Obscure American Artists 1956-1963 (discogs) Cash Box Looking Ahead 1959-1963

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 or few singles*, create Parts divided into five categories

·         Rock(abilly) & Country
·         Instrumental
·         Doo-Wop & Vocal Group Harmony
·         Teen Pop
·         Popcorn (All Others)

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 bonus tacks

Singles of all obscure Artists are hard to find, they are not available on Internet Marketplace or they are overpriced. I managed to buy many (around 1000) rare singles but the number of missing tracks is still significant. Please help me to reduce this number.

 Missing updated 18.04.2024

Having a pleasure in listening old and obscure tunes is more important than collecting. Sound quality of majority of YouTube rips also many tracks from CD compilations is very poor and I can’t see any pleasure in listening such distorted music, it is the same as watching a beautiful picture through a blurring glass. 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.

Popcorn category has been extracted. This style, established in the 1970s,  includes a wide variety of American obscure recordings of pop-soul music made between the late 1950s and early 1960s. This category includes everything that do not fall into the primary four categories. e.g. Soul (early Northern Soul), (Rhythm &) Blues, AC, Exotica, Novelty.

Booklets with Artist biographies, if available, are attached. Primary references: Discogs, 45cat and
http://rcs-discography.com (Rockin’ Country Style)
http://doo-wop.blogg.org
http://rocky-52.net

https://www.rocknroll-schallplatten-forum.de

https://www.uncamarvy.com/index.html

track-list

S01  S02

T01  T02  T03  T04  T05  T06  T07  T08  T09

P01  P02  P03  P04  P05  P06  P07  P08  P09  P10  P11  P12

R01  R02  R03  R04  R05  R06  R07

Q01  Q02  Q03  Q04

V01

Access to pass(es) only to collectors who actively participate in the project, help reduce Missing (list above). 

If you are not able to find any missing single, you can buy it on Discogs and rip it - link to Vinyl-to-PC tutorial above. You can donate, eventually, and I will buy/rip for you.

Previously posted files in this series can be found below "Terms of Participation" post. Other previously posted files can be found below this post Observations after five years

CASH BOX LOOKING AHEAD 1959-1963

non Billboard (all charts); Breakout Hits; Music Vendor; Gavin Report
no re-entries, re-issues; As & Bs
390 singles ≈ ¼ of all singles that entered Looking Ahead

Track-list LA

Tracks US Charts 59-63

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)