- this is the ORIGINAL edition of this series, not the revised and reissued sets in 1981 and 1986.
- this is a complete set of the original 52 hour long broadcasts on vinyl released in 1978
- vinyl are brand new, never been played but housed in single inner sleeves as they were distributed to radio stations only
The
History of Rock Roll first aired on the weekend of February
21 23, 1969, on 93 KHJ Los Angeles, hosted by Robert W. Morgan. It aired
for 48 hours and was later syndicated. Later that year, with slight
modifications to the script, another version was aired hosted by Humble
Harve Miller. The program was then syndicated nationally in the fall of
1969 by parent company RKO General. KHJ repeated this in 12-hour blocks.
This version was syndicated throughout the early 1970s, and was sent to
stations on large 10 1 2 reels of 1/4 tape, in full-track mono.
Stations were required to return the tapes immediately after airing,
though surprisingly several stations offered copies of the show as
prizes. The original KHJ show also carried promos awarding copies of the
show as prizes to a handful of listeners, on reel-to-reel tape AND a
tape recorder to play it on.
Writer Pete Johnson said that I
included nearly every record I ever remember hearing .The History of
Rock and Roll billed itself as modern music s first rockumentary when
it first aired on February 21, 1969. However, it had some competition
for that title from the Pop Chronicles which began airing on February 9,
1969, on rival Los Angeles AM station KRLA. But since The History of
Rock and Roll completed its first broadcast that weekend, it was the
first of these rockumentaries to be broadcast in full.
1978:
In
1975, Drake-Chenault began the process of updating the documentary.
Finding that the 1969 script contained inaccuracies and omissions,
programmer/DJ/music historian Gary Theroux researched, rewrote, and
rebuilt the program entirely from scratch. The new version expanded the
story with fresh interviews, insightful narration, more music, and a
host of innovations all in a modular format which allowed stations more
programming flexibility. Drake knew that the rising popularity of stereo
FM rock stations made it necessary to redo the show in stereo. The
revised show was also completely remixed and re-edited from scratch,
using a homebuilt control room assembled together by engineer Mark Ford
at the company headquarters in Canoga Park, California, and a library of
thousands of LPs and 45 singles. The program employed a systematic
approach covering each year with a focused half-hour as well as separate
segments devoted to key artists or trends. The result, hosted by Bill
Drake, was an enormously successful ratings hit.
Since the
documentary was in development at the time Elvis Presley died in August
1977, Drake-Chenault was able to quickly produce and distribute material
from the documentary as Elvis: A Three Hour Special .
Among
other things, Theroux had Drake-Chenault chief engineer Mark Ford
assemble two kinds of annual montages: one of each chart-topping hit of a
given year in sequence and the other of other key songs there was no
time to play in full. Those 1 hit montages were reprised for the
climactic final hour of the show edited together back to back to create a
fast-moving 45-minute medley of every chart-topping hit from 1955 to
the fall of 1977. The riveting nature of Theroux s much-bootlegged
ending later inspired a series of hits medleys by many artists including
Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Stars on 45, and Jive Bunny the
Mixmasters. The 1978 edition of The History of Rock Roll debuted
as a marathon broadcast over more than 400 domestic stations and
another 400 overseas, and won Billboard magazine s Top Special Program
of the Year award.
A brief history from Wikipedia:
The
History of Rock Roll first aired on the weekend of February
21 23, 1969, on 93 KHJ Los Angeles, hosted by Robert W. Morgan. It aired
for 48 hours and was later syndicated. Later that year, with slight
modifications to the script, another version was aired hosted by Humble
Harve Miller. The program was then syndicated nationally in the fall of
1969 by parent company RKO General. KHJ repeated this in 12-hour blocks.
This version was syndicated throughout the early 1970s, and was sent to
stations on large 10 1 2 reels of 1/4 tape, in full-track mono.
Stations were required to return the tapes immediately after airing,
though surprisingly several stations offered copies of the show as
prizes. The original KHJ show also carried promos awarding copies of the
show as prizes to a handful of listeners, on reel-to-reel tape AND a
tape recorder to play it on.
Writer Pete Johnson said that I
included nearly every record I ever remember hearing .The History of
Rock and Roll billed itself as modern music s first rockumentary when
it first aired on February 21, 1969. However, it had some competition
for that title from the Pop Chronicles which began airing on February 9,
1969, on rival Los Angeles AM station KRLA. But since The History of
Rock and Roll completed its first broadcast that weekend, it was the
first of these rockumentaries to be broadcast in full.
1978:
In
1975, Drake-Chenault began the process of updating the documentary.
Finding that the 1969 script contained inaccuracies and omissions,
programmer/DJ/music historian Gary Theroux researched, rewrote, and
rebuilt the program entirely from scratch. The new version expanded the
story with fresh interviews, insightful narration, more music, and a
host of innovations all in a modular format which allowed stations more
programming flexibility. Drake knew that the rising popularity of stereo
FM rock stations made it necessary to redo the show in stereo. The
revised show was also completely remixed and re-edited from scratch,
using a homebuilt control room assembled together by engineer Mark Ford
at the company headquarters in Canoga Park, California, and a library of
thousands of LPs and 45 singles. The program employed a systematic
approach covering each year with a focused half-hour as well as separate
segments devoted to key artists or trends. The result, hosted by Bill
Drake, was an enormously successful ratings hit.
Since the
documentary was in development at the time Elvis Presley died in August
1977, Drake-Chenault was able to quickly produce and distribute material
from the documentary as Elvis: A Three Hour Special .
