The turn of the 1950s and 1960s was a breaking point in the history of pop music, golden age of rockabilly, teen pop and doo wop. In
1959, Billboard BU has been launched and extended the number
of chart entries, Cash Box, Music Vendor and
Regional Charts (Gavin, Breakout, Territorial) added many other entries.
Nevertheless, many “good” Artists from American music scene didn’t enter any
chart and they are worth to be saved from obscurity. Discographies of Artists
that recorded between 1956 (beginning of RnR) and 1963 (year preceding British Invasion) one/few singles*, create Parts divided into five categories
·
Rock(abilly) and C&W
·
Instrumental
· Black Doo-Wop
· Teen Sound (see below)
· Popcorn (see below)
and denoted as Xnn: X=R,Q,V,T,P. For many Artists, categorization is fuzzy!!!
* If discography spans beyond this period, then selected earlier/later recordings can be taken into account as suplement
Popcorn category has been extracted. This style, established in Belgium in the 1970s, includes a wide variety of American obscure Blues, Soul and Trad. Pop recorded in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Singles of obscure Artists are hard to
find. Missing available on Internet Marketplace below, Seller in the right column:
Sound quality is essential = digital rips only*
Having a
pleasure in listening obscure records in good sound quality is more important than collecting poor rips. Sound quality of majority of YouTube rips also many tracks from bootleg CD compilations
is very poor and such copies are disregarded. Making a
good rip is very simple, modern (produced in the XXI century) turntable and Audacity (freeware) is all
that you need. I have prepared Vinyl-to-PC (Tutorial) - please follow the guidelines.
Each discography has been carefully researched, booklets with biographies are attached. Primary references: Discogs, 45cat and https://www.rocknroll-schallplatten-forum.de
This Guide lists singles from Kreiter’s collection and can’t be considered as
a database of Teen Sound discographies, rather as a comprehensive list
of Teen Sound Artists.
Numerous errors have been rectified, omissions added*.
Kreiter's Preface:
"Before 1956 the Teen Sound and even Rock and Roll were practically non-existent.
Shortly after the British Invasion, in 1964 the Teen Sound was gone.”
Therefore, recordings made after 1963 are taken
into account only exceptionally. Other exclusions:
1. Non-American Artists (UK, Canada, Australia, etc.)
2. Popular Artists who entered chart(s)
and/or recorded many singles.
Some Popular Aartists are included - only recordings made for label(s) listed in Kreiter.
3. Rare Artists not confirmed on Discogs/45cat and/or records with release year not confirmed
4. Budget labels
5. Generally, Artists classified to teen pop, rock, girl groups and white doo-wop are included.
The line between these genres and other genres (trad. country, soul, blues, trad. pop) is fuzzy.
Some artist, who evidently belong to these other genres, are included - genre in Remarks
* Incomplete
discographies of Artists listed by Kreiter are completed (denoted by K’). Artists not listed by
Kreiter but present on popular Teen Sound CD compilations are included (denoted
by K-)
Access to passes only for collectors who actively participate in the project! Please read comment to T404 Please read carefuly the below Project Description
Obscure
American Artists project has been launched to create a library of music
recorded by forgotten artists, from 1956 to 1963. To
save
obscure artists 1956-63 from oblivion,
in another
words. Their recordings are available only on original 45’s. This project is
profit free project, created by passionate collectors of old music who
decided to contribute their collections. I’m the main contributor, list of 45’s
in my collection below:
My collection of 45's updated 23.03.26
I would like to thank all contributors of rips from original 45’s:
Frank, Roy, Darrell, Gyro, Russ and many others sharing rips with John (Richard Sibello,...), who
shares next with me.
There is also a group of contributors who do not have
their own collection of 45’s and shared individual tracks found on the
Internet (Jerry, Dean, David, ...). I would like to say thank you for help so far, please only rips
from original 45’s in the future. Occasionally, very good YouTube copies are used, each is professionally remastered. Overall, big thank you to all YouTubers who post good rips of rare 45's 1956-1963, from own collection.
Extensive
research on biographies is an essential component in Obscure Artists 1956-1963
project. Biographical data are
- included in
booklets attached to each part, in pdf format. Also, they are texted by each
post/part to make them accessible for Google (or other browser) AI search engine.
- collected
from the Internet resources also provided by collectors who contribute to the
project.
CASH BOX LOOKING AHEAD 1959-1963
non-Billboard (all charts); non-Breakout Hits; non- Music Vendor; non-Gavin Report
no
re-entries and re-issues, single edits only
392 singles ≈ ¼ of all
singles that entered Looking Ahead 1959-1963.
As & Bs - no missing tracks!
Looking Ahead chart started on October 3, 1959 (with 20 positions) and grew up to 50 positions by April 29, 1961.
MV HIT RECORDS 101-150 1959-1963
non-Billboard (all charts); non-Breakout Hits; non-Gavin Report, non-CB (incl. LA)*
≈ 750 45's (SP or EP) ≈ 70% of all 45's that entered MV 100+ 1959-1963, In majority,
from the original 45's (from my record collection). Mono single edits only.
One 45 (Dennis Day) missing (denoted on the sheet)
Every track is professionally remastered and tagged (see Project Description}. Data are
collected from original charts, as printed in Music Vendor = numerous omissions
and errors present in Whitburn’s book are rectified.
Links to H01-H50 below.
* On February 23, 1959, Music Vendor magazine introduced “Beat Of The Week - Heading For The Top 100” chart (5-35 entries). This was 15 weeks prior to Billboard introducing its “Bubbling Under” chart. In September of 1962, Music Vendor’s "Heading For The Top 100" chart grew to 50 positions
and changed its name to “Looking Up”. In April of 1964**, Music Vendor became
Record World and this chart was retitled “Singles Coming Up”.
** The last
issue of Music Vendor was released on the 11th of April 1964. Track-list for 15 weeks of 1964 below, links to corresponding files (H51-H55) above (no missing tracks).
you can download and sort by charts (column F): Bill, Bill R&B (B), Bill Country (C), Gavin (NG), Breakout Hits (NB), Music Vendor (NV) and Cash Box (N and NL)
Links to
already posted non-Billboard Cash Box, Music Vendor, Gavin Report can be found
in
non-Bill CB, MV & GR
Links to
Territorial and Breakout Hits can be found in
