rockabilly tunes on a number of labels from 1957 through 1963. Rockabilly pioneers the Maddox Brothers and Rose, both as a group, and with Rose as a solo act, added onto their two decades of performing by making records that were even more rocking. However, none of these artists had any major hits and their influence would not be felt until decades later, when artists like Becky Hobbs, Rosie Flores, and Kim Lenz would join the Rockabilly Revival.

Rockabilly music enjoyed great popularity in the United States during 1956 and 1957, but it was pretty much shunted off the radio after 1960. However it cultivated an attitude that assured its enduring appeal to teenagers. This was a combination of rebellion, sexuality, and freedom-a sneering expression of disdain for the workaday world of parents and authority figures. It was the first rock ‘n' roll style to be performed primarily by white musicians, thus setting off a cultural revolution that is still reverberating today.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockabilly