Before the British Invasion, before Motown, before psychedelic rock, the 1950s invented the template for everything that followed. It gave us the electric guitar as a cultural weapon, the backbeat as ...

Remember this classic 1958 doo wop tune from Ritchie Valens? This sweet little song was penned as an ode to Valens’ high school sweetheart, and the tribute ended up being a massive hit for the artist.

The most controversial songs of the ’50s: Do you agree? The 1950s were a decade at war with its own music. Rock and roll arrived as a collision between Black rhythm and blues and white country, and ...