Jazz, blues and nostalgia. About the ‘battlefield of rock ‘n’ roll’.
The rise of Elvis Presley and his peers mid-fifties caused a real battlefield in popular music. Some established artists made curious attempts to find their way into the rock-idiom. Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day – they all flirted with this new taste in music, the ‘old’ Kay Starr got a big hit with the sluggish ‘Rock ’n’ roll Waltz’ and even Marlene Dietrich ventured on rock ’n’ roll, despite her previously expressed aversion. Others mocked it, like comedian Stan Freberg, Nat King Cole (‘Mr. Cole won’t rock ’n’ roll’) and in the Netherlands Wim Sonneveld (‘Ik ben m’n petje kwijt’ – I lost my hat). Other famous names (Guy Mitchell, Johnny Ray or Patti Page) were immediately catapulted into oblivion.
