Rock’n’Roll becomes an Old Age Pensioner.

Sixty-five years ago today, a DJ called Dewey Phillips on WHBQ in Memphis played a new record by an unknown 19-year-old singer. Just listen to it and it’s hard hard to imagine by it was an instant sensation and the station was inundated with calls for Dewey to play it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Dewey had to play it six times in the same show and the rest is history. Sadly, DJs enjoy no longer any musical freedom. Commercial radio is the most tightly controlled of all UK media. There is no way that a raw and unproven local talent like Elvis would be allowed on to a bland, pre-programmed and risk-averse playlist where any sort of innovation is crushed. History would never have been made and rock ‘n’ roll would never have happened.