Beginning in 1949, while Elvis Presley and Sun Records were still virtually unknown--and two full years before Alan Freed famously discovered rock 'n' roll--Dewey Phillips brought the budding new music to the Memphis airwaves by playing Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, and Muddy Waters on his nightly radio show Red, Hot and Blue. The mid-South's most popular white deejay, Daddy-O-Dewey soon became part of rock 'n' roll history for being the first major disc jockey to play Elvis Presley and, subsequently, to conduct the first live, on-air interview with the singer. Louis Cantor illuminates Phillips's role in turning a huge white audience on to previously forbidden race music. Phillips's zeal for rhythm and blues legitimized the sound and set the stage for both Elvis's subsequent success and the rock 'n' roll revolution of the 1950s. Using personal interviews, documentary sources, and oral history collections, Cantor presents a personal view of the disc jockey while restoring Phillips's place as an essential figure in rock 'n' roll history.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
University of Illinois Press
ISBN-13
9780252077326
eBay Product ID (ePID)
105335090
Product Key Features
Book Title
Dewey and Elvis: the Life and Times of a Rock 'N' Roll Deejay
Author
Louis Cantor
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Topic
Music
Publication Year
2010
Number of Pages
320 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
229mm
Item Width
152mm
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Louis Cantor
Series Title
Music in American Life
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
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