Among
other things, Theroux had Drake-Chenault chief engineer Mark Ford
assemble two kinds of annual montages: one of each chart-topping hit of a
given year in sequence and the other of other key songs there was no
time to play in full. Those 1 hit montages were reprised for the
climactic final hour of the show edited together back to back to create a
fast-moving 45-minute medley of every chart-topping hit from 1955 to
the fall of 1977. The riveting nature of Theroux s much-bootlegged
ending later inspired a series of hits medleys by many artists including
Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Stars on 45, and Jive Bunny the
Mixmasters. The 1978 edition of The History of Rock Roll debuted
as a marathon broadcast over more than 400 domestic stations and
another 400 overseas, and won Billboard magazine s Top Special Program
of the Year award.
1981:
The final Drake-Chenault version
was released in the spring of 1981 this edition , named the Silver
Anniversary Edition of the History of Rock Roll, so-called as it
was released 25 years after Elvis Presley s first 1 hit. Not wishing to
increase the size of the program, and with an attempt to place greater
emphasis on the current musical trends, the controversial decision was
made to severely cut back the sections devoted to the 1950s and early
1960s prior to the advent of the Beatles . All of the pre-1978 content
in the Silver Anniversary Edition, therefore, was actually a recycled
cut-down of Theroux, Ford and Drake s award-winning work. Only their
two-hour profile of Elvis Presley remained relatively intact. The
half-hour recaps of chart highlights from each year between 1956 and
1963 were condensed into a single half hour, while new chart sweeps for
1978, 1979, and 1980 were expanded to a full hour each. The final hour,
the time sweep , brought the number one song montage up to date through
Eddie Rabbitt s I Love a Rainy Night , the song that was number one in
early 1981, at the time this version was prepared. The program closed
with The Beatles version of Rock and Roll Music .
LP 01
The
Birth of Rock and Roll - Country Rock - 1950 s Rhythm and Blues - Chuck
Berry - Fats Domino - Little Richard - Bill Haley - Johnny Cash - Jerry
Lee Lewis - The Coasters - The Drifters - Ray Charles
56:00LP 02
1950 s
Rockabilly - Late 50 s and Early 1960 s Buddy Holly - Eddie Cochran -
Everly Brothers - Roy Orbison - Paul Anka - Bobby Darin - Sam Cooke -
Jackie Wilson - Dion and the Belmonts - Checker56:00LP 03
The Hits 1956 - 1963 / Girl Groups and Phil Spector56:00LP 04
Elvis Presley Part 1 56:00LP 05
Elvis Presley Part 2 56:00LP 06
The Motown Sound Part 1 56:00LP 07
The Four Seasons / Beach Boys56:00LP 08
The Beatles Part 1 56:00LP 09
The Hits of 64 - 6556:00LP 10
Rolling Stones Part 1 56:00LP 11
The Motown Sound Part 2 56:00LP 12
The Beatles Part 2 56:00LP 13
Bob Dylan / Folk Rock Lovin Spoonful / The Byrds / Donovan / Simon Garfunkel 56:00LP 14
The Beatles Part 3 56:00LP 15
Solo Careers of John Lennon, George Harrison Ringo Starr56:00LP 16
San
Francisco Sound / Soft British Rock Jefferson Airplane / Janis Joplin /
Creedence Clearwater Revival / Bee Gees / Hollies / Moody Blues 56:00LP 17
60 s Hard Rock Part 1 Cream / Guess Who / etc. 56:00LP 18
60 s Hard Rock Part 2 Who / Led Zeppelin / etc. 56:00LP 19
The Hits of 66 / 6756:00LP 20
Rock Groups of the 60 s Raiders / Monkees / Rascals / Turtles / etc. 56:00LP 21
Soul in the 60 s Arthur Conley / Joe Tex / James Brown / Wilson Pickett / Aretha Franklin / Sly and the Family Stone 56:00LP 22
The Hits of 68 / 6956:00LP 23
The Hits of 70 / 7156:00LP 24
The Hits of 72 / 7356:00LP 25
Singer - Songwriters of the 70 s Jim Croce / Carly Simon / James Taylor / Carole King 56:00LP 26
The Hits of 74 / 7556:00LP 27
The Hits of 76 / 7756:00LP 28
Mellow Rock of the 70 s Part 1 Neil Diamond / Bread / Carpenters / Glen Campbell 56:00LP 29
Mellow Rock of the 70 s Part 2 Gordon Lightfoot / Joni Mitchell / Seals Crofts / etc. 56:00LP 30
70 s R B B.B. King / Jackson Five / Isaac Hayes / etc. 56:00LP 31
Hard Rock of the 70 s Part 1 56:00LP 32
Hard Rock of the 70 s Part 2 56:00LP 33
Rolling Stones Part 2 56:00LP 34
Paul McCartney and Wings56:00LP 35
Stevie Wonder56:00LP 36
Elton John56:00LP 37
Spinners / Dionne Warwick56:00LP 38
Barry Manilow56:00LP 39
Chicago / Diana Ross56:00LP 40
Fleetwood Mac / Linda Ronstadt56:00LP 41
The Eagles56:00LP 42
The Hits of 7856:00LP 43
Michael Jackson / Disco56:00LP 44
The Commodores / Earth, Wind and Fire56:00LP 45
The Hits of 7956:00LP 46
The Bee Gees56:00LP 47
Barbara Streisand / Donna Summer56:00LP 48
The Hits of 8056:00LP 49
Rod Stewart / Bob Seger / Electric Light Orchestra56:00LP 50
Olivia Newton-John / Andy Gibb / Kenny Rogers56:00LP 51
The Doobie Brothers / Billy Joel56:00LP 52
Finale Timesweep of 1 Records 56:00
