THE YEARS PRECEDING THE explosion of
Beatlemania were far from inspiring
for would-be rock ’n’ roll fans in
the UK. In the early 1950s exciting records were
few and far between, and there was no real sign
of the approaching musical explosion that Bill
Haley would ignite, albeit unwittingly, in 1955.
British teenagers – among them John Lennon,
Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard
Starkey – craved new music to match their
emerging status as members of the first post-war
generation with a bit of money in their pockets
and aspirations of their own. They were hungry for
new musical heroes but these were in short supply.
Influential British DJ John Peel once described
the bleak sense of anti-climax that followed his
adolescent visit to The Liverpool Empire in the
Beatlemania were far from inspiring
for would-be rock ’n’ roll fans in
the UK. In the early 1950s exciting records were
few and far between, and there was no real sign
of the approaching musical explosion that Bill
Haley would ignite, albeit unwittingly, in 1955.
British teenagers – among them John Lennon,
Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard
Starkey – craved new music to match their
emerging status as members of the first post-war
generation with a bit of money in their pockets
and aspirations of their own. They were hungry for
new musical heroes but these were in short supply.
Influential British DJ John Peel once described
the bleak sense of anti-climax that followed his
adolescent visit to The Liverpool Empire in the
early 1950s to hear ‘what we honestly believed
was the most exciting pop singer of the time’:
Frankie Laine. Laine, a successful mainstream
Italian-American vocalist from Chicago, had hits
with high-octane ballads like ‘Jezebel’ and virile
Western theme songs like ‘High Noon’. Such
songs were certainly dramatic enough to make
Laine stand out from Perry Como, Al Martino,
Dean Martin and other smooth Italian-American
crooners of the day, but the man himself was
largely an unknown quantity in Britain. In fact
Frankie Laine was 26 years older than Peel and
his physical appearance at once dispelled any
illusion that he might be the musical standard
bearer for rebellious youth. ‘This frog-like man
came onstage in a shiny suit,’ Peel recalled, ‘and I
knew at once that something was terribly wrong.’
was the most exciting pop singer of the time’:
Frankie Laine. Laine, a successful mainstream
Italian-American vocalist from Chicago, had hits
with high-octane ballads like ‘Jezebel’ and virile
Western theme songs like ‘High Noon’. Such
songs were certainly dramatic enough to make
Laine stand out from Perry Como, Al Martino,
Dean Martin and other smooth Italian-American
crooners of the day, but the man himself was
largely an unknown quantity in Britain. In fact
Frankie Laine was 26 years older than Peel and
his physical appearance at once dispelled any
illusion that he might be the musical standard
bearer for rebellious youth. ‘This frog-like man
came onstage in a shiny suit,’ Peel recalled, ‘and I
knew at once that something was terribly wrong.’
Frankie Laine, sometimes known as ‘Old Leather Lungs’ delivers one of his powerhouseperformances to a mixed-age audience. It could have been ‘Jezebel’ or ‘The Cry Of The Wild
Goose’ but whatever the song, it was almost certainly loud.
I knew at once that
something was
terribly wrong
something was
terribly wrong