#GreatAlbums1950s - #HankWilliams – Moanin’ the Blues (1952). One of two 10-inch LPs released during Williams’s lifetime, Moanin’ briefly encapsulated the bluesier side of the Williams canon on “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “I’m a Long Gone Daddy,” “The Blues Come Around” and five other tracks. The expanded version (available on streaming) adds raw solo-acoustic outtakes, including the brooding “Alone and Forsaken,” from one of the greatest bodies of music ever created.

#GreatCountryAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #LeftyFrizell – Listen to Lefty (1952). The archetypal hard-living honkytonk journeyman of the fifties, Lefty remains best known for “If You’ve Got the Money (I’ve Got the Time),” which temporarily made him a friendly rival to Hank Williams on the country hit parade. This ten-inch LP (digitized on Apple and Spotify) presents eight songs from Frizell’s heyday as a singer able to twang the heartstrings while keeping a firm eye on hardscrabble realities.

#GreatCountryAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #TheLouvinBrothers – Satan is Real (1959). As famous for its kitschy cover as the music within, this LP is a rare country-gospel classic. “The Christian Life,” famous from The Byrds’ cover on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, epitomizes the Louvins’ immaculate close harmonies and bluegrassy twang. There’s plenty of fire and brimstone to scare the wits out of believers, but songs like “The Drunkard’s Doom” are just as concerned with earthly demons of the flesh.

#GreatCountryAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #GeneVincent & His Blue Caps – Bluejean Bop! (1956). Like many 50s rockers, Vincent’s LPs fall short of “great” owing to labels’ habit of reserving the best tunes for singles (no “Be-Bop-a-Lula” here or on the 1957 followup). Still, this LP is a rare place to hear a full set by the original Blue Caps – including ace Cliff Gallup on lead guitar. Plus there’s plenty of hellfire in “Jezebel” and “Who Slapped John?” – showing why Vincent is a rockabilly legend.
#GreatRockAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #BillHaley & His Comets – Rock Around the Clock (1955). Although history remembers Haley mainly for one earth-shifting 45, there was more to Bill’s oeuvre given his talent for countrified jump blues and occasional ability to write bangers like “Rock a-Beatin’ Boogie.” While most of this disc rocks amiably in ways you’d expect, there’s one wonderfully bizarre turn on “Thirteen Women” – a fantasy about the only male among 14 survivors of nuclear Armageddon.

#GreatRockAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #TheDrifters – Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters (1956). The original Drifters were among the seminal R&B groups, bridging traditional pop (the Ink Spots in the 40s) and fifties soul (anticipating Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, etc.). “Money Honey” is a rollicking stop-time with claims to being an early (1953) rock & roll single. But much of this LP features McPhatter’s keening tenor on a set of immaculate gospel-tinged ballads – “Without Love,” “Seven Days” et. Al.
#GreatPopAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #CarlPerkins – The Dance Album (1957). Sidelined after a 1956 car crash, Perkins watched from a hospital bed as “Blue Suede Shoes” topped the pop/ country/ R&B charts, only to be overshadowed by Elvis’s cover version on LP and TV. Still, Perkins made a mark with songs like “Honey Don’t,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” and “Matchbox” (all covered by the Beatles) -- epitomizing rockabilly as an enduring form beyond the fickleness of the charts. #GreatRockAlbums, #Rockabilly

#GreatAlbums1950s - #RockAndRollTrio – Johnny Burnette & the Rock ‘n Roll Trio (1956). This Memphis trio played rockabilly with furious insistence, sealing their legend among hard rockers of later decades. “Honey Hush” and “Train Kept A-Rollin’” sounded as unhinged and rebellious as anything released in ‘56, with Paul Burlinson’s fuzz guitar and Johnny Burnette’s chaotic screams anticipating everything from Iggy to Zeppelin. The latter tune became an oft-covered rock standard.

#GreatRockAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #BoDiddley – Bo Diddley (1958). The insistent hambone beat (dependent as much on Jerome Green’s infectious maracas as Bo himself) was only part of the Diddley sound, although “Bo Diddley” and “Pretty Thing” set it down for the ages. Diddley also performed straight blues (“Before You Accuse Me”) and used doo-wop vocal cues (“Diddy Wah Diddy”), besides the hoodoo stew of “Who Do You Love?”. Nobody made more iconic music with simpler elements. #GreatBluesAlbums, #GreatRockAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #ChuckBerry – Chuck Berry is on Top (1959). Combining jump blues of the 40s with Chicago blues of the 50s and the country twang he’d fostered playing clubs in St. Louis, Berry became a pillar of early rock and roll. His guitar playing was a similar hybrid of styles, influencing every rock player who came after. But his greatest gift may have been the lyrics, from the rags-to-riches tale of “Johnny B. Goode” to the gleeful rebellion of “Around and Around.”
#GreatRockAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #NatKingCole – After Midnight (1956). Surviving racist attacks and skepticism toward his crossover success in a “white” music industry, Cole became legendary as both a jazz pianist and popular singer. This definitive LP revives earlier hits like “Sweet Lorraine” and “Route 66” with the Cole Trio augmented by horns and Stuff Smith’s Grappelli-like violin. Ballads like “Lonely One” and “Blame It on My Youth” melt against Cole’s intimate, ever-soulful singing.
#GreatJazzAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #PeggyLee – Black Coffee (1953/56). Originally eight songs on vinyl 10-inch, Black Coffee featured Lee at her sultry best – epitomizing the emboldened, urbane feminine persona of the pre-rock era. Later sessions from 1956 added more pizazz, with echoes of bop and cool jazz on Lee’s renditions of “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You” and a smoldering “You’re My Thrill.” Lee’s influence continues to resonate in the vocal styles of Joni Mitchell and Billie Eilish.

#GreatJazzAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #SisterRosettaTharpe – Gospel Train (1956). Billboard called Tharpe’s music “rock-and-roll spiritual singing” a decade before Elvis arrived at Sun Records. Her R&B gospel influenced the likes of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, and her breakout guitar solos anticipated the style of Chuck Berry. This 1956 set features Tharpe still at her peak, rocking the gospel like nobody else on “Jericho, “Up Above My Head” and other classics.

#GreatSoulAlbums, #Gospel, #GospelMusic

#GreatAlbums1950s - #NinaSimone – Little Girl Blue (1959). Simone’s blend of jazz, blues, R&B and classical boggled generic categories. On this debut, her contralto voice quakes against standards like “Mood Indigo” and “Don’t Smoke in Bed,” and her confidant piano rings on Basie’s and her own instrumentals. Simone would make more iconic albums in the 1960s, but Little Girl Blue contains the basic elements of soul and drama that made her a unique force in popular music.

#GreatAlbums1950s

#GreatAlbums1950s - #RayCharles – Ray Charles (1957). Reissued later as Hallelujah I Love Her So, Charles’s debut LP collected signature tracks like “I Got a Woman,” “Mess Around” and “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” alongside grittier fare (the swampy “Sinner’s Blues”) and the odd hokum raveup (“Greenbacks”). For a definitive set of early soul and R&B – blended with the “rock & roll” elements designated on Atlantic’s original cover – this iconic LP has the goods.

#GreatPopAlbums, #SoulMusic

#GreatAlbums1950s - #BillieHoliday - Lady Sings the Blues (1956). Despite the ravages affecting her health, Holiday tapped a late-career wellspring on sets like Velvet Mood and this LP -- both from '56. Holiday revisits hits like "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child" along with newer material such as the title track. A sextet or septet provides restrained musical settings for Holiday's matter-of-fact delivery -- an artist who knows the end is nigh but chooses to forge on.

#GreatJazzAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s – #CharlieParker/ #TheQuintet – Jazz at Massey Hall (1953). This live one-off, captured by Charles Mingus on a portable tape deck, featured Parker in the company of Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Max Roach, and Mingus (on bass) at Toronto’s Massey Hall. A spirited “Perdido” leads the set, followed by Dizzy’s infectious “Salt Peanuts” and a set of standards ending with a definitive “A Night in Tunisia.” Low audio fidelity aside, this is as good as bebop gets.

#GreatJazzAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #OrnetteColeman – The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959). From the plastic saxophone Coleman cradles on the cover to the near-abandonment of traditional harmony to the free-form soloing by the musicians, everything about this LP felt new and slightly dangerous in 1959. Although “Lonely Woman,” “Eventually,” “Peace,” etc. aren’t exactly “free jazz” as it would be understood in the 60s, the radical shift in form divided the naysayers from the believers.

#GreatJazzAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #DjangoReinhardt – The Great Artistry of… (1953). Django was to jazz guitar what Hendrix was to rock – creating new voicings with dazzling technique. This LP, made months Django’s death at age 43, finds the Belgian-Romani virtuoso playing electric guitar with bebop backing. His own “Nuages” precedes tunes by Porter/ Weill and a blazing take on Barroso’s “Brazil.” Amplifier breakup gives Django’s trademark runs a touch of grit on this jazz guitar manifesto.

#GreatJazzAlbums

#GreatAlbums1950s - #ArtBlakey and the Jazz Messengers (1959). AKA: Moanin’, this LP combines elements of blues, gospel, and Dixie march in a hard bop framework, highlighted by pianist Bobby Timmons’ infectious title track and drummer Blakey’s percussive mayhem on “The Drum Thunder Suite.” Trumpeter Lee Morgan adds his typical scene-chewing solos on “Are You Real” and “Come Rain or Come Shine,” and tenor man Benny Golson evokes big-band fanfares over a soulful groove.

#GreatJazzAlbums