Search - R & B Spotlight 1958 :: R & B Spotlight 1958

2009 two CD collection. 1958 saw the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart extended from 20 to 30 entries, becoming an accurate mirror of the musical tastes of black, and increasingly also, the rest of, Americans. The chart reflected a varied musical mixture. In the Deep South, and in Chicago whose population included many migrant Southerners, the tough electric Blues of artists like Muddy Waters, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and Little Junior Parker still held sway. While the market for romantic-voiced crooners such as Nat "King" Cole, Ivory Joe Hunter, Roy Hamilton, Earl Grant and the Tony Williams-led Platters continued, a younger, brasher breed of singer was also emerging, blending R&B with the Rock 'N' Roll beat, as exemplified by Little Richard, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry.