No disrespect to the band The Revivalists, but that’s not the kind I want to talk about today. It is Rock and Roll Revivalists. This term describes artists that play in a style more reminiscent of 1950’s Rock and Roll up to the early 1960’s. I am not sure this was the motivation, but it is seen by some as a push back against the synthesized, prog and psychedelic rock. The revival didn’t take long to start up after the demise of traditional Rock and Roll as we see the signs of it in the late 1960’s.

Among my fellow bloggers, there has been some reference to artists that meet this description. So I thought I might pursue the idea a bit. Some of the central inspirations include Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis and of course Elvis Presley. In fact there are whole genre that owe to some of the styles of music in the 1950’s. The Rolling Stones came in just after the heyday of Rock and Roll and have been through every phase possible, and as you may have heard they recently released a new album!

Some of these representative genre actually started in the 1950’s and revival artists may cover older songs, and/or they may write new songs in the ‘older’ style. Rockabilly is a good example of a genre that still has an audience. Punk Rock found some influence and certainly The Ramones not only recorded with Rock and Roll in mind, they covered songs like “Do You Want to Dance”, “Baby, I Love You” and “Let’s Dance”.

For a bit of a formal start we can point to The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival that took place at Varsity Stadium on September 13, 1969. On the bill were some of the great stars of the era such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Little Richard and Junior Walker and the All Stars. Also preforming were Chicago, Tony Joe White, Alice Cooper and more. John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed and they recorded the album Live Peace in Toronto 1969.

There were some notable performances at the Woodstock Festival as well, not to sound like a broken record but that was also Bo Didley and the upstart Sha Na Na. Certainly we see it in the soundtrack from movies such as American Graffiti (1973), American Hot Wax (1978) and The Blues Brothers (1980) for The Blues genre of course, and later The Big Chill would do much the same as a revival for music from the 1960’s.

There are a number of such movements with bands taking up The Blues, Soul, Motown, and other R&B styles for example. Much of the Jazz vocal genre is dedicated to American Standards, some of these songs from as far back as the 1920’s have been covered into the many hundreds of versions.

We often hear artists described as a “throw back” to an earlier era. For Rock and Roll there are a number of names that come to mind. The best way to lay it out I think is to provide some examples. As this style is near and dear you might find me repeating some names I have mentioned in other posts. I started with a video of one my favorite Revival artists and indeed one of favorite performers period, Dave Edmunds. So, let’s follow that continuum with a band he formed with Nick Lowe, Terry Williams and Billy Bremner called Rockpile *(now you know where the band name came from)

Shakin’ Stevens with a cover of a Fats Domino song “Wait and See”

Dr. Feelgood was a pioneering band in the Pub Rock scene in London.

The Stray Cats first album came out in 1981, here is their original “Rock this Town” from 1981.

The Kingbees from 1980 with “My Mistake”

Micky Jupp had startred his career in the 60’s but from 1978 here is his original song “Old Rock ‘n’ Roller”

The Ramones with an original song “Rockaway Beach”

NRBQ with a cover of an Eddie Cochran song “C’mon Everybody” from 1958

Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen cover many Rock and Roll and early R&B songs. Here is their take on Elvis Presley’s “Mean Woman Blues” (1973)

Here are some more contemporary artists.

Imelda May with her original song “Johnny’s Got A Boom Boom” from 2008

JD McPherson has a longtime interest in 1950’s music. With a punk band background his first solo release was in 2010.

The Strypes have been at it since 2010 as well and draw much of their inspiration from the Pub Rock scene that includes Dr. Feelgood and Rockpile as well as students of the sounds of the 1950’s. I guess this makes them revivalists of the revival.