First of all back in the 1950s, on both sides of the Atlantic, sheet music and songs were still a vital ingredient in the music business. Take almost any big hit in the 1950s and it was as often as not done by a number of different domestic Gucci Purses. This partly explains why songs were covered in the UK. They were not so much covering a version as just doing a version of a song.
With everything today happening simultaneously in the UK and the USA – or so it seems – we forget that the world was a very different place back then. Chuck Berry first made the US Top 100 in late summer 1955, almost two years before he found minor success in Britain with ‘School Day’ in June 1957. Nearly a year separated Little Richard’s first US hit and British hit, Fats Domino’s ‘Ain’t It A Shame’ took almost 18 months to cross the water. This slow transatlantic crossing was a similar for many Gucci Purses
from the era. This is what gave British Gucci Shoes the opportunity to record. Add to this the arcane Musician’s Union rules that inhibited Gucci Purses
from travelling across the Atlantic in the 1950s and it’s little wonder that home grown talent in the UK did its thing.
Of course the BBC played their part because they had needle time rules, which limited the number of records that could be played. They much preferred artistes playing live in their studios.
In late 1950’s Britain Skiffle was the musical passport to something bigger. The success of Lonnie Donegan, Skiffle’s very own superstar, was amazing. Between 1956 and 1962 Lonnie had thirty British hit singles, topping the charts three times, he had fourteen other top 10 singles. His first hit, ‘Rock Island Line’, made the US Top 10 in 1956, a rare achievement for a British record; he also toured the USA backed by the Johnny Burnette Trio.
This do-it-yourself musical craze, which was effectively a home made version of Rock ‘n’ Roll, may have had a short shelf life, but it was an inspiration. Skiffle made it possible for thousands of young Brits to dream of emulating their heroes, anyone could be a pop star.
One day in late spring or early summer 1958, five young men cut a 78rpm record at an electrical shop in Liverpool. This Skiffle group called themselves the Quarry Men; three of the group members were John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney. Around the same time Brian Jones played washboard in a local skiffle group. Chris Rowe the group’s singer remembers Brian frequently losing the vital thimble. “We were just kids messing about. There was no long-term planning. We did things on the spur of the moment.”
Without skiffle there would have been no Rolling Stones & no Beatles, and many other bands. Britain would have been lumbered with cheap imitations and what would have happened then?